In Stave I of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, Ebenzer Scrooge is visted by the ghost of Jacob Marley, his now-deceased former business partner who has appeared before the miserly, bitter old man to warn him of the perils to come unless he changes his ways. It is, of course, the Christmas season, and the story of the birth of Jesus hangs in the air as a reminder of the season’s true meaning. The ghost of Jacob Marley rhetorically inquires of himself and of Scrooge the reason he let so many holy seasons pass without acknowledging those around him:
“At this time of the rolling year,” the spectre said, “I suffer most. Why did I walk through crowds of fellow-beings with my eyes turned down, and never raise them to that blessed Star which led the Wise Men to a poor abode! Were there no poor homes to which its light would have conducted me!”
In Stave II, after the ghost of Marley has warned Scrooge and informed him that he would be visited by three spirits, the old man waits anxiously in his bed. At the prescribed time, the first of the three spirits announces itself:
“He spoke before the hour bell sounded, which it now did with a deep, dull, hollow, melancholy ONE. Light flashed up in the room upon the instant, and the curtains of his bed were drawn.”
Interpretations of the meaning of the light can vary, but, in the context of Marley’s acknowledgment of the true meaning of the season, and in the context of Scrooge’s imminent moral awakening, it is possible that the light represents both the “blessed Star” and the moment Scrooge’s transcendental transformation from “scrooge” to jovial, benevolent pillar of the community.
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