“Before I draw nearer to that stone to which you point,” said Scrooge, “answer me one question. Are these the shadows of the things that Will be, or are they shadows of things that May be, only?”
How ironic that the last scene with the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come should occur where Dickens started so long ago. Possibly four or five weeks after he began, here we are back in the graveyard where Dickens had first found his main character not two or three years earlier.
Certainly, in Victorian England, cemeteries had in some respects become the metropolis of the dead. And the hierarchy of society had imposed itself even on the world of the deceased. In some instances, the best cemeteries were like parks. Londoners were forced to deal with this problem of what to do with the dead in a growing city like London during the industrial age, when more folks from the farmlands were coming to the cities for jobs and to enjoy the spoils of a mechanized society. In 1832, Parliament passed a law that closed the innercity London churchyards to new internments. Following that law, new cemeteries were established between 1832 (Kensal Green) and 1841 (Tower Hamlets). The most famous of these was Highgate Cemetery in 1839.
There is no question that Ebenezer Scroggie’s headstone—labeled “mean man” as far as Dickens was concerned (instead of what it actually said, “meal man”)—is where the story really began, and where it needs to end for the purposes of the main character’s personal journey.
That Scroggie’s tombstone is now lost to history can be seen, at least ironically, as Scrooge’s fate had not the spirits showed him a better path. Since Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol, innumerable stories have adapted similar endings, the most noteworthy being Frank Capra’s colorful retelling of A Christmas Carol (in a sense) as It’s A Wonderful Life, as film critic Roger Ebert noted, “a sort of Christmas Carol in reverse.” Capra’s climactic moment comes when Clarence, an angel, shows George Baily the grave of his brother rather than his own.
As in the medieval tale Everyman, Scrooge, like all men (and women), must face his transition from this life, and must count what his or her life has meant. What has each of us left behind? Other than our own wants and desires, what have we done for the benefit of our fellow man? This concept of legacy and charity are two of the main themes that Dickens wrote about in his novella that have given many readers serious pause, which is what Dickens was hoping for in the first place.