Ending 2012, the year that commemorates the 200th birthday of British novelist Charles Dickens, IES "Rafael Dieste" is going to close the school term showing a film based on his classic novel "A Christmas Carol". Here we're including some reference about the novel and the film we'll be watching on Friday at 12:30 for 1st & 2nd ESO students.
A Christmas Carol is a novel by English author Charles Dickens, first published on 19 December 1843. The story tells Ebenezer Scrooge's ideological, ethical, and emotional transformation resulting after the supernatural visits from Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come. The novel was instant success and critical acclaim.
The book was written and published in early Victorian era Britain, a period when there was both strong nostalgia for old Christmas traditions and an initiation of new practices such as Christmas trees and greeting cards. Dickens's sources for the tale appear to be many and varied but are principally the humiliating experiences of his childhood, his sympathy for the poor, and various Christmas stories and fairy tales.
The story is about Ebenezer Scrooge. At the beginning of the book he is a mean old man who runs a business lending people money. These people are poor and often cannot pay him back. He pays his clerk Bob Cratchit badly.
On Christmas Eve, Scrooge refuses an invitation to his nephew's house for Christmas dinner, telling him he hates it (he calls it a "Humbug"). He then refuses to give money to two men who are collecting for charity.
Later that evening, he is visited by the ghost of his dead business partner Jacob Marley, who went to Hell because of his bad life. He tells Scrooge that the same future will happen to him unless he changes and that during the night he will be visited by three more ghosts. These will show him where he went wrong in his life, and how to be a better person in the future.
The first ghost is the Ghost of Christmas Past. This ghost shows him where he went wrong in the past, showing him his unhappy childhood and how he did not get married.
The second ghost is the Ghost of Christmas Present. This ghost shows him things which are happening now, such as how his clerk, Bob Cratchit, is having a nice Christmas despite not having much money. He also shows him Bob's youngest son, Tiny Tim, who is crippled. Later, the ghost shows him how his nephew is having a good Christmas, and how Scrooge is missing out.
The third ghost is the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. This ghost shows Scrooge what Christmas will be like in the future if he does not change. Firstly, people are shown celebrating a man's death and robbing from his house. The ghost also shows him that Tiny Tim has died. Scrooge is then shown his own grave, and realizes that the celebrations were for his death.
On Christmas morning, Scrooge wakes up and realizes that he has to change. He decides to celebrate Christmas, and help Tiny Tim get better. Through the ghosts' help he becomes a better man.
The tale has been viewed by critics as an indictment of 19th-century industrial capitalism. It has been credited with restoring the holiday to one of merriment and festivity in Britain and America after a period of sobriety and sombreness. A Christmas Carol remains popular and has been adapted to film, stage, opera, and other media many times. It is still a relevant story nowadays.
A Christmas Carol (named on-screen and in promotional material as Disney's A Christmas Carol) is a 2009 3D computer animated motion-capture holiday fantasy comedy-drama film written and directed by Robert Zemeckis. It is an adaptation of the Charles Dickens story of the same name and stars Jim Carrey in a multitude of roles, including Ebenezer Scrooge as a young, middle-aged, and old man, and the three ghosts who haunt Scrooge.
Video trailer of "A CHRISTMAS CAROL" (2009):
More on Dickens at these links:
- Previous post about Dickens at ClickOnEnglish.
- Dickens 2012: Website celebrating his 200th birthday.
- A Galician version of this post @ ArquivosDoTrasno.
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