A Christmas Carol (Essay Sample)

A Christmas Carol
And How Marx Weber Would Have Discussed
Issues of Social Stratification and Inequality
As Discussed By Charles Dickens
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Charles Dickens, wrote the A Christmas Carol a very popular piece of fiction and published in 1883. A Christmas Carol was the best-selling book of that year’s holiday season. The festive season facilitated a sale of more than six thousand copies with a spill over into the New Year. The book has stood the test of time still retaining its popularity till today. Charles Dickens uses a character by the name Scrooge to ask people to honor Christmas and have it in their hearts throughout the year. Scrooge was a miser with capitalism taking the better part of him. Christmas was a mere waste of time to him and considered it a chance of getting richer by foregoing the day (Dickens, 1990, p.28).
When the story commences, Scrooge is self-centered with no respect for mankind. He prefers conducting business during Christmas rather than commemorating the day. The day that marks the birth of Jesus and is observed by all Christians. Scrooge points out that persons who chant Merry Christmas carol should be hacked to death by the person who hardly honors the day.
According to Dickens (1990) Scrooge utters that:
Every idiot who goes about with ‘Merry Christmas’ on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart." to the man who "knew how to keep Christmas well. (p.73)
In the story, Scrooge is presented as an old man, who is very mean, who sits in his house on a cold Christmas Eve. His worker, Bob Cratchit, who is in the adjacent room shivers from cold since Scrooge refuses to buy coal to warm the house. Fred, who is Scrooge’s nephew visits him with an invitation to his Christmas party. In the midst of this, two ragged men also visit his house and ask for contribution from Scrooge only to be turned away. He is also angered by his nephew’s utterance of merry Christmas which sees the two men sent away from his home (Dickens, 1990, p.40).
In the wee hours of the night upon returning to his dark room, Scrooge is paid a neck-wrecking visit by his associate Jacob Marley. The latter appears miserable and narrates his moving story. He receives a condemnation for his selfish life while on earth that sees his spirit wander the earth tied down to heavy chains. Marley intends to help Scrooge escape his fate. In addition, he informs Scrooge that three spirits will visit him in the consecutive three evenings. Scrooge falls deep asleep after the disappearance of Scrooge (Dickens, 1990, p.46).
He wakes up slightly before the appearance of the Ghost of Christmas. The spirit takes him on a journey into his past to his childhood days and also the past Christmases. Notably, he is invisible to the people he watches where he remembers a merchant called Fezziwig who practiced apprenticeship and also his relationship with Belle. The latter left him due to excess lust for money leaving little time to love and care for her. Scrooge, who is touched by these episodes, sheds tears before the ghost makes him fall asleep (Dickens, 1990, p.62)
Another ghost of Christmas Present wearing a green robe, takes Scrooge through London revealing to him Christmas celebrations for that year. He watches Cratchit family prepare a feast in their apartment. He also discovers Tiny Tim who is crippled but bubbling with kindness and humility that touches his heart. The ghost then takes him to watch his nephew’s Christmas party. Scrooge, who is now deeply moved by the moment, begs the spirit to hold on until the end of the celebrations. Toward the end of the day, the ghost revealed two starved children to Scrooge, Ignorance and Want who were within him (Dickens, 1990, p.70).
The Ghost of the Coming Christmas leads Scrooge through scenes relating to the recent death of unnamed man. Businessmen are there discussing the dead man’s wealth, vagabonds exchanging his personal belonging for money. A poor couple is overwhelmed by the death of their creditor. Scrooge, eager to unfold the lesson begs to know the name of the slain man. Within a short time, he is taken to a churchyard with the spirit pointing at a grave. Astonishingly, Scrooge reads his own name in the headstone. He desperately begs the spirit to alter his fate and promises to denounce his bad ways and honor Christmas. Scrooge, to his relief, finds himself in his bed (Dickens, 1990, p.73).
Scrooge is overwhelmed for being given a second chance and rushes out into the streets to share in the Christmas spirit. He attends Fred’s party and also sends a turkey to Cratchit house to mark Christmas. In addition, he also treats Tiny Tim as his own child, sends gifts to the poor and treats his fellow men with warmth. As the years pass by, true to his word he honors Christmas with all his heart (Dickens, 1990, p.81).
Max Weber is given credit for having written The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. It studies the linkage between emergence of Protestantism and modern capitalism. He observes a relationship between being a protestant and engaging oneself in business. Capitalism views making profits at the expense of other mankind as virtuous. One branch of Protestantism, Calvinism, believes in predestination whereby God has already determined who is saved and condemned. As such, Calvinists looked at their prosperity in worldly activities such as prosperity in business as a clue for being among the saved. In their endeavor for material wealth and to reap profits, the spirit of modern capitalism is born bringing a revolution in economic activities of today (Weber, 2001, p.66).
Weber observed that in Germany, his home country most of the highly skilled workers, managers and successful businessmen all professed Protestantism as opposed to Catholic. In addition, Protestants were highly educated. The explanation was that certain towns and regions in Germany had gone against Catholic rule in pursuit of their economic interests making them prosperous (Weber, 2001, p.84).
A closer look at the other religious groups such as Methodists and Baptist reveals that they also had similar beliefs but to a lesser magnitude. Weber in his book, argues that such beliefs broke down the traditional economic system partly of socialism for modern spirit of capitalism.
The Protestant beliefs, however, diminished in importance with the growth of modern capitalism. Weber is also very particular in pointing out that he was not arguing that Protestantism entirely contributed to capitalism rather it played a very important role. In addition, he mentions the role of capitalism in development of religious ideas (Weber, 2001, p.96).
Protestants, through converging their energy into work and business gave them an economic advantage over their counterparts. They were not told that business was inferior to holy life but rather one could be holy in their work. Therefore, capitalism was transformed from being a mere economic organization to a way of life integrated with God (Weber, 2001, p.110).
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