But you were always a good man of business, Jacob,” faltered Scrooge, who now began to apply this to himself.
“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!”
If Charles Dickens were alive today, he’d totally have a show on MSNBC. Moral of most of his works? Greed=Bad. Charity=Good. Here, we have Marley’s Ghost, an apparition of Scrooge’s former business partner, lamenting the mistakes he made in life, urging Scrooge to not repeat them.
Marley keeps repeating the word “business.” “Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business…” No, in actuality, Marley did not make any of these good deeds his business when he was alive, but he is trying to say that he should have made these actions his business.
A Christmas Carol is all about change, and urging people to change their erroneous ways before it is too late. What do you think? Can people change, or are they destined to stay the same?
Bookshelf Battle 