Boekverslag : Charles Dickens - A Christmas Carol
De taal ervan is Engels en het aantal woorden bedraagt 1599 woorden.
De taal ervan is Engels en het aantal woorden bedraagt 1599 woorden.
Why did I choose this book?
We read this story in a short version in class. I found the story quite good and decided to read the full story for my bookreport. I started to read in the Christmas holiday and I had plenty of time to finish it.
A Christmas Carol is a very famous book and it was the right time of the year to read the story as well!
Summary
The story is about Ebenezer Scrooge. A man who has a business of his own, and has a lot of money, but he is very stingy. Jacob Marley was a business-partner of Scrooge, but Marley died seven years ago.
The poor nephew of Scrooge, Fred, comes by every year, wishing Uncle Scrooge a Merry Christmas and to invite him for diner at Christmas, but every year Scrooge refuses to come, Scrooge calls Christmas humbug and he thinks it’s a waist of time and money. He asks his nephew why he should be merry, does he have any reason to be merry?
When letting his nephwe out, two gentlemen came in. They ask Scrooge to help them with raising a fund to buy the poor some meat and drink. Scrooge says he wishes to be left alone and he can’t afford to make idle people merry.
Then Bob Cratchit, his employee, asks him if he can get the day off. Although it’s just once a year he asks for a day off, Scrooge isn’t happy with it, but he says it’s ok.
When Scrooge gets home, he sees the door-button turning into the face of Marley. He’s very surprised, but he says to himself that it’s all nonsense. And when he gets into the room he sees the ghost of Marley, and he keeps telling to himself that it’s all humbug, nonsense.
But it is true. Marley talks to him, and explains him something about the chains he is wearing; every wrong thing you do in your life will be turned into chains. Those chains you will have to wear when you’re dead. So that’s why he came to Scrooge; to warn him to live his life good, otherwise he will get chains too. To confirm that he will be sent three ghosts this night. Scrooge sees Marley flying away through the window, and he sees other ghosts, suffering with the chains. And some of them ghosts he knew, when they were people on earth.
After this weird happening Scrooge goes to bed and wakes up at midnight. The ghost of Christmas-Past is in his room and takes him to his past. There he sees his old house where he grew up and his old school, and he cries silently. And he sees himself with friends, all very happy. He thinks to himself, that you can’t buy happiness. After that the ghost takes him to a park, where he and a girl are sitting on a bench. The girl is breaking up, because she doesn’t like the way he lives, with all his gain. After that he sees the same girl, but now she’s married, to another man and having kids. The man tells his wife that he saw Scrooge and he tells her about Scrooge’s partner Marley, who’s almost dead. Scrooge cries that the ghost shouldn’t haunt him so much and that he wants to go back to his own place.
Then Scrooge wakes up again, apparently he had fallen asleep again. The second spirit comes by, and the spirit looks like a giant, he’s very big, but he looks nice though. His room has changed into a perfect grove. Scrooge says: “Take me wherever you want,” and he says he’d learned a lesson the last time and wants one now too. They get in Bob Cratchit’s home, and the people there are all very happy, but something is wrong with Tiny Tim, Bob’s son. Tiny Tim can’t walk very well. Scrooge asks the ghost if Tiny Tim will stay alive, and the ghost says he won’t, if he doesn’t get any help. And since Bob doesn’t get much money, they can’t afford an operation for Tiny Tim. Scrooge doesn’t want Tiny Tim to die and he feels sorry for him.
After that they are in Fred’s house, and they are very happy. Fred drinks a toast to Scrooge, and Scrooge feels bad for he didn’t accept the invitation. Then it seems the ghost of Christmas Present is growing older, he has two children under his coat, who are very poor and thin. They are called Ignorance and Want. There is a message in those names. He feels very sorry for the children and he had no idea of all the sorrow in the world.
After the second spirit the third and last spirit comes by, the ghost of Christmas Future. This one is looking very scary and doesn’t say a word. The ghost takes Scrooge to a place where they see a couple of businessmen in a street and Scrooge can hear them talking. They’re talking about a dead man, and they joke about this dead man and his funeral, where there weren’t many people. One of those men says: “I thought he’d never die,” and all the men are laughing about it. Then the scene changes. He sees a person lying in his bed, under the sheets. After that they are in Bob Cratchit’s house and Tiny Tim died. Scrooge keeps asking the ghost who that dead man is, but the ghost doesn’t answer. Finally they are at a graveyard; Scrooge finds it all very scary. They look at a grave, the grave is dirty. Scrooge makes it a bit cleaner to see what hidden under the dirt. And it’s his name that he sees. He grabs the ghost’s legs and cries, but the ghost turns into a bedpost.
Scrooge wakes up in his own bed again, and he very, very happy. He says thanks to Jacob Marley, and he has changed a lot. Now he can straight things up and do good things. He opens his window and asks a boy which day it is. “Uh, well it’s Christmas-day sir,” the boy says. The boy is very surprised. Scrooge says to himself, that the ghosts must have done their job in only one night, and he’s very relieved. He asks the boy if he want to earn some money. The boy has to buy the big, expensive turkey that hangs at the butcher’s. Scrooge sends the turkey to Bob Cratchit’s house. Then he goes to church. And all the people look at him, all very surprised. He wishes everyone he sees a merry Christmas, and again everyone is surprised.
Then he goes to Fred’s house to celebrate Christmas.
The next day Scrooge is early at the office, and he’s still very happy. But Bob is 18 minutes late, and Scrooge pretends to be mad at Bob, and Bob is a bit scared. But then he says that it’s a joke and Bob gets a salary-raise. Bob is, just as all the other people, very surprised. Scrooge becomes a good man, he pays for Tiny Tim’s operation, and he becomes like a second father for Tiny Tim.
Description of the characters
- Scrooge: He's a rich businessman and very bad. Scrooge is also a lonely person But he's also a very miserly man. That changes in the story as we reach the end of it. He changes into a good man, who respects Christmas. Scrooge is described in the story as 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, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster.
- Marley: He was Scrooge's business-partner, but he's died seven years ago. He warns Scrooge that he has to be good, or else he will be chained when he dies.
- Bob Cratchit: He's Scrooge's clerk, and he's very poor. He's a good man and a hard worker.
- Tiny Tim: He is the son of Bob Cratchit and he is very ill. He can’t walk very well, and his family is to poor to pay an operation for him.
- Fred: He's Scrooge's nephew. He invites Scrooge every year with Christmas. He is poor man but still he is very happy.
Ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas Future play an important role in the book.
The three spirits all take Scrooge to another time of the year, so he can see how he was, is and would be. And that makes Scrooge thinking about himself.
My opinion on the book
I find this book very nice to read, especially because it was Christmas holiday. The story is full of fantasy but there is also some reality in it. Because you can see that every person carries something good, even if you wouldn’t expect it from someone. Bad persons can turn out to be good persons.
Because the story was written so long ago, in the nineteenth century, the English was quite difficult sometimes. I had to look up some words and I found some sentences a bit complicated.
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffham Dickens is his full name. He was born in Landport at the seventh of February 1812. He died at the ninth of July in 1870 in Gadshill, Rochester. He is one of the most famous English writers and he wrote some very popular books, which are still much read.
Some of his books are: Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Life and adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, A tale of two cities, Bleak house and Great expectations.
Sources
- http://www.scholieren.com
- the Encarta Encyclopedia
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