Themes and Issues in a Christmas Carol by Charles Dicken

True Humanity

Scholar Michael Patrick Hearn, in The Annotated Christmas Carol (1976; New York: Norton, 2004), notes that Dickens was a Unitarian. Unitarian Christianity, in Dickens' day, focused more on morality and ethics than on traditional theology. Dickens wrote in one of his letters, "I have always striven in my writings to express the veneration for the life and lessons of our Savior . . ." (Hearn, p. 143). While silent here regarding the traditional claim of Jesus' full divinity, Dickens clearly feels passionately about Jesus' full humanity. For Dickens, Jesus is the perfect example of a godly, loving life. Jesus, in Dickens' mind, teaches us what it is to be human. Given this background, readers may consider A Christmas Carol to be an extended meditation on and illustration of one of Jesus' central moral teachings, as recorded in the New Testament: "For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away?" (Luke 9:25, KJV). Scrooge has pursued the wealth of "the whole world" for his whole life-but, as his ghostly encounters prove, Scrooge's real life is in grave danger. And while details surrounding Marley's Ghost (e.g., the hot breeze stirring his hair) suggest that Scrooge's eternal life is jeopardized, the whole of A Christmas Carol emphasizes the importance and urgency of a life-giving, life-changing engagement with our fellow human beings (not, one notes, the adherence or lack thereof to "orthodox" religious doctrine!). The book leaves its readers with the understanding that Scrooge-and, by extension, we ourselves-ought to be more concerned with the quality of our lives here and now. The narrative often touches on these questions: What constitutes a real life? What does it mean to be human? Its answer: to be human is to love-and to love, as Dickens knew the Scriptures taught, not with mere words, but in concrete actions (see, e.g., 1 John 3:18). As Marley's Ghost tells Scrooge, our spirits must "walk abroad," among...