Christianity & Redemption

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Christianity

The story draws upon the Christian ideas of Christmas: helping the poor and sin.

Christmas

The story of A Christmas Carol is structured around Christmas itself.
- The story takes place on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
- Victorians were devout Christians, and the story uses Christian ideals of compassion, kindness and generosity to underline the transformation of a selfish man to a good man (Ebenezer Scrooge).

Carol structure

The story is structured like a carol itself – it is written in five staves, reflecting the format of a Christmas carol, rather than in chapters.

Helping the helpless

The role of Tiny Tim itself also stems from a Christian idea – helping the helpless.
- In the Bible, Jesus focuses on helping the helpless.
- This idea of kindness and generosity was especially important in Victorian England around Christmas time.

Sin

One of the most important themes is that of sins and bad behaviour having the power to curse you and affect your future family.
Scrooge has a lot of money but refuses to help other people. In fact, he idolises money (Belle tells him “another Idol has displaced me”) – idolising something which is not God is a big sin in Christianity.
Scrooge is unkind and rude.
Scrooge is angry and possibly violent at times – he chases away a carol singer, threatening him with a ruler – wrath is another important sin.

Sin analysed

All of these sins build up and mean that he is leading an unsatisfying, lonely, unhappy life.
The ghosts give him the opportunity to redeem himself and stop living a sinful life – if he can do this, he can lift the curse he has placed on himself and those around him.

Redemption

Linking in with both the structure of the story and the Christian beliefs of Victorian England, Scrooge experiences redemption (he is saved from sin).

Link to Christianity

This could link in to Christian beliefs – a man is reborn, free from sin.
- Beginning: Scrooge is unkind, nasty to others, people fear him, and he is alone because of his actions.
- Middle: Scrooge sees the possible consequences of his actions and realises what type of person he has become: “Scrooge hung his head... and was overcome with penitence and grief”.
- End: Scrooge decides to change his ways and redeem himself. He becomes happy, he laughs, he actively tries to help other people, and he is no longer alone.

Hero

In this way, Scrooge begins the story as the villain who causes problems for other people but, through his own actions and desire to save his own soul, he transforms and becomes the generous, fun hero of the story. We are also told at the end of Stave 5 that he remains the heroic figure for the rest of his life.
Scrooge is a hero to the reader because he sees a weakness in himself, actively moves to change it, and becomes a better person because of this – he does something that some readers may envy.