What lessons are we to learn from Charles Dickens' classic story "A Christmas Carol"? Obviously the most important lesson is that it is better to give than to receive: Scrooge's life of being miserly has left him devoid of family and friends and, as he sees, will ultimately land him a lonely death.

Dickens tells us explicitly that Scrooge is a terrible human being. He is "a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner." He is cold, unfeeling, and, interestingly, does not respond to external stimuli: "No warmth could warm, no wintry weather chill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than he, no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no pelting rain less open to entreaty. Foul weather didn't know where to have him." Not only can he not feel emotionally, he cannot feel physically, as though he has some sort of organic nerve malfunction which causes his bitter condition.

Scrooge has other odd characteristics. When the ghost of Jacob Marley visits him on Christmas Eve, Scrooge refuses to acknowledge his existence. "Why do you doubt your senses?" asks Marley. Scrooge replies, "Because [...] a little thing affects them. A slight disorder of the stomach makes them cheats. You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato. There's more of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are!" He is a man without epistemology. He appears to have no faith in anything, meaning he does not believe in things for which there is no empirical support. The above quotation implies that he has no belief in reason, either: he does not believe the empirical data provided by his senses. He believes whatever is convenient for him at the time. If it does not suit him to believe in the ghost of Jacob Marley, then he does not believe in it. After a while, though, Scrooge cannot ignore the reality of Jacob Marley and so decides that he "must" believe in him.

Marley tells Scrooge that, for his failure to engage in "charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence," he will be punished. Marley himself was punished by being forced to wear "the chain [he] forged in life" and walk the Earth for eternity. This Christmas, Marley's ghost feels compelled to come to Scrooge and warn him of his impending fate. Like The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Frankenstein, "A Christmas Carol" is a didactic story: a character who has had some terrible fate befall him has come to warn another character who is on the path to the same fate. If the latter character can somehow change his habits, he may avoid that same fate. It is a typical Christian thing to do and something that the Bible commands Christians to do: to go out and attempt to save the souls of their fellow-men by getting them to believe in Christ as their savior. In this case, salvation comes not from Christ but from charity and concern for one's fellow-man.

Over the course of an evening, the three ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future show Scrooge that, at one point, he did have concern for others; he should continue to have concern for others; and if he does not, he will die lonely and forgotten and will indirectly cause the death of Tiny Tim. Scrooge's change occurred when he got his own counting-house and began to concern himself with money rather than human beings. His girlfriend left him after she realized that he was more concerned with accumulating wealth than with loving her.

The Ghost of Christmas Present shows Scrooge that there are still people who care for him, specifically his nephew, Dick. Dick is the epitome of Christ's suggestion to "turn the other cheek." Dick is abused by Scrooge (only verbally, when he comes calling on Christmas) but still asks him every year to come to his Christmas party. Where others would have given up on Scrooge long ago, Dick still holds out hope for him. So, too, does Bob Cratchit, Scrooge's long-suffering clerk. Cratchit even toasts Scrooge at his family's meager Christmas meal, much to his wife's discontent. Here, Scrooge displays genuine concern and "an interest he had never felt before" for Tiny Tim, who, the Spirit tells him, could die "if these shadows remain unaltered by the Future."

The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is the most fearsome ghost yet. It is here, within the stave concerning the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, that some ambiguity steps in. Is Scrooge genuinely repentant, or is merely scared into repentance? Certainly cynics would like to believe that Scrooge was frightened into good behavior with the threat of death, but the text does not support this assumption. Scrooge displayed genuine concern for Tiny Tim before meeting the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. The job of the Ghost of Christmas Past was to remind Scrooge that he was once a feeling person and to remind him also that he was once happy and could have been happier in the present if only he hadn't become engrossed in greed. The Ghost of Christmas Present allows Scrooge an outlet to express his newly-rediscovered concern for others. The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is certainly there to scare Scrooge, but only to scare him into a climax that will result in a catharsis later on. By the end of the story, Scrooge is genuinely repentant. He comes to realize that he has little time in which to enjoy his new-found empathy and happiness and becomes afraid that he will not have much time in which to enjoy it. His catharsis comes from the knowledge that he will not die and that he will remain alive sufficiently to enjoy his newfound knowledge.

The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come utilizes that age-old satirical trick, reducto ad infinitum -- reduction to the infinite. The Ghost creates a dystopic future based on the events of the present. "If these shadows remain unaltered" -- if things continue in the same vein -- then the future that Scrooge sees will be a real future. What we are reading is a dystopia in action: a present problem is projected into the future, providing the present with enough time to change the course of events. Scrooge, ultimately, changes the course of events, which will ultimately (hopefully) result in a different future in which he does not die alone in his bed and where Tiny Tim continues to live.

Certainly Dickens could have done a better job letting his readers know that Scrooge is genuinely repentant, but if read closely, his text assures us that the Ghosts have aroused genuine feelings within him, not merely a fear of death that prompts him to behave. He is not good because he fears punishment, but he becomes good because he realizes that virtue is good in and of itself. He cares about his fellow-men and seeks to enjoy life -- and not just on Christmas, but "all the year." The hope of salvation is there for everyone, and even when it seems to late, it is possible to obtain it. A good Christmas story for people who are stressed out and have forgotten that Christmas means Christ and Christ means "charity, mercy, forbearance, benevolence."