SparkNotes: A Christmas Carol: Stave One: Marley's Ghost. Summary On a frigid, foggy Christmas Eve in London, a shrewd, mean-spirited cheapskate named Ebenezer Scrooge works meticulously in his counting-house.
Outside the office creaks a little sign reading "Scrooge and Marley"--Jacob Marley, Scrooge's business partner, has died seven years previous. Inside the office, Scrooge watches over his clerk, a poor diminutive man named Bob Cratchit. The smoldering ashes in the fireplace provide little heat even for Bob's tiny room. Despite the harsh weather Scrooge refuses to pay for another lump of coal to warm the office. Suddenly, a ruddy-faced young man bursts into the office offering holiday greetings and an exclamatory, "Merry Christmas! " Scrooge follows the same old routine, taking dinner in his usual tavern and returning home through the dismal, fog-blanketed London streets. After rushing to his room, Scrooge locks the door behind him and puts on his dressing gown. Commentary. A Christmas Carol Summary. Seven years after the death of his business partner Jacob Marley, a miserable old man named Ebenezer Scrooge is working in his office.
He hates happiness, love, family, generosity, Christmas, and probably also puppies. When his nephew Fred invites him over to Christmas dinner, Scrooge yells at him and refuses. Scrooge then tells off the people collecting charity donations, and grumbles and complains that the fact that his clerk Bob Cratchit gets a paid day off for Christmas is theft. That night, he is haunted by Marley's ghost, which warns Scrooge that the dead who led bad lives are forced to roam around and not be at peace. The ghost also claims that three other ghosts are going to appear to Scrooge, and leaves after telling Scrooge to change his life before it's too late. Scrooge shakes all this off as indigestion, but sure enough he soon gets a visit from the Ghost of Christmas Past. A Christmas Carol Summary. Ebenezer Scrooge, a miserly, cold-hearted creditor, continues his stingy, greedy ways on Christmas Eve.
He rejects a Christmas dinner invitation, and all the good tidings of the holiday, from his jolly nephew, Fred; he yells at charity workers; and he overworks his employee, Bob Cratchit. At night, Scrooge's former partner Jacob Marley, dead for seven years, visits him in the form of a ghost. Marley's spirit has been wandering since he died as punishment for being consumed with business and not with people while alive.
He has come to warn Scrooge and perhaps save him from the same fate. He tells him Three Spirits will come to him over the next three nights. A Christmas Carol. A Christmas Carol 1. Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870.
A Christmas Carol Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library | Table of Contents for this work | | All on-line databases | Etext Center Homepage | Stave 1 MARLEY'S GHOST Marley was dead, to begin with. Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail. Mind! Scrooge knew he was dead? Excellent man of business on the very day of the funeral, and solemnised it with an undoubted bargain. The mention of Marley's funeral brings me back to the point I started from. Scrooge never painted out Old Marley's name. Oh! A Christmas Carol 2. Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870.
A Christmas Carol Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library | Table of Contents for this work | | All on-line databases | Etext Center Homepage | A Christmas Carol 3. Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870.
A Christmas Carol Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library | Table of Contents for this work | | All on-line databases | Etext Center Homepage | Stave 3 THE SECOND OF THE THREE SPIRITS Awaking in the middle of a prodigiously tough snore, and sitting up in bed to get his thoughts together, Scrooge had no occasion to be told that the bell was again upon the stroke of One. Gentlemen of the free-and-easy sort, who plume themselves on being acquainted with a move or two, and being usually equal to the time-of-day, express the wide range of their capacity for adventure by observing that they are good for anything from pitch-and-toss to manslaughter; between which opposite extremes, no doubt, there lies a tolerably wide and comprehensive range of subjects. The moment Scrooge's hand was on the lock, a strange voice called him by his name, and bade him enter.
It was his own room. 'Come in! ' A Christmas Carol 4. Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870.
A Christmas Carol Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library | Table of Contents for this work | | All on-line databases | Etext Center Homepage | Stave 4 THE LAST OF THE SPIRITS The Phantom slowly, gravely, silently approached. It was shrouded in a deep black garment, which concealed its head, its face, its form, and left nothing of it visible save one outstretched hand. He felt that it was tall and stately when it came beside him, and that its mysterious presence filled him with a solemn dread. 'I am in the presence of the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come? ' The Spirit answered not, but pointed onward with its hand. 'You are about to show me shadows of the things that have not happened, but will happen in the time before us,' Scrooge pursued. The upper portion of the garment was contracted for an instant in its folds, as if the Spirit had inclined its head.
Although well used to ghostly company by this time, But Scrooge was all the worse for this. A Christmas Carol 5. A Christmas Carol Summary - eNotes.com. Ebenezer Scrooge is a miser.
Owner of a successful countinghouse, he will have in his bleak office only the smallest fire in the most bitter weather. For his clerk, Bob Cratchit, he allows an even smaller fire. The weather seldom matters to Scrooge, who is always cold within, never warm—even on Christmas Eve. As the time approaches for closing the office on Christmas Eve, Scrooge’s nephew stops in to wish him a merry Christmas. Scrooge only sneers, for he abhors sentiment and thinks only of one thing—money.
Grudgingly, Scrooge allows Cratchit to have Christmas Day off; that is the one concession to the holiday that he makes, but he warns Cratchit to be at work earlier the day after Christmas. Then from below comes the sound of heavy chains clanking. Marley’s ghost sits down to talk to the frightened and bewildered Scrooge. Charles Dickens Biography. The title of Charles Dickens' novel Hard Times is an apt description of his early life and youth.
Born February 7, 1812, the boy was one of eight children. His formal education was scanty, but as a child Charles spent much of his time reading and listening to the stories told by his grandmother. His reading included works by Daniel Defoe, Samuel Richardson, Henry Fielding, Oliver Goldsmith, and Tobias Smollett — all outstanding English novelists. Too, young Dickens frequently attended and enjoyed the theater with his uncle.