Rebecca on the Scrooge Problem

Rebecca Lilly on: Elliot L. Gilbert: 'The Ceremony of Innocence: Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol'

Gilbert’s essay 'The Ceremony of Innocence: Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol' addresses ‘the Scrooge problem’, that is, the critical tradition of questioning the sincerity of Scrooge’s sudden transformation from being mean-spirited to kind-hearted. Gilbert begins by listing the critics who have contributed to the debate. Edmund Wilson for example, first doubted the authenticity of Scrooge’s character change in his essay ‘The Two Scrooges’, in which, he argues that if we were to follow Scrooge beyond the frame of the story, he would: ‘unquestionably relapse into moroseness… [and]… vindictiveness. He would, that is to say, reveal himself as the victim of a manic-depressive cycle, and a very uncomfortable person’. Wilson’s attack on Scrooge is supported by Humphry House, in Dickens’s World, and by Edgar Johnston writing in Charles Dickens His Tragedy and Triumph, who both declare that Scrooge’s new identity is adopted too quickly to be psychologically convincing. However, Joseph Gold, author of Charles Dickens: Radical Moralist, contradicts all three when he suggests that by penning a fairy or ghost story, Dickens ‘deliberately avoids dealing with the question of spiritual growth’; thus removing the need to find Scrooge’s personality change believable.

Gilbert’s own view of the ‘Scrooge problem’ is mixed. He is quick to refute Gold’s theory when he argues that simply associating Scrooge with the world of fairy stories is too simplistic, as it does not account for the realism Dickens shows when representing his other characters. But examples to illustrate this are notably absent, and reflect Gilbert’s inability to fully disassociate A Christmas Carol from the world of make believe. He is however decisive in his rejection of Wilson’s view, that Scrooge’s reformation is wholly unbelievable and only temporary, when he proposes that there is sufficient emotional intensity generated by the three Christmas spirits to make Scrooge’s transformation genuine. But, he also admits that his support for Scrooge’s change of heart is not free from doubt, as similarly to House and Johnston, he feels that the ease of Scrooge’s alteration is questionable. Furthermore, to accept the overnight metamorphosis of a man who has spent a lifetime bullying clerks, revelling in misanthropy and grinding the faces of the poor, is ‘to deny all that life teaches in favour of sentimental wishful thinking.’

But, despite confessing to having his own reservations over the haste of Scrooge’s reform, Gilbert suggests that such uncertainty can be diluted when placed in the context of the author’s writing style. For he believes that as an author, Dickens is much more interested in what characters ‘are’ than in what they are ‘in the process of becoming’, and much more devoted to the vivid presentation of characters already accomplished selves, than analysing their developing nature. He also argues that Dickens should not be judged by the traditional standards of plausibility as he is primarily a metaphysical novelist. However, yet again he fails to give detailed examples of where such a broad statement can be applied to other novels by Dickens. He does however explain why he views A Christmas Carol to be metaphysical; it is because it portrays the journey of a human being trying to rediscover his own childhood innocence. Such innocence Gilbert claims is evident in Scrooge’s encounter with the ghost of Christmas past, when Dickens’s has Scrooge’s fiancé break off their engagement, because the man she sees before her is not the man she first knew. Here, he reveals that Scrooge was not always bitter and mercenary, and therefore not so different from the man we are shown at the end of the novel. Thus, Scrooge’s new self is believable as it is in part his old self.

To summarise, Gilbert’s essay provides a new hypotheses to explain the reader’s misgivings regarding the plausibility of Scrooge’s radical conversion; he is merely returning to his childhood innocence. While this is convincing, the fact that Gilbert fails to clarify at the end of his essay whether his reading has silenced his own doubts about Scrooge is significant. Clearly, the ‘Scrooge problem’ is not fully resolved. Moreover, Gilbert’s attempt to bypass the issue with his suggestion that Dickens is exempt from having to adhere to the normal rules of character realism, because he is a metaphysical novelist, is a weak defence. Protesting that the novel does not have to conform to conventional realism is exactly the same argument proposed by Joseph Gold, and criticised by Gilbert. The only difference is that while Gold argues for immunity on the ground of supernatural content, Gilbert argues for exemption of the grounds of the author’s style. Rather than looking for reasons to excuse the question of credibility in Dickens’s depiction of Scrooge, Gilbert’s essay would have gained more weight if he had examined why as a society we struggle to accept that that selflessness can triumph over self interest, or that a sick child can win the compassion of a villain.