A Christmas Carol

A Christmas Carol is a short play written by Charles Dickens. It was published for the first time on 19th December 1843. One of the most popular Christmas stories of all times, it has since been adapted to theatre, opera, film, radio, and television, innumerable times. In the following lines, we provide you with the movie summary/script of 'A Christmas Carol'.

The story of 'A Christmas Carol' revolves around an old man, known as Ebenezer Scrooge, who is an extreme miser. He does not believe in the spirit of Christmas and his only concern is accumulation of wealth. Nothing in this world is as dear to him as money. Scrooge's business partner, Jacob Marley, has died and on this Christmas Eve, exactly seven years have passed since his death. Scrooge and his clerk, Bob Cratchit, are working on Christmas Eve also. Scrooge's nephew, Fred, comes to wish him on Christmas, but Scrooge drives him away. Scrooge finally declares the day off and comes back home.

The moment Scrooge enters his room, he sees the ghost of his dead partner, Jacob Marley. Jacob warns Scrooge that if he doesn't mend his attitude of miserliness and contempt for others, he would be subjected to the fate of being a ghost and walking on earth, as an atonement of his wrong ways. The ghost of Jacob also tells Scrooge that he will soon be visited by three ghosts, who may become his last chance of escaping from his brutal fate. Presuming the entire incident to be a hallucination, Scrooge goes off to sleep.

Around midnight, the first spirit appears before Scrooge and introduces himself as the Ghost of Christmas Past. With him, Scrooge travels back to his past and witnesses some of the happiest and saddest moments of his life, like the mistreatment by his father, the death of his sister, etc. After seeing all this, Scrooge comes back to his room and falls asleep. As the clock strikes one, he is visited by the second spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Present. The spirit takes him to the house of Bob Cratchit, who is celebrating Christmas with his family. The meager celebrations of the family and the possibility of an early death of Bob's crippled son, Tiny Tim, soften Scrooge's heart.

At the same time, the ghost shows him that Fred still nurses the hope that his uncle's heart will change one day. The visitation comes to an end and Scrooge comes back to his bed. Some time later, he is woken up by the third spirit, the Ghost of the Christmas Yet to Come. This ghost is very scary and is completely robed in black. This time Scrooge witnesses the death of Tiny Tim as well as his own lonely death. This makes Scrooge realize that he can change his own fate as well as that of Tiny Tim by changing his attitude towards life. He comes back to his room and vows to change himself completely. He becomes the generous, kind-hearted soul he once was, before his sister died.