FREE ESSAY ON CHAIN OF METAPHORS (A CHRISTMAS CAROL, C.D)

CHAIN OF METAPHORS (A CHRISTMAS CAROL, C.D)

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, is a story that is rich in metaphors that ultimately
questions the morals and ethics of the author's society during the time of hislife, the
industrial revolutionized society. In the story, the main character, Ebenezer Scrooge, is
a greedy, rich accountant who is visited by his old business partner ghost, Jacob Marley.

Marley's ghost tells Scrooge that he may face a penalty of becoming a lost soul if he
continues to value money more than anything else in his life. He also foretells that
Scrooge will be visited by three other ghosts that will give him the chance to redeem
himself, and he can break an iron chain of greed that he has woven. Each time a ghost
visits Scrooge, he will become more aware of the failures of the society he lives in. The
ghosts will also let Scrooge see his contributions to those failures. 
As Dickens writes the story of the three visits, we are able to out more about Scrooge's
inner self-character. We learn this about him as he finds out about his own fellow man
and his community. The crux of the story is alluded to in the ingenious metaphors Dickens
creeates to illustrate his own reflection on Nineteenth Century society. 
In the beginning of the story, Scrooge and his assistant Bob Cratchit are working at
Scrooge's counting house on a very cold night, Christmas Eve. Scrooge's offices are
nearly freezing, because of the dreadful weather. They depend on using coal to keep warm.
Scrooge is satisfied with a very small fire that he barely keeps going. More than that he
thinks is unnecessary warmth. On the other hand, Bob Cratchit's fire is nothing but one
dying morsel of coal. Scrooge had a very small fire, but his clerk's fire was so very
much smaller that it looked like one coal. 
The irony in only using a small piece of coal is that they both had two entirely
different reasons for not using more coal. Bob Cratchit is Scrooge's impoverished
assistant, who can't afford to buy more coal to kindle up warmth in his office. If he had
enough money to improve his working condition, he would. On the other hand, Scrooge had
more than enough money to buy coal for his office and Bob's. He didn't find that
necessary. Dickens makes reference to this as he shows how Scrooge doesn't find it
necessary to build up more warmth in his office, or even to offer to keep his assistant's
office warm, when he writes But he (Bob Cratchit) couldn't replenish it (the fire), for
Scrooge kept the coal-box in his own room; and so surely as the clerk came in with the
shovel, the master predicted that it would be necessary for them to part. 
The situation is much deeper than it appears. Dickens has not only created a spiteful and
stingy character, but he creates a Scrooge whose very body is cold. The fact that Scrooge
doesn't mind that his office is cold reveals that he is both physically and mentally a
cold person. Throughout literature the use of hot and cold plays as two basic metaphors
for love and hate: loneliness. Scrooge doesn't need warmth as a result of being a
malevolent and bitter person. He doesn't have family or friends to share his love and
heart with, so he developed into a person who was numb to his own warm feelings. The only
emotions that are left are the bitter ones he has for his society. 
Dickens uses Marley's chains as a metaphor as well. We should pay attention to what
Marley and Scrooge were known for. Scrooge and Marley were both concerned about their
money more than anything else that Dickens writes about. The two were so concerned about
earning money, that the two didn't care how they got it. Each of them wanted to be alone.
The chains that were forged in life by Marley were chains of guilt and sin. These chains
were fashioned while Marley made money at other people's expenses, and were linked out of
his lack of concern for what he did in life. Marley, like Scrooge, knew well of the
poverty most people suffered. Their sins were that they showed no sympathy for
unfortunate people. They both hid their sympathy in order to repress their guilt. 
Dickens writes more about Marley's greed when he describes Marley. His body transparent:
so that Scrooge, observing him, and looking through his waistcoat, could see the two
buttons on his coat behind. Scrooge had often heard it said that Marley had no bowels,
but he had never believed it until now. And the very texture of the folded kerchief bound
about its head and chin, which wrapper he had not observed before... Dickens has
illustrated a phantom who one can see right through, has nothing let in his body, and
needs a handkerchief to keep his jaw from dropping down upon his breast! 
When examining the different elements that made up Marley's Ghost, it becomes clear
Dickens was amplified how greedy Marley really was. The bandage that Marley must keep
wrapped around his head is the first connection to greed. As a part of his punishment,
Marley needs the bandage wrapped around his head or his mouth will drop to his chest. It
symbolizes how Marley consumed things without stopping, everything that entered his
possession. Having no bowels is a way of saying that nothing left Marley's possession.
Dickens got across that Marley let everything in, but gavenothing. 
In addition to Scrooge being cold both physically and mentally, there is the matter of
fog that seems to pursue him like the rats that followed the Pied Piper of Hamlin.
Wherever Scrooge goes, Dickens manages to strengthen his description of Scrooge as being
surrounded with a gathering of deep, endless fog. This is more than a descriptive tool,
but also a deep metaphor that sums up what's wrong with Scrooge. The fog serves as a wall
for the character. It is not only a blinding vapor, but also a blanket that shelters him
from other people. It keeps him separate and remote from the rest of the world he travels
about day to day. 
Ultimately, Scrooge is charged with creating the fog. He keeps himself away from the
world, even though the world reaches out him. The fog isolates him from the warmth of
human compassion, from himself and others around him. This is evident when Dickens
writes, Foggier yet, and colder! Piercing, searching, biting cold". Even when Scrooge was
approached by Christmas carolers, "he seized the ruler with such energy of action, that
the singer fled in terror, leaving the keyhole to the fog and even more congenial frost.

In this sense, Dickens used the fog to act as a door that slammed after the singer left.
It covered everything around Scrooge's office including the keyhole. It isolated Scrooge
from the outside world, and kept him in the place he loved most, his office. Meanwhile
the fog and darkness thickened so, that people ran about with flaring links, proffering
their services to go before horses in carriages, and conduct them on their way. All he
could make out was, that was still very foggy and extremely cold, and that there was no
noise of people running to and fro, and making great stir, as there unquestionably would
have been if night had beaten off bright day, and taken possession of the world. Again
Dickens used fog and cold to detach people from Scrooge. Fog was the separation, and cold
the disposition in which it isolated Scrooge.
Another metaphor Dickens uses is the church bell. The ancient tower of a church, whose
gruff old bell was always peeping slily down at Scrooge out of a gothic window in the
wall, became visible, and struck the hours and quarters in the clouds, with tremulous
vibrations afterwards... The ancient tower of the church bell is what Dickens used to
embody the church and its values. The fact that it is a tall tower, reaching into the
clouds suggests that it has some kind of spiritual significance. Dickens described the
tower as always peeping slily down at Scrooge. Perhaps this is because Scrooge was doing
something very wrong by shutting off his connection to the outside world, and the church
knew it. It seems to stand in back of Scrooge, peeping slily at his continuous seclusion.
The bells that struck the hours and quarters in the clouds, with tremulous vibrations...
serves as a reminder for Scrooge. It is reminding him that everything is being observed.
Dickens also uses light and darkness as a creative tool when he talks about the ghosts,
and the atmosphere of the story. Like fog and frost, darkness is also found everywhere
Scrooge is. Darkness in literature is every selfish man's personal cloud. It shadows them
from other people who see them, and it keeps their sight limited. The darkness for these
characters is like a hallway that has no entrances. The only exit they use is one that
leads to solitude. Darkness also interrupts the memories Scrooge doesn't want to think
about, memories that Scrooge has chained up", and left in the deepest and darkest parts
of his mind. The memories became so dark for Scrooge that he had decided to hide
everything that had once been good in his life to numb his emotions and interest in
humanity.
Light, on the other hand, is most detectable when Dickens writes about the Ghost of
Christmas Past. Light flashed up in the room upon the instant, and the curtains of his
bed were drawn. The light that Dickens writes about is springing from the Ghost's head.
The Ghost of Christmas Past serves as a heart-felt guide to his memories, and the light
represents Scrooge's emotions to what he was feeling about his well-suppressed memories.
Scrooge prefers to be left in the dark, rather than be exposed to light. This is evident
when he attempted to repress his recollection of the past, especially the feelings of his
past. Scrooge could not have told anybody why, if anybody could have asked him; but he
had a special desire to see the Spirit in his cap; and begged him to be covered.
The Ghost of Christmas Past had a hidden significance also. With memory uncapped, Scrooge
is taken to his past where his joy, pain, and loneliness are all rejoiced. The Ghost
takes him to his celebrations, friendships, and even his love affair. It's from seeing
his past that Scrooge becomes in touch with inner emotions that he had as a child and
young adult. It's with these emotions that Scrooge's present insensitivity is smothered,
and Scrooge feels the first basic human joy in a long time. 
In the end, Dickens reflects his views on what his society became to the reader through
his rich command of language, and unique technique of bringing metaphors to life. Through
his performance in writing skills he was able to tell us the story of Ebenezer Scrooge,
and his redemption. Scrooge is reborn after his encounters with four ghosts who showed
him how to remember, recognize, and live with intuition. The three Ghosts of Christmas
Past, Present, and Future showed Scrooge how to remember the good things in his life,
cherish and share what he has, and lastly live humbly with the intent with being
remembered as a good person. I think that Dickens was trying to tell us, and the people
of his time especially, that if we live in the past, present and future, and keep those
three factors alive, than we can be reborn just like Scrooge was.