51 pages • 1 hour read
Samantha SilvaMr. Dickens And His Carol
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2017A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Fog
Fog is a motif that used to drive The Search for Inspiration and The Essence of the Christmas Spirit. Within the context of the novel, fog represents the mental block that prevents Charles Dickens from finding inspiration, and it also evokes the trauma and frustration that have robbed him of his Christmas spirit. When Dickens goes to London to find new inspiration, the fog is described in such a way that it alludes to the ghostly presences that haunt A Christmas Carol, for the narrative states:
‘It was a bludgeoning, hairy mist, he thought, like a prowling thief that would follow on your heels, knock you over the head, steal your thoughts, chew them up, and spit them out right in front of you, tiny particles scattering away on the brackish air. It was just the right weather for chasing phantoms about town’ (73).
Significantly, the fog appears whenever Dickens has difficulty finding inspiration during his solitude, and it clears when Eleanor first appears and lifts whenever he gains inspiration or feels more joyful. Likewise, the fog reappears whenever his writer’s block returns and he is overcome with frustration at his many problems. After Eleanor helps him to confront the source of his trauma and inspires him to rewrite the Christmas book, the fog lifts completely and never returns.
The fog also reflects the mystery and ambiguity that Eleanor uses in her mission to inspire Dickens and help Timothy. For example, when Dickens follows Eleanor from the theater to the graveyard to put his doubts about her to rest, the graveyard is covered in fog, causing him to lose track of her a couple of times. It obscures both her true ghostly nature and shows the secrecy with which she performs her task of visiting her husband’s grave. This scene demonstrates that Eleanor tries to hide her status as a spirit.
The Old Clock Tower
The Old Clock Tower is a motif that signals the arrival and departure of Eleanor Lovejoy. This motif demonstrates the clock tower as a portal through which Eleanor’s ghost enters and leaves the world of the living. For this reason, it drives The Essence of the Christmas Spirit, providing a decisive boundary between the real world and the quasi-magical moments in which Eleanor and Dickens walk the streets of London together. This pattern is established from Eleanor’s very first appearance, for just before she appears, the clock tower sounds near Dickens. Likewise, shortly before her ghost disappears, the clock tower chimes again, and Dickens notices her footsteps disappearing after the 12th chime.
India
India stands as a symbol of Dickens’s dissatisfaction and desire to escape his current predicament. Upon hearing Macready’s announcement that he and his acting entourage are going to India, Dickens contemplates what his life would have been like if he had made the choice to become an actor instead of a writer. India also symbolizes the life that Dickens and Eleanor could have had if they could be together: a life that they will never get to have because he is married and she is a ghost. As Eleanor explains, “India is a beautiful dream. But I am not at liberty […] to dream” (119). Eleanor loves the idea of having the opportunity to live a life with Dickens, but she knows that such a thing is impossible because she cannot stay in the living world.
Later, after Dickens reads his first manuscript to Eleanor, and mentions possibly quitting writing after writing the Christmas book. Eleanor asks him if he is thinking about “a new life in India” (173). This question causes Dickens to ponder how different his life would have been if he had chosen another life path. This reflects Dickens’s continued dissatisfaction with his life. However, Eleanor appreciates his books and the happiness they have given to her, her family, and his other admirers. Before Dickens and Eleanor part for the last time, he tells her that he is thinking “of India,” and she tells him, “India was a wonderful dream […] But this is more wonderful” (204). Thus, although Dickens briefly imagines a different life, he clearly misses his family and finally learns to be satisfied with his life as it is.
