A Christmas Carol

This is a plot summary of A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens's short ghost story in five parts, which he called staves. The action covers one Christmas Eve night, the Christmas Day that follows, and the morning after. Below is what happens in each stave, followed by the main characters and a reading tip.

Stave I: Marley's Ghost

The story opens on Christmas Eve in the London counting-house of Ebenezer Scrooge, a grasping old businessman with no patience for the season. Seven years earlier his partner, Jacob Marley, died, yet Scrooge still keeps the firm's name, Scrooge and Marley, above the warehouse door. The narrator's famous first line is simply this:

MARLEY was dead: to begin with.

Scrooge's cheerful nephew, Fred, arrives to wish him a merry Christmas. Scrooge answers with a sharp dismissal of the holiday, and the two argue about whether Christmas is worth celebrating:

"Bah!" said Scrooge, "Humbug!"

When Fred invites him to dinner the next day, Scrooge refuses. Two gentlemen then come asking for money to help the poor. Scrooge gives nothing and says that those who are badly off should go to the prisons or the workhouses. Late in the afternoon he grudgingly agrees to let his clerk, who will later be named as Bob Cratchit, have Christmas Day off, but he complains that paying a day's wages for no work is a poor excuse for robbing a man.

That night Scrooge walks home to the gloomy rooms he lives in alone, once shared with Marley. At his front door the door-knocker briefly becomes Marley's face. Inside, Scrooge checks every room, double-locks the door and sits by a low fire with his gruel. Then a bell in an unused room begins to swing, every bell in the house rings, and a clanking of chains rises from the cellars. Marley's Ghost walks straight through the locked door, transparent, wearing his old pigtail and waistcoat, and dragging a chain made of cash-boxes, keys, padlocks, ledgers, deeds and steel purses.

Scrooge does not believe his eyes at first. Marley explains that a person's spirit must wander the earth after death if it did not go out among other people during life, and that he himself wears the chain he forged in life. He says Scrooge still has a chance of escaping the same fate, and that three spirits will visit him: the first at one o'clock the next morning, the second on the night after at the same hour, and the third on the night after that, when the last stroke of twelve has died away. Marley then leaves through the window, and Scrooge sees restless phantoms in the air, all chained and unable to help the living. Scrooge goes to bed and falls asleep.

Stave II: The First of the Three Spirits

Scrooge wakes in the dark and hears the clock strike twelve. He is sure he has slept through a whole day, and he cannot tell whether it is noon or midnight, so he waits for the bell to strike one. The first visitor is the Ghost of Christmas Past. It has the shape of a child, but its hair is white like an old man's, its face is smooth and youthful, and a bright light shines from the top of its head. It takes Scrooge back to the countryside of his boyhood, and he weeps as he recognises the roads and gates he once knew. He sees himself as a lonely schoolboy left behind at Christmas, reading by a feeble fire. Then his younger sister, Fan, comes running in to bring him home for good, saying that their father has become much kinder.

Next they visit the warehouse where young Scrooge served as an apprentice under the jovial Mr. Fezziwig. On Christmas Eve Fezziwig closes the shutters, clears the floor, and holds a dance with music, games, cake and roast meat for all his workers. Scrooge is delighted, and he speaks warmly of Fezziwig, arguing that a man who can make people happy with small things does great good.

The Ghost then shows Scrooge himself as a young man engaged to a girl named Belle. Belle tells him that his love of gain has taken the place of every other hope, and she releases him from their engagement. Scrooge cannot deny that he has changed:

"I was a boy," he said impatiently.

The spirit next shows Belle years later, a wife and mother surrounded by noisy children. Her husband mentions that he saw Scrooge alone in his office, and that his partner lies dying. Scrooge begs to be taken away. When the spirit will not let him go, he seizes its extinguisher-cap and presses it down over the light on its head, but the light still shines through. Scrooge grows drowsy and finds himself back in his own bedroom, where he falls into a heavy sleep.

Stave III: The Second of the Three Spirits

At one o'clock the following night Scrooge is woken by the Ghost of Christmas Present. It is a jolly giant in a green robe trimmed with white fur, with a wreath of holly on its head and a glowing torch in its hand. It takes Scrooge through the streets of London on Christmas morning, where people shovel snow from the pavements, shopkeepers display their fruit and poultry, and families hurry to church and then to the bakers' shops with their dinners. The spirit sprinkles the poor families' dinners with its torch. When Scrooge asks why, the spirit answers that such dinners need it most.

The spirit then brings Scrooge to the home of his clerk, Bob Cratchit. Bob earns fifteen shillings a week and lives in a small house with his wife, their children Peter, Martha and Belinda, and a small boy named Tiny Tim, who walks with a crutch and has his legs supported by an iron frame. The family sits down to a goose, a pudding and a hot drink. Bob raises a glass to "Mr. Scrooge, the Founder of the Feast," and Mrs. Cratchit answers with bitter words, though she drinks for the sake of the day. Then Tiny Tim speaks:

"God bless us every one!" said Tiny Tim, the last of all.

Scrooge asks whether Tiny Tim will live. The spirit shows him an empty seat by the fire and a crutch with no owner, and says that if the future does not change, the child will die. Scrooge begs to be told that the boy will be spared. The spirit repeats Scrooge's own cruel remark about decreasing the surplus population, rebukes him, and asks who gives him the right to decide which men shall live and which shall die.

The spirit then carries Scrooge across the country and out to sea: to a hut where miners sing an old song, to a lighthouse where two keepers share a grog and a song, and to a ship where sailors keep Christmas in their own quiet ways. At last Scrooge hears a laugh he knows, and finds his nephew Fred at home, still laughing with his wife, friends and relations after dinner. Fred says that his uncle is more to be pitied than hated, that he loses good dinners and pleasant company by staying away, and that he will keep inviting him every year. The guests play blind-man's buff and a game of Yes and No. In that game, the answer to every question turns out to be "Uncle Scrooge," and they raise their glasses to him. Scrooge is moved and begs to stay a little longer, but the spirit says it cannot be done.

As the night goes on, the spirit grows older and its hair turns grey. It tells Scrooge that its life on earth ends at midnight. Then it draws two wretched children from the folds of its robe. They are Ignorance and Want, and the spirit warns Scrooge to beware them both, and most of all the boy. The bell strikes twelve, and a solemn hooded figure comes gliding towards him through the dark.

Stave IV: The Last of the Spirits

The third spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, says nothing at all. It is wrapped in a black shroud that hides everything except one outstretched hand. Scrooge kneels and asks whether it will show him the things that are yet to happen, and then he follows it into the city. Among the merchants on the Exchange, men talk about a man who has died. Nobody seems sorry. They joke about who will go to the funeral and whether there will be a lunch afterwards. Scrooge looks for himself in his usual corner, but a stranger stands there.

The spirit leads him to a grim shop in a dark quarter of the town, where an old dealer named Joe buys rags, bones and old iron. Three people arrive with bundles: a charwoman, a laundress called Mrs. Dilber, and an undertaker's man. Each of them has taken something from the dead man's room. Joe pays for the bed-curtains, the blankets, a shirt and a few small items, chalking the sums on the wall. The women laugh that the dead man frightened everyone away while he was alive, and that he has now made them a profit. Scrooge is horrified by what he hears.

Then the spirit shows him a bare bed in a dark room. A man lies there under a ragged sheet, unwatched, unwept and uncared for. The spirit points to the head. Scrooge longs to lift the covering and see the face, but he has no power to move the cloth. He asks the spirit to show him some tenderness connected with death, and the scene changes to a family in daylight. A young man comes home, and his wife asks whether his news is good or bad. He tells her that the dead man is past relenting. They are relieved, because the debt they owed him can no longer be pressed, and they go to sleep with lighter hearts.

The spirit next takes Scrooge to the Cratchit home, where the family is unusually quiet. Peter reads aloud a verse from the Bible about a child set in the midst of others, and Mrs. Cratchit puts her work down and covers her face. The family remembers how they once carried Tiny Tim on their shoulders. When Bob comes home, he is subdued. He tells them how Scrooge's nephew met him in the street, said he was heartily sorry for his wife, and gave him his card. Then Bob describes a quiet, green place he had promised his little child he would visit on Sundays, and he breaks down, crying, "My little child!" Tiny Tim has died in this future, and the family knows it.

Finally the spirit leads Scrooge to a churchyard and points to a neglected grave. Scrooge kneels and reads the name on the stone: EBENEZER SCROOGE. He begs to be told that the shadows can change, promises to honour Christmas in his heart all year, and clutches at the spirit's robe. The spectral hand trembles, and the dark hood and robe shrink and collapse until they become a bedpost.

Stave V: The End of It

Scrooge wakes in his own bed on Christmas morning. The bed curtains are still there, and the bells are ringing. He has not missed Christmas after all, and he is overjoyed. He sends a huge prize turkey from the poulterer's shop to Bob Cratchit's house, without giving his name, and he gives the boy who carries it a generous reward. He dresses in his best clothes and walks through the streets, smiling at everyone. He finds the portly gentleman who came asking for money the day before and tells him to put down a large sum. The gentleman, astonished, promises to visit him.

In the afternoon Scrooge goes to Fred's house. After a few moments' hesitation he walks in and surprises his nephew, who welcomes him warmly. Scrooge is soon at home with the family at dinner and the games that follow. The next morning he arrives early at the office and waits for Bob Cratchit, hoping to catch him late. When Bob comes in eighteen and a half minutes after nine, Scrooge pretends to be furious. Then he announces that he is going to raise Bob's salary, help his struggling family and buy a second coal-scuttle. He claps Bob on the back and wishes him a merrier Christmas than he has given him for many years.

From then on Scrooge becomes the good friend, master and neighbour that the old city had never known. He becomes a second father to Tiny Tim, who does not die. He has no further dealings with spirits, but he keeps Christmas in the way the spirits taught him for the rest of his life.

The Main Characters

• Ebenezer Scrooge: a rich London businessman who dislikes Christmas and refuses to give to the poor, and who changes completely over one night.
• Jacob Marley: Scrooge's late partner, whose ghost appears on Christmas Eve to warn him.
• Fred: Scrooge's cheerful nephew, who keeps inviting him to dinner and defends him at his own party.
• Bob Cratchit: Scrooge's clerk, who earns a small wage and supports a large family.
• Tiny Tim: Bob's young son, who uses a crutch and whose future Scrooge is shown.
• Belle: the young woman Scrooge was engaged to, who ends their engagement because of his love of money.
• Mr. Fezziwig: Scrooge's generous former employer, who gives the warehouse dance.
• The three spirits: the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come, who guide Scrooge through his own history, the Cratchit household and his possible future.

Reading Tip

Read the five staves in order, because the story is built around a clock. Note the time of each visit, since Marley gives them to Scrooge in advance. Each stave title names the spirit that appears in it, which makes the structure easy to follow.