Many fiction writers dream of writing a story that will influence a person's thoughts, in other words, cause that person to stop and think deeply about the words they are reading. A writer's dream is to penetrate the heart and captivate the reader with riveting emotion. It's a dream of their story never to be forgotten but to endure to the next generation and then some. Millions of writers have this dream; few will achieve it, but the Christmas Carol did; why?
Why has A Christmas Carol endured and been told countless times every Christmas season? I have come to some conclusions. Please feel free to agree or disagree with my reasoning and opinions on how Charles Dickens made it to the top of the list.
First, A Christmas Carol was written by an already famous author. In other words, Dickens had an audience all over the world. That's a great advantage to have when writing your next book.
Here are some other reasons:
Dickens hit all the right notes in his novella. He wrote with personal experience and observations of London using accurate descriptions of the social injustices that took the city. These descriptions pricked the heart. In dealing with social justice, his quotes accurately reflect the attitude and opinions of the rich towards the poor. "If they would rather die," said Scrooge, "they had better do it and decrease the surplus population." And on the description topic, Dickens was at the top of his game. The Cratchit meal was written in such detail that the reader could easily picture it as if they were dining at the table. Dickens also had a great gift of describing people. Here is one example: "Oh! 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, self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. The cold within him froze his old features… He carried his own low temperature always about with him… and didn't thaw it one degree at Christmas." In this paragraph, the reader gets a detailed description of Scrooge and his wretched state of being inside and out.
The ultimate genius of A Christmas Carol is turning the story into a fairytale/ghost story. When appropriately written, the fairytale will bring the reader into suspended belief and hope for the ultimate happy ending. Dickens doesn't disappoint. In literature, many authors use the power of three to convey their stories. This technique goes back hundreds of years.
Rumpelstiltskin gives the queen three tries to guess his name.
Snow White's stepmother came back three times to try to kill her.
Three Little Pigs
The Three Bears
In Maid Maleen, the main character speaks to three things: a nettle plant, a footbridge, and a church door, while in East of the Sun, West of the Moon, the girl in search of her husband receives three gifts.
Dickens has his three ghosts.
A Christmas Carol is a fairytale but also a transformative story. Scrooge is transformed from evil to good, from darkness to light, reflecting the Gospel message of Christianity. The power of change by supernatural means points to God the Father and his eternal love for humanity.
Under immense financial pressure, Dickens pulled out a Christmas story that would ultimately bless millions of readers. Stories like A Christmas Carol make me wonder if it came straight from the heart of God to convict the greedy sinner and yet show mercy at the same time. What a beautiful picture of conviction, compassion, and conversion.
Good Job! Dickens.