A reader writes

I hope you had a restful Thanksgiving holiday. I am a regular reader and frequent commenter on your blog. I am watching “A Christmas Carol” right now, the version starring George C. Scott.

I have a few questions for you. First, which version, and there are many, do you think is the best version of “A Christmas Carol”? The second, and this is a more theological question, is what do you think of Jacob Marley? Is he a soul released from Purgatory or a manifestation from Hell? I would guess that since he is allowed to roam the earth and is concerned for the welfare of Scrooge that he is actually allowed to be released from Purgatory. But, the rich man in Hell, from the Gospel also was concerned to keep his brothers from suffering his fate, so this is a toss up for me. Since, Dickens wasn’t Catholic, I assume he was an Anglican, I can’t imagine that Marley would be portrayed in Purgatory.

I love your blog and hope to read more good stuff.

P.S. I wouldn’t object if you posted this and answered it on your blog, it would boost my ego. 🙂

I live to boost egos!

Actually, I think Scott’s version is pretty good. I’m also a big fan of Alistair Sim’s performance in the 1951 version. Particularly good is his redeemed Scrooge on Christmas morning. I’ve never seen anything that equals that.

I should also say I have a soft spot for this, simply because it is the very first versionh of the tale I ever saw and it is instantly transports me back to the early and mid 60s and my earliest memories of Christmas:

The great thing about childhood is that it is untroubled by questions of taste, style, class, or literary fidelity. We used to have a cereal bowl with pictures of Snap, Krackel, and Pop on it. For years, my kids called it “the fancy bowl” and vied for possession of it each morning. 🙂

As to the vexing question of Jacob Marley, I’m not sure Dickens is interested in the question. He’s an Englishman telling a ghost story in the grand English ghost story tradition and seems to not have troubled his head too much about that question of where they come from or where they go when they leave. There does seem to be something both hellish and purgatorial about him. He is fanned by unseen hot drafts which suggest he is in hell, but there is also the curious fact that he seems to genuinely care about Scrooge and has “procured” this chance and hope for him. That would suggest a spark of charity still flickers in his breast. On the other hand, he describes the souls who fill the night as having lost the power to interfere for good forever–which seems like a rather hellish doom.

Bottom line: I think Dickens probably gave as much thought to this as Lucas did to the question of whether a parsec is a unit of time or distance. He was going for “spooky”, not “theologically accurate”. By all accounts, he seems to have succeeded. 🙂

By the way, the Three Ghosts of Christmas are, of course, meant to remind us of the Blessed Trinity. Dickens was a standard issue Victorian Anglican in his religious opinions, so far as I can tell.