Summary Of Apparition In Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol

The passage, in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, alludes to events that Ebenezer Scrooge will experience in the foreseeable future, as well as, the potential distant future by means of the apparition of a “locomotive hearse” (1383), the death motif, and the repetitive imagery of seclusion. Firstly, upon arriving and entering his house, Scrooge believes he saw a locomotive hearse (1383). This hearse easily fit in his living corridors with room to spare. It is suggested that this hearse is an apparition because it was “going on before him in the gloom” (1383). The wagon that Scrooge believes he saw was moving ahead of him, inside his house. Also, according to the Oxford English Dictionary the word ‘locomotive’ means “an object or device especially a vehicle: able to travel under its own power”. This is suggesting that the hearse is moving of its own accord, because there was no mention of horses pulling the hearse; just a moving hearse. Then, if it was indeed an

Scrooge appears to desire being alone; he does not value human connections. Scrooge is an individual powered by routine and when he saw Jacob Marley’s face on his doorknocker it put him on edge. For example, “Nobody under the table, nobody under the sofa [. . .] Nobody under the bed; nobody in the closet; nobody in his dressing-gown,” (1383). Dickens repeats this idea of nobody being in the house, which could mean that nobody who is unwanted is there, but it also means that Scrooge has no one to come home to. Nobody is there waiting for him, nobody will notice if something is wrong because he has nobody. Also, Scrooge breaks his routine, in hope that he remains alone: “Quite, satisfied, he closed his door, and locked himself in; double-locked himself in, which was not his custom,” (1383); he has isolated