88 pages • 2 hours read
A Christmas Carol
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Chapter 5Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 5 Summary: “Stave V: The End of It”
Scrooge wakes up to find himself clutching his bedpost. Springing up, he rushes to the window and looks out on a brilliant snowy morning. He calls out to a boy who is passing by and learns that it is Christmas Day: The spirits came in one night rather than the three promised by Jacob Marley. Giddy with delight, Scrooge sends the boy to purchase the largest turkey in the city and send it anonymously to the Cratchits.
After dressing in haste and confusion, Scrooge walks about the city, smiling at everything and everyone, greeting people warmly, and patting the heads of children. He encounters one of the benevolent gentlemen who called at his office the previous day, and in spite of his shame at how he behaved on that occasion, Scrooge approaches and pledges an enormous donation to aid the poor. In the afternoon, he goes to his nephew’s house. It takes a great deal of courage to make himself go in, but he finds that his nephew is as good as his word and welcomes Scrooge with open arms.
Scrooge arrives at work early the next day, hoping to catch Bob Cratchit coming in late and play a little joke on him. Bob finally arrives and tries to slip into his seat unnoticed, but Scrooge demands to know what Bob means by coming in so late. Bob admits that he was making merry the day before and overslept. Scrooge growls that he will have no more of this: He is going to raise Bob’s salary.
In fact, Scrooge becomes a benefactor to the Cratchit family and a “second father” to Tiny Tim. With proper medical care, Tim survives and grows strong. People of a certain sort laugh at the change in Scrooge, but he doesn’t care what they think of him. People of a better sort say that Ebenezer Scrooge is a man who knows how to keep Christmas in his heart all year long.
Chapter 5 Analysis
Scrooge wakes to realize that the three nights presaged by Jacob Marley have been compressed into one and that it is Christmas morning. He has returned transformed from his spiritual quest in time to alter the Christmas Day that he saw with the Ghost of Christmas Present. First, he changes the Christmas he saw at the Cratchits’ home by sending them a turkey in place of their Christmas goose. Next, he wanders the city, making himself acquainted with the world as he should have been doing all his life—very much as Jacob Marley is compelled to wander, except that Scrooge has the satisfaction of being able to touch and speak to and smile at the people he encounters.
Belle told Scrooge that he cared too much not only about money but also about what the world thought of him. This has been one of his driving forces, but in his quest, he saw what people actually think of him. The men at the stock exchange, whose good opinion he most wanted, hardly think of him at all. His accumulation of wealth has not earned their respect. In fact, the only people who seem to care for him—Fred and Bob—are the people he has worked to keep at a distance. Scrooge finds it painful to confront these people who have seen him at his worst, but he must endure the fear of rejection and face them. He finds it hard to do with the benevolent gentleman and even harder to do with his nephew Fred, but he summons his courage and does what he knows he must. With the benevolent gentleman, all that is really at risk is a little pride. With Fred, he braves judgment from the person who represents his beloved lost sister. He shields his heart somewhat with his little trick on Bob, making it less frightening for him to expose his vulnerability.
Scrooge’s fears prove unfounded: The people he most despised for their kindness are the quickest to forgive. He also comes to realize that there will always be people who laugh at anyone different from themselves, but he no longer fears their opinion, so he lets them laugh and pays it no mind.
The narrator emphasizes that Tiny Tim “did NOT die” (69). Prosaically, that is because Scrooge pays for the medical care he needed. However, if Tim represents Scrooge’s inner self, then Scrooge’s rebirth gives Tim new life as well. By becoming a second father to Tiny Tim, Scrooge also symbolically becomes a man.
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