A Christmas Carol
- Primal Fear Was Well Deployed by Charles Dickens -

 Primal Fear

 

Dickens triggered primal fear to widen his readership. Anything relating to raw survival is always an attention grabber. Thus, in the opening of this novel he ‘doubles down’ on the mental mortality-memos: dead, coffin, coffin-nail, deadest, funeral, clergyman, hallowed, mourner, undertaker, burial, old and sole (homonym of soul).  Yet, it is not simply an emotional hijack, it also acts as a question provoker in a novel about the folly and immorality of hoarding vast wealth:

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• What is the point of being the richest corpse in the graveyard rather than enjoying life, being charitable and honouring the spirit of goodness? 

• When does a person confront their own desire for survivalism and become more altruistic?

• Can the powerful experience vicarious powerlessness through Old Marley's Ghost? And if so, will it trigger enough primal fear of hell and damnation to trigger increased charitable giving?

 

The answers are, naturally, historical. The answer is yes. This novel did increase charitable giving. Who wanted to end up like Old Marley? Let's take a look at the density of words related to death in the opening of A Christmas Carol.

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[Novel opening. Stave one, Marely’s Ghost]

Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it: and Scrooge’s name was good upon ’Change, for anything he chose to put his hand to. Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail.

 

Mind! I don’t mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about a door-nail. I might have been inclined, myself, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and my unhallowed hands shall not disturb it, or the Country’s done for. You will therefore permit me to repeat, emphatically, that Marley was as dead as a door-nail.

 

Scrooge knew he was dead? Of course he did. How could it be otherwise? Scrooge and he were partners for I don’t know how many years. Scrooge was his sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole assign, his sole residuary legatee, his sole friend, and sole mourner. And even Scrooge was not so dreadfully cut up by the sad event, but that he was an excellent man of business on the very day of the funeral, and solemnised it with an undoubted bargain.
 

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Summary

 

In an era when literacy rates were low, public readings of serialized novels had to gain and hold the attention of the audience very quickly. Thus, his choice to hit primal fear instincts ‘hard and fast’ was wise. Ghost stories were fashionable then, as they remain today; the realm of the spirits and the route to Heaven was of great interest to all. However, it is important to notice that his prose is playful, friendly and non-corruptive. Even in this nascent ‘horror’ genre, Dickens condemns cruel actions, ever careful to encourage compassion as he presents ‘Scrooge’ as a figure of shameful ‘financial immorality.’

 

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Learning Activities

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1. Primal needs are anything that relates to survival. It can be a mortal threat, scarcity of food, lack of shelter or coldness. It can be a sense of isolation or abandonment. A good choice of setting, and staples of the ghost story are: 

 

• An abandoned house.

• A weedy wasteland.

• A gritty inner city or a dangerous downtown. 

• A wild ocean battered by a relentless storm. 

• Being lost in a jungle or a maze. 

• A post-apocalyptic world.

 

Think of old novels such as Robinson Crusoe or modern ones such as The Hunger Games. Then write a scene that deliberately hits primal instincts as Dickens did, using mental mortality-memos!

 

2. Descriptionari.com pages such as “Storms” and “Scary Halloween Writing” are a wonderful resource. Read those pages and similar ones and use them as inspiration for a paragraph that triggers primal instincts for good purpose as Dickens did.

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