This year
I have made a conscientious effort to read Charles Dickens after I
had a conversation in which I loftily described something as
'Dickensian' and realised, internally cringing, I was being
completely and utterly dishonest with myself and that my only real
contact with Dickens had been the musical from 1968, 'Oliver!' and
'The Muppet Christmas Carol'. However upon reading A Christmas Carol
I personally found it to be a charming story of personal redemption
and transformation and I feel it can still speak volumes today.
Dickens knew, deep down we are all potential Scrooges, we are prone
to be dismissive or in denial of our own pasts and we can often view
the future as an unfolding series of problems and worries rather than
a place of potential and of joy. Our relationship, our personal tether to the past and
future can make us grumpy, unkind and more seriously, unhappy.
Ultimately for me it is also a story about remembering who we are,
remembering our own personal narratives and finding peace with
ourselves so that we can utilise the past, present and future to find
like Scrooge does as he walks around seeing the world anew that;
“everything could
yield him pleasure. He had never dreamed that any walk— that
anything— could give him so much happiness.”
The story
ends as we know with Scrooge a truly changed man, far from the
cynical, gloomy and hard hearted man he once was. It is his resolve
to let the spirits of the past, present and future 'strive within'
him that is the catalyst for his change. It is worth reflecting on
the past, present and future in the story briefly to show the real
power and weightiness of Dickens's message that is really almost lost
under the clichés of Christmas time in the story. The message that we can change
and that life can be a joy and that we can find happiness even within
our broken and rubbish self's.
To the
past then. The past is constantly with us and Dickens knew this. He
also knew that our relationship with the past can be unhealthy.
Scrooge's relationship with the past is unhealthy. Scrooge, it seems
is in denial of the past and seems to have become a dismissive man as
we see at the start of the story where he initially shrugs of seeing
the face of Marley's ghost appear on the door knocker. He denies the
memory of how Belle his one time girlfriend left him for his love of
money, she even seems to know that he will disregard and repress the
memory of their parting prophetically saying;
“You
may— the memory of what is past half makes me hope you will— have
pain in this. A very, very brief time, and you will dismiss the
recollection of it, gladly, as an unprofitable dream, from which it
happened well that you awoke.”
Memories
can pop up or suddenly flood our minds when we see an image, get a
whiff of an old familiar smell or hear a sound or a song. They can be
heavy and quite over powering. Memories can make us anxious, laugh,
make us cringe or blush however it is our acknowledgement of our past that
is ultimately important for Dickens, the good and the bad of the past
have equal value, no matter how they make us feel. Dickens completely understood the power of being
honest with ourselves about our own pasts and more importantly the
power of our memories and of not being dismissive of our emotions.
Often I think perhaps we all go through life only experiencing the
memories and recollections that 'come to us' that bubble up from the
depths and pop in our minds however the past can be a potent and
powerful tool in informing our behaviour and how we feel and how
happy we are. We should perhaps not just let our memories just simply appear within us. We react to our memories and Dickens is suggesting that
we should in fact nurture our reaction to our memories, our past and
develop a stance where the bad and painful memories can in fact roar
and cheer us on in life. We can strive to become humble and
compassionate in the light of our failings and our grave mistakes. We
can resolve to love more in the light of our past loneliness, no
matter how bitter. The past and it's pains can undoubtedly give us
drive and can spur us on and inspire us. The French have a brilliant
little phrase, 'l'espirit de l'escalier' which as far as I know means
'stairway wit.' It relates to the sensation of thinking of a come
back after an argument when it is all too late. It is that sense of
looking back and wishing we had done something else that can provide
us with a burning zeal for the present moment. That is the power of the past Dickens wrote of. Our memories, the
past, can inform us daily so that the 'shadows of the things that
have been' our failings, our pain, the good times and the heaven sent
moments of our life can make us strive to be better people each day.
Scrooge upon being brought face to face with the past again was, over
powered and fell to his knees. In the words of the philosopher Seneca
who wrote quite rightly in 'On the Shortness of Life,' those who
forget the past, neglect the future.”
In the
story the Ghost of Christmas Present come to Scrooge next, however I
am going to the future, or the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come.
Scrooge is shown by the spirit a harrowing image of the future in
which Tiny Tim is dead and he see's a conversation of some of his
business associates about who is going to attend his funeral in which
one of them reflects “upon my life I don’t know of anybody to go
to it.” Finally, he comes to see his own grave coming face to face
with his mortality and the finite nature of his life. The future for
Dickens can ultimately provide us with a healthy regard for that
great leveler of all things-Death. It is not our death in itself
that should inform us but a striving to over come death in how we
will be remembered. Dickens's message isn't a stale, morbid
depressing one that we are all going to die one day, his message is
we have one life to live and need to make the most of it, it is
inherently both optimistic and realistic. To quote Seneca again who
Dickens would have nodded in agreement with, we “have all the fears
of mortals and all the desires of immortals.”
And finally to the
present. The here and now. The Ghost of Christmas Present then as we
know also visits Scrooge. He visits Bob Cratchit's house and see's
the poverty of his employee Bob Cratchit and his son Tiny Tim who is
ill, however they cannot afford treatment for him on the meager wages
paid by Scrooge. He also see's his nephews family's talking
negatively about him. Scrooge is shown the dire nature of his current
life and his negative affect on those in his life. Dickens is showing
us how the past and the future can inform in changing for the better
our present situations and transforming positively our very
character. The past and the future can provide us with an unbending
and unyielding will to engage positively and joyfully with the here
and now. We should live with unbridled joy and happiness at the
prospect and potential in this very moment for goodness, the wretches
that we are.
Dickens
can serve to give us a resolve in the here and now to be cheery, to be wholly joyful, to
enjoy others and to make the most of every moment. Dickens is showing
how powerful a healthy relationship with the past can be, how it can
inform us, whisper to us in this moment, inspire and and drive us on
that strive to be better people. The future and it's prospect can
also be a source of constant joy and happiness to us if we regard is
as a jewel like opportunity to live fully and be who we are, and be
good and ultimately be brilliant to each other. The prospect of death
is something to be recognised and something the can serve to spur us
on, something that can be over come by our life and how we lived it.
Coming up to 2013 perhaps the best new years resolution then may be perhaps old Ebenezer Scrooge's resolve; “I will live in the Past, the Present,
and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I
will not shut out the lessons that they teach.”
