Onscreen versions of a Charles Dickens’ classic novel, A Christmas Carol abound from the 1938 movie starring Reginald Owen as Scrooge, to the 2009 rendition featuring Jim Carrey as the miser who has also been immortalized by Scrooge McDuck and Mr. MaGoo. Scrooge has been portrayed in a myriad of ways, but what about the spirits?
The Ghost of Christmas Present
About the jolliest of the four spirits, Jacob Marley, the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future, Dickens has this to say, “It was clothed in one simple green robe or mantle, bordered with white fur. The garment hung so loosely on the figure that its capacious breast was bare.” The spirit’s feet were also bare and on its head it sported a holly wreath.
Around its waist it wore a rusty scabbard but no sword, it brandished a glowing torch shaped liked a horn of plenty. The spirit had transformed Scrooge’s small, dark, depressing room into the epitome of Christmas with evergreen boughs, holly and` and an abundance of food and drink. . A fire roared in the hearth. Dickens goes on to say, “Its dark brown curls were long and free; free as its genial face, its sparking eye, its open hand, its cheery voice…and its joyful air.”
On the surface there seems to be nothing to fear from this large, jolly spirit , but appearances can be deceiving. Toward the end of his visit, the ghost calls Scrooge’s attention to two emaciated children hiding under his robe, a girl he calls Want and a boy he refers to as Ignorance.
How was this ghost portrayed on the screen? In the 1951 production, the Ghost of Christmas Present is played by Ray Middleton. He is thin, not resembling Father Christmas as in the book. He wears no robe but rather tights and a jacket. His head is bare but his chest is covered. All in all, a bit of a departure from the orginal.
Generally, the Ghost of Christmas Present is seen onscreen as a Father Christmas, which in many ways is how Dickens described him. However, the wretched, starving children and his warnings about them, “Beware them both … but most of all beware the boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom,” gives him an edge not associated with Santa Claus.
The Ghost of Christmas Future
The most threatening of the four spirits is the Ghost of Christmas Future, or, as Dickens dubbed him, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. He visualized the phantom this way: “It was shrouded in a deep black garment, which concealed its head, its face, its form, which left nothing of it visible save one outstretched hand.” This ghost doesn’t speak and Dickens describes him as “coming like a mist along the ground. Among other things, the phantom shows Scrooge his own empty rooms and he hears what people have to say about him after his death. He sees his own tombstone and realizes that these things will come to pass if he doesn’t change his miserly ways.
In most movie versions the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is faithfully portrayed as the epitome of Death garbed in black robes, his face never seen, his voice never heard. But in the 1951 production ,where Middleton strayed from the accepted version of the Ghost of Christmas Present, the last specter is represented by a raven- like black bird. Black birds often symbolize both death and transformation. This was a clever departure from the norm.
In 1843 Charles Dickens was quoted in part as saying about his book, “I have endeavored in this Ghostly little book , to raise the Ghost of an Idea…” And for the millions of people who have read it or seen Scrooge’s transformation on stage and screen, his idea is very clear.
“God bless us, everyone.”
