A Christmas Carol

A Christmas Carol Summary | Chapter 1 Summary

Dickens begins his story by assuring his readers that Jacob Marley is, indeed, dead. He explains that without this assurance, the true miracle of the tale he is about to relate would not be fully understood. From there, he goes on to introduce Marley's former business partner Ebenezer Scrooge, a cold, bitter, miser; in the words of Dickens' narrator, Scrooge is a "squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner." It is quickly apparent that Scrooge has shown this miserly persona to the world for years, and he likes it that way.

As the story begins, Scrooge is being assaulted by the Christmas season. First, to try to bring him some Christmas cheer is his nephew, whose invitation to Christmas dinner is met with a series of hearty "Bah Humbugs!" Next are two gentlemen soliciting charity for the poor-- again, a sound rejection. The last to experience Scrooge's overwhelming lack of holiday spirit is his long-suffering clerk, who must first plead his case for the favor of taking Christmas as a day off of work and is then warned to be in even earlier on the day following Christmas.

Upon returning home, Scrooge begins to experience several mysterious occurrences, such as seeing the long dead Marley's face in his doorknocker and bells that seem to ring themselves. The clanking of chains, however, announces the appearance of Jacob Marley's ghost. Marley's ghost informs Scrooge that his spirit has been doomed to walk the earth after death as punishment for his ways in life, and that it is his hope to save Scrooge from a similar afterlife. He warns Scrooge that three spirits will visit him, and that they alone hold the key for him to escape his torturous fate.