Religion In A Christmas Carol

In the first section of A Christmas Carol how does Dickens use the Bible and Christian beliefs to foreshadow what will happen in the rest of the book?

Even the title A Christmas Carol could give the reader an idea of the morals of the story as a christmas carol can describe redemption. So far in the book Scrooge is becoming more and more vulnerable due to Marley’s haunting, ‘or that his blood was not conscious of a terrible sensation to which it had been a stranger from infancy, would be untrue.’ This implies to reader that Scrooge may become increasingly influenced by the terror of the ghosts that will come to visit him throughout the book. Dickens was also very clever to chose the name of his characters for example Ebenezer Scrooge is the main protagonist in this novel and the name ‘Ebenezer’ comes from the Bible where it means ‘stone of help’. From this the reader is able to infer that Scrooge will be assisted and change his horrible ways. The Ebenezer was set up as a stone of remembrance as well as helping people. Also his surname Scrooge can mean unsociable and tight-fisted (unwilling to spend any money’. This helps the reader see the characteristics of Scrooge just by hearing his name and not needing the thorough

The whole teachings of Christianity are based around charity, being kind and helping the poor which Scrooge fails to do as shown when he was visited by two charity workers. In this situation Scrooge responded with ‘If they would rather die, they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.’ This shows how little charity Scrooge has and that he believes poor people should either be in prisons and workhouses in terrible conditions. By using the Christian term ‘Apostles’ this possibly shows the reader that Scrooge's ways may change and that he will become an apostle and start believing in God, Jesus and their