The Politics of Dickens' Carol
The old Stockbridge casino, where the Berkshire Theatre Festival is housed, is at a bend in the road on Route 102. We almost missed it. I had expected it to be in the town of Stockbridge for some reason. And had not we seen the big orange banner hanging on the white building, mentioning the Carol, we might not have turned around to find it after we passed it. We arrived almost a half an hour early and wondered whether we were in the right place, but after we parked, it seemed like a crowd quickly began to form.
I had written about the BTF's production of A Christmas Carol for PREVIEW Massachusetts magazine. When I interviewed her for the article, Artistic Director Kate McGuire had told me that doing Charles Dickens' Carol was kind of like a tradition like watching It's a Wonderful Life every year. And there is a comforting familiarity to it.
The performance was a treat. L. and I loved the traditional English carols interspersed with the play -- some of the same carols that are done at the Boar's Head Festival at Trinity. And we noted how the actors used various English accents to signal the class backgrounds of the characters.
But what I couldn't help but be struck by was the politics of the story, and how it reflects on the politics (specifically those ascribed to Christian religiosity) of today. We all know about the transformation of Scrooge from miser to kind-hearted man. But in the play, there are specific references to the obligations of the fortunate to the poor. To the two portly gentleman who come asking for his support for a fund to provide for the poor, Scrooge asks, "Are there no prisons?"
As Marley's ghost is explaining his predicament in the afterlife, weighed down by the chains he forged for himself by his actions in life, Scrooge notes that Marley was always good at business. Marley responds:"Business!" cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. "Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!"
The ghost of Christmas present, before the hour of midnight chimes and he vanishes, exposes two children who are clinging to him beneath his robe."They are Man's," said the Spirit, looking down upon them. "And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased. Deny it!" cried the Spirit, stretching out its hand towards the city. "Slander those who tell it ye. Admit it for your factious purposes, and make it worse. And abide the end."
"Have they no refuge or resource?" cried Scrooge.
"Are there no prisons?" said the Spirit, turning on him for the last time with his own words. "Are there no workhouses?"
In Dickens' play, the miser Scrooge is also the irreligious skeptic. Not only does he not celebrate Christmas, but when he is first confronted with Marley's ghost, he tries to explain him away as a spot of undigested beef or mustard. I should note that Christmas as portrayed in the Carol is only scarcely a religious holiday. Although there are biblical references, there is little to no mention of Jesus Christ, or the religious story behind the holiday. Instead, the holiday is a traditional English feast-day, and the message of Christmas is born by spirits -- not even Christian angels, but spirits.
But there is an underlying social commentary about Victorian England and the gap between the rich and the poor and the moral obligation to do something about it. By asking about prisons and workhouses, Scrooge is standing in for the political solution of the day. Dickens clearly finds that solution wanting. In Marley's speech about business, he specifically invokes the idea of the commonwealth or the "common welfare." The play answers to this need through private charity, but the idea of "welfare" in our time has become tainted by the conservative idea of limited government. Dickens seems to be articulating what would become to be known in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as "the Social Gospel." His version of Christmas is decidedly not evangelical, but instead humanist -- the message of Christmas is the brotherhood of man and the advocacy for the less fortunate, a decidedly leftist message.
I had written about the BTF's production of A Christmas Carol for PREVIEW Massachusetts magazine. When I interviewed her for the article, Artistic Director Kate McGuire had told me that doing Charles Dickens' Carol was kind of like a tradition like watching It's a Wonderful Life every year. And there is a comforting familiarity to it.
The performance was a treat. L. and I loved the traditional English carols interspersed with the play -- some of the same carols that are done at the Boar's Head Festival at Trinity. And we noted how the actors used various English accents to signal the class backgrounds of the characters.
But what I couldn't help but be struck by was the politics of the story, and how it reflects on the politics (specifically those ascribed to Christian religiosity) of today. We all know about the transformation of Scrooge from miser to kind-hearted man. But in the play, there are specific references to the obligations of the fortunate to the poor. To the two portly gentleman who come asking for his support for a fund to provide for the poor, Scrooge asks, "Are there no prisons?"
As Marley's ghost is explaining his predicament in the afterlife, weighed down by the chains he forged for himself by his actions in life, Scrooge notes that Marley was always good at business. Marley responds:"Business!" cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. "Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!"
The ghost of Christmas present, before the hour of midnight chimes and he vanishes, exposes two children who are clinging to him beneath his robe."They are Man's," said the Spirit, looking down upon them. "And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased. Deny it!" cried the Spirit, stretching out its hand towards the city. "Slander those who tell it ye. Admit it for your factious purposes, and make it worse. And abide the end."
"Have they no refuge or resource?" cried Scrooge.
"Are there no prisons?" said the Spirit, turning on him for the last time with his own words. "Are there no workhouses?"
In Dickens' play, the miser Scrooge is also the irreligious skeptic. Not only does he not celebrate Christmas, but when he is first confronted with Marley's ghost, he tries to explain him away as a spot of undigested beef or mustard. I should note that Christmas as portrayed in the Carol is only scarcely a religious holiday. Although there are biblical references, there is little to no mention of Jesus Christ, or the religious story behind the holiday. Instead, the holiday is a traditional English feast-day, and the message of Christmas is born by spirits -- not even Christian angels, but spirits.
But there is an underlying social commentary about Victorian England and the gap between the rich and the poor and the moral obligation to do something about it. By asking about prisons and workhouses, Scrooge is standing in for the political solution of the day. Dickens clearly finds that solution wanting. In Marley's speech about business, he specifically invokes the idea of the commonwealth or the "common welfare." The play answers to this need through private charity, but the idea of "welfare" in our time has become tainted by the conservative idea of limited government. Dickens seems to be articulating what would become to be known in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as "the Social Gospel." His version of Christmas is decidedly not evangelical, but instead humanist -- the message of Christmas is the brotherhood of man and the advocacy for the less fortunate, a decidedly leftist message.