Get Excerpt From A Christmas Carol

At last, a little girl, Scrooge's sister Fan, runs into the room, and announces that she has come to take Ebenezer home. Their father is much kinder, she says. He has given his consent to Ebenezer's return.

Ignorance and Want: These two children, who cling to The Ghost of Christmas Present, represent the rich and the poor's struggles.

'Another idol has displaced me…a golden one' (Stave 1) Belle recognizes that Scrooge's affections for her have changed as he has become more obsessed with money. 'I have seen your nobler aspirations fall off, until the master passion, Gain, engrosses you.

(see pages 36-38) The Spirit brings Scrooge to the boarding school he attended when he was a boy. Scrooge is deeply saddened by this scene because he sees his “poor, forgotten self.” Scrooge is alone and abandoned (on Christmas).

Dickens makes this touching scene sharper by suggesting that the only reason the young Scrooge was left at school by himself over Christmas was that his father didn't want him at home.

Live action films. Scrooge, or, Marley's Ghost (1901), a short British film that is the earliest surviving screen adaptation.

Visions of the Past Vision 2: This vision is at the same school on another Christmas, in which both he and the school look a bit older. In this vision, his younger sister Fan comes to bring him home. She says that their father has given her permission to come to get Ebenezer and bring him home.

When his beloved sister Fan came to take him home one Christmas, this became Scrooge's one happy childhood memory. She later died after giving birth to Fred. Scrooge then apprenticed at the warehouse of a jovial and generous master, Mr. Fezziwig.