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A Christmas Carol, is an allegory that is delivering several message by using characters and scenes. Dickens’ ability to weave messages into the character’s dialogue, attitude, and actions, makes this allegory a masterpiece. Through characters such as Scrooge, Fred, and Ignorance and Want, Dickens creates an extensive allegory which delivers his message to the public. Scrooge is pictured as a miserly man, even after he changes. Dickens uses Scrooge as the symbol of the wealthy and aristocratic members of society, ho are ignorant of the misfortunes of the poor.
Dickens goes as far as possible to show how cold and unforgiving, Scrooge is towards the lower class men. Scrooge is said to be so cold that, “NO warmth could warm his soul. ” Furthermore, Scrooge shows his uncaring attitude toward the poor through the lengthy tirade he gave to the men who asked for a donation to give to the poor. Through his tirade he demonstrates his ignorance and neglect towards the poverty stricken members of society. Using Scrooge,
Dickens is able to call for a effective moral change in the wealthy, thus, making Scrooge part of a allegory rather then just being a character in a novella. Charles Dickens brings to life the two traits that man kind will inherit, ignorance of the wealthy and the want of the poor. Metaphorically speaking, Ignorance and Want are the children of mankind. As the children of mankind, they represent the traits that filter through the generations because of the poor quality of life that can not change, because of the negligence of the wealthy.
Scrooge, clearly appalled by the condition of the children, asks the spirit if they were his and Scrooge receives the answer, “They are Man’s,’ said the Spirit, looking down upon them. ‘And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased. Deny it! ‘ cried the Spirit, stretching out its hand towards the city. ‘Slander those who tell it ye!
Admit it for your factious purposes, and make it worse! And bide the end! ” This quote clearly depicts the message Dickens is trying to deliver to the general public, that the wealthy must change their ways for the betterment of society. This being said, it is evident that Dickens is using this novella to portray his ideas, therefore making it a allegory. In the beginning of the book “A Christmas Carol” Benzene Scrooge has not much to Offer humanity except for his word. “And Scrooge’s name was good upon ‘Change, for anything he chose to put his hand to. ‘
He is described a cold man with hardened features who shared little and hung onto every penny. He kept to himself and had no friends and attended no social events. “But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! A squeezing wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. ” His clerk is kept with a small fire in a dismal office. He wishes Scrooge a Merry Christmas but Scrooge rebukes his attention.
Marble’s ghost visits telling Scrooge that three spirits will visit him. Scrooge attends different times in his life with the spirits. He is scared that if he does not change he will be the alone and not at all missed old man he had seen in the future. When he realizes it is Christmas morning he begins to feel joy. He had not experienced joy in many years. “Really, for a man who had been out of practice for so many years, it was a splendid laugh, a most illustrious laugh. The father of a long, long line of brilliant laughs. ”