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19th-Century British Literature Videos 19 videos
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A Christmas Carol 33106 Views
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Description:
How did Scrooge go from being naughty to nice so quickly, and why? (Hint: contrary to popular belief, it has nothing to do with the ghost of Santa Claus...thank goodness.) Just one question to think about in Dickens's classic A Christmas Carol .
Transcript
- 00:01
A Christmas Carol, a la Shmoop. At the beginning of every year, many of us
- 00:09
sit down and jot down our New Year’s resolutions.
- 00:14
While snacking on our plate of nachos, we vow to lose weight…
- 00:18
…or while throwing our pen across the room because it’s out of ink, we swear we’re
- 00:23
going to exhibit more patience. The fact is that it is simply hard for human
Full Transcript
- 00:29
beings to change.
- 00:32
So what makes Ebenezer Scrooge, the hero—of sorts—of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol…
- 00:37
…suddenly go from awful, curmudgeonly grump…
- 00:40
…to upbeat, generous, heck-of-a-great-guy? The short answer, of course, is that he is
- 00:49
visited by three spirits who don’t feel he has enough…spirit.
- 00:54
But what changes inside Ebenezer to… turn his frown upside-down?
- 00:59
Does his transformation take place because of fear?
- 01:02
After all, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come shows him his own grave…
- 01:07
…you’d think that would be enough to scare the crankiness out of Oscar the Grouch.
- 01:09
Scrooge isn’t ready to join Marley and company in the hereafter…
- 01:11
…and he seems pretty upset about his corpse being robbed.
- 01:15
So…does he just turn things around because he feels that’s the way to change history’s
- 01:22
course…
- 01:23
…and avoid an untimely—and horribly depressing—demise? Or… maybe he genuinely regrets hurting the
- 01:30
people he once cared about.
- 01:34
When visited by the Ghost of Christmas Present...Scrooge witnesses firsthand the plight of the Cratchits.
- 01:41
And how his penny pinching habits affected the life of Tiny Tim.
- 01:45
It could be that it just took this drastic measure to wake Scrooge up…
- 01:48
…to shake him by the shoulders and make him turn an eye to the people he was injuring
- 01:52
with his actions. Or maybe it isn’t about fear or regret at
- 01:59
all…but love.
- 02:00
Yeah, yeah, we know… bah humbug.
- 02:03
But maybe we have a Grinch situation going on here. Maybe Scrooge’s heart grew three
- 02:08
sizes.
- 02:09
He used to be that kind, loving lad back in the day… perhaps he simply…got back in
- 02:14
touch with his old, happy self?
- 02:16
Since this is a Christmas story, it sure would be nice if love had a little something to
- 02:20
do with it. So, what drove Scrooge to…be less Scrooge-like?
- 02:25
Fear?
- 02:26
Regret?
- 02:28
Or love? Shmoop amongst yourselves.
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