SOURCE: “Notes from Charles Dickens's Christmas Carol,” in Interpretation, Vol. 7, No. 1, 1978, pp. 52–73.

In the following essay, Anastaplo examines the timing of and the reasons for Scrooge's conversion.

MACBETH:

One cried “God bless us!” and “Amen!” the other, As they had seen me with these hangman's hands, List'ning their fear. I could not say “Amen!” When they did say “God bless us!” 

LADY Macbeth:

Consider it not so deeply. 

MACBETH:

But wherefore could not I pronounce “Amen”? I had most need of blessing, and “Amen” Stuck in my throat. 

Shakespeare, Macbeth II, ii

I

A classical scholar, in assessing the Greek dramatists, has remarked on the “extraordinary creative power that [Aeschylus] shares with Shakespeare and Dickens.” An Encyclopaedia Britannica article observes that Charles Dickens stands second only to Shakespeare in English literature, that he is “[g]enerally regarded as the greatest English novelist.” Thus, one finds again and again...