A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Narrator: Today we’ll travel back in time. Back in 1843 in London.
It was Christmas Eve, the 24th of December, the evening before
Christmas Day. It was very cold and there was a thick fog. This is old
Scrooge. His only interest in life was his money. He was a hard man, hard
as a stone. He was a secret man, friendless and alone. The coldness inside
him froze his old face. His eyes were red. His thin lips were blue. You
could see cold in his way of walking. He carried his coldness with him
always, wherever he went. It made his office cold in the summer, and at
Christmas time it was even colder. No one ever stopped Scrooge in the
street to say “My dear Scrooge, how are you?” No poor people asked him
for a penny. No children asked him “What time is it?” No man or woman
had ever asked him to tell them the way to a place. Even the blind men’s
dogs seemed to know him and when they saw him coming, they pulled their
owners back. But Scrooge did not care. He liked it. He liked walking
through the crowd and making all men keep their distance from him. That
cold afternoon old Scrooge was busy counting his money in his office when
his nephew, Fred, came in.
Fred: Merry Christmas, uncle, and God bless you!
Scrooge: Bah! Humbug! Nonsense!
Fred: Do you say that Christmas is a humbug, uncle? You don’t mean that,
do you?
Scrooge: Yes, I do. “Merry Christmas!” Bah! What right have you to be
merry? You’re too poor to be merry.
Fred: Oh! What right have you to be so serious and sad?
Scrooge: Bah! Humbug! I think that every fool who goes around saying
“Merry Christmas!” should be boiled with his own Christmas dinner!
Fred: Uncle!
Scrooge: Nephew! Spend Christmas in your own way and let me spend it in
mine.
Fred: Don’t be angry, uncle. Christmas is a good time, a kind, forgiving,
pleasant time. It’s the only time in the year when men and women seem to
open their hearts freely. Uncle, come and have dinner with us tomorrow.
Scrooge: Certainly not! Good afternoon!
Fred: I’m sorry you won’t join us. Merry Christmas, uncle.
Scrooge: Humbug! Good afternoon!
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Narrator: Fred left. The fog became thicker. The darkness became
darker. The cold became colder. At last the hour for shutting up the
office arrived. Bob Cratchit, the clerk, put out the candle and put on his
hat.
Scrooge: You’ll want to be home all day tomorrow, I suppose?
Clerk(Bob Cratchit): Yes, sir, if you don’t mind.
Scrooge: I do mind. It is not fair when I have to pay you for a day on
which you don’t work.
Clerk(Bob Cratchit): It’s only once a year, sir.
Scrooge: That is not a good reason for stealing fifteen pence from my
pocket every 25th of December. Be here early the next morning!
Narrator: The clerk, Bob Cratchit, ran home as fast as he could to play
with his children and Scrooge went home. It was an old house in a dark
courtyard. The rooms were dark and uncomfortable. No one lived there
except Scrooge.
He sat down by the fireplace. The ghost of Marley, his dead partner,
appeared and told him that “everyone should in his lifetime share the
sorrows and joys of others. If one does not do this in life, then the spirit
must wander through the world and see the sorrows and joys it can no
longer share”. Marley’s ghost warned Scrooge that three spirits would
visit him. The ghost disappeared and the night became as it had been
when Scrooge walked home. He closed the window. He tried the door. It
was locked. Then, without taking off his clothes, he threw himself on his
bed and fell asleep.
Scrooge: It’s one o’ clock and nothing has happened.
Marley said that a spirit would visit me. Are you the spirit?
Ghost of Christmas Past: I am.
Scrooge: Who and what are you?
Gh.Past: I am the Ghost of Christmas Past.
Scrooge: Long past?
Gh.Past: No. Your past. Come! Walk with me!
Narrator: The Ghost of Christmas past took Scrooge by the arm and led
him towards the window.
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Scrooge: If I go out there, I’ll fall!
Gh.Past: This will hold you up.
Narrator: They passed through the wall. The city had disappeared. The
darkness and the fog had gone. It was a cold winter day with snow on the
ground. They arrived at a little town. Scrooge looked around.
Scrooge: This is the place where I was born.
Gh. Past: Do you remember the way?
Scrooge: Remember it? I could walk it with my eyes shut!
Gh. Past: It is strange that you have forgotten it for so many years. Let’s
go on.
Boys happy, merry music, “Merry Christmas”…
Gh.Past: They have come from the school, but it is not quite empty. There
is one child there, a child who has no friends.
Scrooge: Yes, I know! Poor boy!
Gh.Past: Let’s see another Christmas.
Dark room, Scr. walking up and down, door opens, little girl enters; she
hugs and kisses him…
Fan: Dear, dear brother. I have come to bring you home.
Scrooge: Home, little Fan/
Fan: Yes! Home for always, home for ever and ever. Father has sent me in
a carriage to bring you. We’ll be all together this Christmas and have the
happiest time in the world.
Scrooge: Dear little Fan. She was so little, not very strong.
Gh.Past: So little, but she had a big heart. She died when she was a young
woman and had children, I think.
Scrooge: One child.
Gh.Past: True. Your nephew, Fred.
Scrooge: Yes.
Gh.Past: Come! Do you know this place?
Scrooge: Know it? Yes! I first began work here!
Oh! There’s old Fezziwig, bless his heart! It’s him, alive again!
Fezziwig: Ebenezer! Dick!
Scrooge: Dick Wilkins! Dear me! He was a great friend.
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Fezziwig: Come, my boys. No more work tonight! It’s Christmas Eve. Let’s
shut up the office, clear away the desks and chairs and make ready for
the party.
……..fiddler, Mrs Fezziwig and family, dancing, music, cakes….
Gh.Past: Was he so wonderful? He just spent a few pounds;that was all.
Scrooge: It was more than that. The happiness he gave was as great as if
it had cost thousands of pounds.
Gh.Past: My time grows short. Follow me! Quick!
Girl: No! Another love has taken my place in your heart. I hope it may
make you happy in the future.
Scrooge: What love/
Girl: The love of gold. You are changed. You are not the man that you were
when we first met.
I set you free. May you be happy in the life that you have chosen.
Scrooge: Spirit! Don’t show me any more! Take me home!
………….family, Christmas, presents…
Husband: Well, I saw an old friend of yours this afternoon.
Woman: Who was it?
Husband: Guess!
Woman: I don’t know. Was it Mr Scrooge?
Husband: Yes, it was Mr Scrooge. I passed his office window and I saw
him. Mr Marley is dying, I hear. Scrooge sat alone, quite alone in the
world…
Scrooge: Spirit, take me home!
Gh.Past: I told you! These are the shadows of the things that have been.
Scrooge: Leave me! Take me home!
Narrator: Scrooge was back in his own bedroom. He fell into a deep sleep.
Then heard the church clock sound One. He saw a red light coming from
the next room. He went to the door to find out what it was. The moment
his hand touched the door, a strange voice called him by his name.
Ghost of Christmas Present: Ebenezer Scrooge!
Scrooge: Who are you?
Gh.Present: I am the Ghost of Christmas Present, the spirit of this
present Christmas.
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Scrooge: Spirit, lead me where you wish. I learnt one lesson so far. If you
have anything to teach me as well, let me learn it.
Gh.Present: Give me your hand.
Scrooge: Oh, there’s Tiny Tim, Cratchit’s little son. Poor boy! He cannot
walk. Spirit! Tell me if Tiny Tim will live.
Tiny Tim: “God bless us all! Everyone!”
Gh.Present: I see an empty seat in the corner near the fire. If these
shadows are not changed by the Future, the child will die.
Scrooge: No, no! Oh, no, kind spirit. Say that he will live!
Gh. Present: If the shadows are not changed by the Future, the Spirit of
next Christmas will not find him here. But does it matter? You have said
that there are too many people in the world. Let’s go.
Fred: Ha, ha, ha! He said that Christmas was humbug. And he believed it
too!
Fred’s wife: That’s very bad. He is unpleasant but he is very rich.
Fred: Well, that doesn’t help him, my dear. His money is of no use to him.
He doesn’t do any good with it. I’m sorry for him. Who suffers from his
strange ways? He does. He won’t come and have dinner with us, and what’s
the result? He loses a very good dinner. But I mean to give him the same
chance of joining us every year, because I’m sorry for him.
Fred’s wife: Let’s drink to the health of our uncle Scrooge, then!
Fred: A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to the old man!
Gh.Present: My life on this earth is very short. I must leave.
Scrooge: Tonight?
Gh.Present: Yes! The time is drawing near.
Narrator: Scrooge looked for the ghost but did not see it. Then he saw a
dark figure coming silently towards him through the fog. When it was
near him, Scrooge went down on his knees. The ghost filled him with a
sense of fear. It neither spoke nor moved.
Scrooge: Are you the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come?
…..spirit doesn’t answer, but points forward with its hand..
Scrooge: You are going to show me the shadows of the things that have
not yet happened but will happen in the future! I fear you more than any
of the other spirits I have seen. But I know that you have come to do me
good. I hope to live to be another man, different from what I have been.
So I am ready to go with you. Won’t you speak?
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……spirit points its hand straight in front of them…
Narrator: They went to one of the worst and poorest parts of the city.
The whole place smelt of dirt and unhappiness. They went to a shop to
which the very poor brought things they wanted to sell. Just as Scrooge
and the spirit came into the shop, a cleaner-woman came in with a heavy
bag and a washerwoman carrying a bag came in too.
Cleaner-Woman:What’s this? His bedclothes?
Washerwoman: Well, what do you think? He wouldn’t catch cold without
them, would he? And there’s his nightshirt. They would have wasted it if I
hadn’t taken it off him. They put it on him to go into his grave!
Cleaner-Woman: Now, that’s foolish. He frightened everybody away from
him when he was alive, and so we gained when he was dead. Ha, ha, ha!
Mrs Dilber: If he wanted to keep things after he was dead, why didn’t he
have someone look after him in his life? Why couldn’t he be like other
people?
Washerwoman: Indeed! If he’d been like other people and had someone to
look after him when he was dying, he wouldn’t have lain there alone, dying
alone.
Mrs Dilber: Dying alone! Dying alone! Ha, ha, ha!
Cleaner- woman: That’s very true. It’s his punishment. Ha, ha, ha!
Scrooge: Spirit, I see! The things that have happened to that unhappy
man might happen to me. Heavens! What’s this?
Narrator: They were in another place now, standing by a bed. On it lay
something covered by an old piece of cloth, unwatched, unwept and
uncared for, the body of a man. The spirit pointed towards the head.
Scrooge could have lifted it and see the face. But he dared not do it.
Scrooge: Spirit, this is a fearful place. I have learnt this lesson. Let’s go.
Narrator: The ghost led him along streets that Scrooge knew well. They
went into Bob Cratchit’s house and found the mother and children sitting
round the fire. It was quiet. Very quiet.
Mrs Cratchit: There’s your father at the door now.
You went to see Tiny Tim’s grave today, Robert?
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Bob Cratchit: Yes, dear. I wish you could have gone. It would have done
you good to see how green a place it is. But you’ll see it often. I promised
Tiny Tim that I would walk there on a Sunday. My little, little child!
Scrooge: Spirit, I believe that the time for you to leave me is near. Tell
me what man was it that we saw lying dead?
Narrator: The spirit led him on. The reached the gate of a churchyard.
The spirit stood among the graves and pointed to one of them. The spirit
did not move. Scrooge read on the stone of the grave his own name:
EBENEZER SCROOGE.
Scrooge: Spirit, hear me! I am not the man I was. Why do you show me
this if I am past all hope?
……..spirit’s hand seems to move, but it doesn’t answer…
Scrooge: I will honour Christmas in my heart. I will try to keep the
meaning of it all the year. I will live in the past, the present and the
future. The spirits of all three Christmases will be with me, and I will not
forget the lessons that they teach.
…..spirit disappears….
Scrooge: I will live in the past, the present and the future. I saw the
wandering spirits. They will help me. It’s all true! It all happened! Ha, ha,
ha! I am here! I am here! But I don’t know what day it is.
..church bells…opens window…smells fresh air…
Scrooge: Hello, my boy. What’s today?
Boy: Today? It’s Christmas day, of course.
Scrooge: Of course. It’s Christmas. My boy, do you know that shop in the
next street where there was a big turkey hanging up? A very big turkey.
Boy: What, the one as big as me?
Scrooge: Yes, my boy
Boy: It’s still there.
Scrooge: Is it? Well, go and buy it. Tell the man to bring it here and I will
tell him where to take it. Come back in less than five minutes and I’ll give
you twenty pence.
I’ll send it to Bob Cratchit. He won’t know who sent it. It’s twice the size
of Tiny Tim.
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Narrator: In the afternoon, Scrooge went to his nephew’s house.
Scrooge: Fred!
Fred: Why, bless my soul! Who’s that?
Scrooge: It’s your uncle Scrooge. I’ve come to dinner. Will you let me in,
Fred?
Narrator: It was a wonderful Christmas party. Wonderful games.
Wonderful happiness…
Scrooge was early at the office next morning. Bob Cratchit was not
there. He was late.
Scrooge: Why are you late?
Bob Cratchit: I’m sorry, sir. I am late, but it’s only once a year, sir.
Scrooge: Now, I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I’ll raise your pay. And I’ll try to
help you with your family. We must talk about it.
Narrator: Tiny Tim did not die. Scrooge was like a second father to the
family. He became a good friend and a good man. And they always said of
him that indeed he honoured Christmas.
So, as Tiny Tim said: “God bless us all! Everyone!”
Simplified by Chloe Paikos
December 2005
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