“I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round --
apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin,
if anything belonging to it can be apart from that --as a good time;”

- Fred, Scrooge’s nephew in Charles Dickens, “A Christmas Carol”

 

---

CHARLES DICKENS & CHRISTMAS

 Dickens originally titled this work “A Christmas Carol in Prose” because he intended it to sing out the message that the meaning and spirit of Christmas can be lived everyday of the year.

 It has been said that Charles Dickens’ 1843 story almost single-handedly revived the festive celebration of Christmas in England, bringing it from being a liturgical church celebration in which people were primarily observers, to being a celebration of Christ’s love in the home in which all are called to be participants.  In “A Christmas Carol” this is featured particularly in the home of Scrooge’s clerk, Bob Cratchit, whose name is derived from the archaic English word for ‘crèche’, the place where the newborn presence of Christ abides.

 David MacAdam, pastor of New Life Community Church in Concord, Massachusetts, who has written the musicals,
“Song on the Wind”, “Celestial City” & “Ruth” wrote his musical version of Scrooge in 1984 in England where it was first produced.  In this version he wanted to highlight the gospel themes alluded to in the original book.

Dickens scholar, N.C. Peyrouton wrote in The Dickensian  (May 1963 p.106) that the theme of “A Christmas Carol” parallels the theology that “The salvation of man’s soul is effected by the change of heart and life wrought by Christ’s Spirit.”

Dickens' originally titled his work, “A Christmas Carol in Prose.” A carol is a song or ballad of joy celebrating the birth of Christ. In keeping with the carol theme, Dickens structured his tale as a song with five ‘staves’ (rather than chapters).  In each stave he makes reference to the gospel of Christ.

For example, in Stave 1, the ghost of Jacob Marley asks, “Why did I walk through crowds of fellow-beings with my eyes turned down,
and never raise them to that blessed Star which led the Wise Men to a poor abode!”

In Stave 2 the Spirit, reminiscent of the Light of the World says to Scrooge, “Would you put out, with worldly hands, the light that I give?” When Scrooge asks what his business is, the Spirit proclaims his redemptive purpose reminiscent to Luke 19:10 “to seek and save that which is lost”--- “Your reclamation!” the Spirit says. 

In Stave 3 Bob Cratchit observes the spiritual sensitivity of his lame child, Tiny Tim, telling his wife as he returns from worship,
“He (Tim) told me, coming home, that he hoped the people saw him in the church, because he was a cripple, and it might be pleasant to them to remember upon Christmas Day, who made lame beggars walk, and blind men see.” 

In Stave 4, as the Cratchit family mourns the death of Tiny Tim, Peter Cratchit reads from Gospel of Mark, Chapter 9, verse 36 and arouses Scrooge’s spiritual hunger. Peter reads, ‘And he took a child, and set him in the midst of them.' Dickens continues: “Where had Scrooge heard those words? He had not dreamed them. The boy must have read them out, as he and the Spirit crossed the threshold. Why did he not go on?”

In Stave 5, the final stave, Scrooge’s life is reclaimed as his recognition of his past, present and future move him to a place of repentance, faith and the discovery of forgiveness. In the end, Dickens writes of Scrooge: “It was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed,
God bless Us, Every One!”

Dickens reminds us of the childlike faith that recognizes that even in times of poverty and hardship the meaning of Christmas can provoke love for God, and good will and generosity towards even the hard-hearted among us.

In 1849 Charles Dickens wrote “The Life of Our Lord” to teach his own children of Jesus Christ.

In 1856 Dickens wrote, “There cannot be many men, I believe, who have a more humble venera­tion for the New Testament, or a more profound conviction of its all-sufficiency, than I have.”

In 1869 he wrote in his last will and testament: “I commit my soul to the mercy of God through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and I exhort my dear children humbly to try to guide themselves by the teaching of the New Testament.”

In 1870 Dickens writes in a letter: “I have always striven in my writings to express veneration for the life and lessons of our Saviour; because I feel it; and because I re-wrote that history for my children-every one of whom knew it, from having it repeated to them, long before they could read, and almost as soon as they could speak.”

Christmas has its many wonderful traditions. But let us not forget the central tradition to tell the story that gives meaning to it all.
– David MacAdam

New Life Fine Arts is committed to producing high quality musical theater with redemptive and spiritually uplifting themes:
“Theater you can believe in”.

Stay tuned to learn of upcoming productions.

 

---

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) continues to be recognized as one of the greatest English novelists. Unlike many of his predecessors he was able to enjoy popularity among readers during his lifetime.

The Influence of His Early Years

Born in Portsmouth, Hampshire (England) on February 7, 1812, Charles Dickens spent his happiest childhood years in Chatham, Kent. In 1822 he moved to London where he lived until 1860. Although his parents were from a middle class background, his father often brought the family into hardship and embarrassment through his financial extravagance. When Charles was 12 his father was sent to prison for his outstanding debts. As a result, Charles had to leave school to work in a factory. During this brief descent into the working class, he developed a sensitivity to the underprivileged and oppressed. His experience of the struggles of the common man influenced his later writings.

When his father was released from jail, the family fortune improved and Charles was able to return to school, despite opposition from his mother who appreciated the financial security provided by the factory work of her eldest son. At 15, Dickens left school and became a clerk in a solicitor’s office and a shorthand reporter in the law courts, before becoming a parliamentary and newspaper reporter.

Charles Dickens came to adulthood in the reformist years of the 1830’s. The influence of a Christ-centered revival in England led to a new social activism. One of the first results of the Reformed Parliament was the abolition of slavery in the British Isles (1833) that was due primarily to the work of William Wilberforce (1759-1833), a strong advocate of Evangelical Christianity dedicated to cessation of the slave trade and the emancipation of slaves. Wilberforce and others spearheaded prison reform and took up the cause of the poor. This movement of social reform, particularly that which dealt with the plight of the poor, and the children of the poor, influenced Dickens' political thought, although it is not apparent that he ever drew deeply from the theological or spiritual roots of the movement.

His Literary Style and Works

Dickens nearly became a professional actor in 1832 and was highly attracted to the theater. His descriptive narrative style, his keen ear for characteristic speech, his description of people’s comic mannerisms, and his ability to verbally set the scene, make his works readily adaptable to the stage.

In 1833 he began contributing short stories and descriptive essays to newspapers and magazines. Some of these were reprinted in a work that came to public attention, entitled “Sketches by Boz” (February 1836). This led to a commissioning to write a comic serial to be published with the engravings of a well-known artist. The result was the “Pickwick Papers” which soon catapulted Dickens to recognition as the most popular author of the day.

His next works included a play and pamphlet dealing with the topic of the poor being allowed to enjoy Sunday as a day of rest and worship. After the publication of these works he was able to resign from his newspaper job and edit a magazine, (“Bentley’s Miscellany”), in which “Oliver Twist” was serialized (1837-39).

“A Christmas Carol” (published in 1843) was rather suddenly conceived and written in a few weeks while Dickens was engaged in writing another serial, “Martin Chuzzlewit”. His view of life and its essential values become more clear in this, the first of his Christmas books. What others dismissed as “Christmas philosophy”, he himself spoke of as a “Carol philosophy” that the meaning and spirit of Christmas be lived throughout the year.

It has been suggested, according to N.C. Peyrouton, in an article in the Dickensian (Spring, May 1963, p.106) that the theme of “A Christmas Carol” parallels the theology that “the salvation of man’s soul is effected by the change of heart and life wrought by Christ’s Spirit.”

As Tiny Tim observed, during this season we must reflect upon “He who made lame beggars walk and blind men see.”

In “Ebenezer Scrooge: A Christmas Carol” we contextualize Dickens' work with the inspiring thought of another 19th century writer, Boston’s own Phillips Brooks*, who like Dickens, wrote on the Christmas theme and our need to invite Christ into our lives:

*Phillips Brooks (1835-1893) was an American Episcopal bishop born in Boston. In 1869 he received a call from Trinity Church, where he resided until 1891. In addition to writing many sermons, which were compiled and published in book form, he wrote the words to the well-known carol, "O Little Town of Bethlehem" which is incorporated into this musical adaptation of Dickens' "A Christmas Carol".

Other Productions