Go to Whatever Is On Your Mind
- Add a comment
- Go to Final stages of Christmas Carol. Hope you like it!!!!
penguinrock,
Hmmm. I like
Wiley's
perspective on it, too, that maybe Scrooge was just hallucinating, i.e., seeing the "pink elephants". It could have just been all an illusion that brought him to his senses. I remember in the movie, Scrooge commented to the Marley ghost that he might just be "an underdone potato or undigested bit of beef". Then Marley yelled at him and scared him into believing he was really seeing a ghost. :)
posted by
BlackPearl1
on August 23, 2006 at 12:32 PM
| link to this | reply
penguinrock26
Your essay is excellent my friend. Well done.
I had never taken the time, in all the years I watched it in movies, or read about it in books as a child, to think of it in quite the dimension you have here.
Matter of fact, I used to think of it more that he was a guy that liked his bit of brandy more than most.
In a state of remorse, caused by his alcoholism, he was put through the miserableness of his lonely existence, sobered up after DT's, and made something of his life with Christmas.
But then, I'm a recovered alcoholic 38 years sober, so my take is acceptable to me. lol
posted by
WileyJohn
on August 23, 2006 at 9:07 AM
| link to this | reply
peguinrock,
I remember hearing/reading the same thing about the ambigious form of the first ghost. In my favorite version, it's the form of a middle-aged male angelic figure, with long flowing hair, dressed in white. He was pleasant and not scary at all. Hmm. As for the rest, I actually get the part about Scrooge being in purgatory for most of the story. Whether we concede that he's dead or alive, he's still in a miserable state of existence, much of his own doing; and that's pretty much the description I get of what purgatory must be like, a miserable, hell on earth type of existence.
Scrooge's repentence at the end allows him a reprieve back to the land of the living, I expect, or in your case, an ascent to heaven. There, at heaven on earth, he is able to do all the things we witness: buy the Cratchet's Christmas goose, have dinner and dancing at his nephew's party, or whatever else Dickens describes. Anyway, your suggestion is not totally implausible. With a few more holes plugged, it could work. Thanks for sharing it. :) I look forward to you next entry. :)
posted by
BlackPearl1
on August 22, 2006 at 6:50 PM
| link to this | reply
The undead is un-nerving.
posted by
A-and-B
on August 22, 2006 at 2:27 PM
| link to this | reply
Mademoiselle...that is the hardest part for this theory.
the only thing i can think of is that in this height of emotion and realization that he his dead and going to heaven he is filled with such an escalation that he is thinking these things comparable to if he was hallucinating b/c he was on something. but yeah that last part doesnt fit too well as you can see by the shortness of the paragraph. ;) the reason the first ghost changes so much is that when Dicken's is describing the ghost he mentions it as neither looking male of female, old or young. therefore no one is completely certain as to its image. we could also maybe just call it an angel since angels are supposedly like that as well...but yeah pretty much the reason it changes is that Dicken's description was nearly impossible to find a suitable character.
posted by
penguinrock26
on August 22, 2006 at 12:23 PM
| link to this | reply
If he's dead, how can he buy the Cratchets that Christmas goose (or whatever it was)?
Or, dance at his nephew's party?
The bizarre timeline always perplexed me, too, though. I remember one time, asking my father about it. I forget what his answer was, though. Something like, "Go to bed, Katia."
Oh, another thing, how come in the various movie versions, the form that the first ghost takes, varies so dramatically (including even it's gender). Yet, the other two are always depicted in exactly the same fashion (a giant and a grim reaper)?
Instead of putting a quarter under a kid's pillow,
how about a pinecone?
That way, he learns that "wishing"
isn't going to save our national forests.
posted by
Mademoiselle
on August 22, 2006 at 11:55 AM
| link to this | reply