A Christmas Carol themes

What each theme means, in a few lines. Tap one for its quotes.

Greed →

Scrooge loves money more than people. It cost him his love, his friends and his joy. Marley's chain is made of it.

A mean man is given a second chance and takes it. Dickens says nobody is too far gone to change.

The Cratchits have almost nothing and are happy. Ignorance and Want hide under the spirit's robe. Dickens is angry about it.

Fred keeps a place for his uncle. The Cratchits share a tiny goose. Family is what Scrooge shut out.

Past, present and future. Scrooge learns that what he did made him, what he does now matters, and the future is not fixed.

A dead partner in chains. Three spirits. Dickens uses ghosts to make Scrooge look at his life.

Scrooge is alone by choice. Shut like an oyster. The ghosts show him what alone looks like at the end.

Mankind was my business, says Marley. The rich owe the poor. Dickens wrote the book to say so.

Not just a day. A way of treating people. Scrooge promises to keep it all year.