COMMENTARY: Dickens Endures
By Stephen N. ReedSpecial to Huntington News Network
Having seen another version this Christmas season of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," I noted again what one nearly always sees when viewing this excellent piece of English sentimentality: many playgoers at the end of the play dabbing their eyes at Scrooge's transformation.
The funny thing is, they already know the story: how three spirits haunt the cold businessman, Ebenezer Scrooge, on the night before Christmas. The Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future gradually thaw Scrooge out of his defensive posture against the world. They show him images of his past childhood and young manhood, along with different perspectives than his on the present and future.
Most of the audience know the story by heart. Yet their eyes still moisten at seeing a bitter, dried up old man resurrected into a generous, loving "second father" to Tiny Tim.
And Tiny Tim, whose days were numbered, lives! All thanks to Scrooge.
Perhaps the audience's tears come as they actually see how a man as dead in spirit as Scrooge actually can be changed for the better. The transformation occurs right before their eyes, and it's as intriguing as watching one of those nature films with the small flower bulb finally popping into full bloom. The tears, in this light, are tears of joyful amazement.
But something deeper is at play here, and Dickens knew exactly what he was doing. A Christian, Dickens wanted to write a play that had Christian themes but which also had universal appeal. While Christianity may trumpet personal regeneration with God's help, many religions touch on the same theme. Shedding the old skin, getting rid of that which holds us back, getting rid of one's sin: there are many names for the same phenomenon.
The people one sees crying tears for Scrooge at the end of "A Christmas Carol" may well be thinking of an old uncle or friend whom they would like to see transformed, shed at last of a heavy life's burden.
But just as many of them may be shedding a tear for themselves, perhaps of sorrow that they have allowed to let themselves get like Scrooge a bit in the past year. But if they capture the meaning of Dickens' script, they leave the playhouse with the awareness that it's not too late for them, either. Indeed, Scrooge's advanced age indicates that it's never too late for love and joy to win out.
If God can save Ebenezer Scrooge from his bitterness, then we can be saved from ourselves, too. That's why Dickens picked Scrooge as his main character, much the way God picked some of the characters we meet in the Bible or in other times of human history: to give us all hope.
The great playwrights pick unlikely heroes -- people very much like us. That's the storytellers' point: to help us identify with their characters and to show us what is possible when we choose to believe.