It became possible in that stage of development of Dickens as a writer, when the realistic nuances of his creative activity began to prevail on the utopian ones.
Three Christmas stories in 1843, 1844 and 1845 (Christmas Carol in prose, TheChimes, and The Cricket on the Hearth) testifies of a mature mastership and quite determined views of an author to the bourgeois reality.
These sentimental stories about involving of all people to the world of fair and mutual support are the basic differentiating character of the poor man in a contrast with the rich man, as to the philosophy of Dickens.
Christmas evening – is the time when the unexpected miracle, changes, and reconciliations are possible in the world of social inequality and “steady” injustice. In this evening, relentless rules of class struggle and economic inequality suddenly stop operating with complete strength and its result – mutual hatred of people to each other – yield its place to love and brotherly feelings. This is evening (it can be not only Christmas evening, but also the New Year Evening as in “The Chimes”), when cruelty of the modern world get eliminated, and humanity for a moment becomes the happy society in Telem Abbey.
“From the childhood till present day, - says idyll nephew of the non-idyll uncle Scrooge, - Christmas holiday appears to me as the day of joy, forgiving, goodwill, enjoyment, - only one day on the calendar when I deeply believe that all people, men and women, as if hide the closed hearts of themselves and accept the people from lower society, and even only for a day became friends with them, walking across to the “grave”, but not another type of men who move opposite ways”. (“Christmas Carol in prose”)
These happy transformations, sure, can not happen as ordinary reality, because Charles Dickens is not so great realist. Dickens needs whole arsenal of fantastic tales, and many spirits come down from the skies to make miracles. Christmas utopia of Dickens wholly consists of fantastic, and reveals its fragility and shortness. Despite this sounds like paradox, the degree of the fantastic of his Christmas stories is criterion of realness of Dickens’ outlook.
In the literature of XVIII century people changed, became better, sympathized and became noble as the result of mental influence of good example, confluence of circumstances.
As the example to such “happy” fortune, following hero in spite of his will and conscious, taking him to the condition of harmony, and despite to the apparent difficulty and obstacles, can be given as “Wilhelm Maister” by Goethe. But this moral regeneration of people in other novels of XVIII century is significantly simpler, not so high-principled and philosophical form.
Villains repent just for “happy” logics of the creative work, plot brings them eventually, to the optimistic climax, and for this purpose there is no need to other extraneous characters (“Tom Johns”).
The novel of the XVIII century aims to show that society is able to isolate, to neutralize the villain with the help of their own strength, depriving him from any opportunity to counteract against good even if he has not repented, or has not repented definitely.
Such satisfactory plot reflects deep belief of the writer to the positive, vital opportunity of bourgeois society, where despite of the existence of defects and injustice, he tries to find the power and humans, who would be able to take the depressed virtue under his protection.
The novel of Goldsmith “Wakefield priest” has similar theme. Even if the priest’s family is poor, beginning from the prison and finishing by imaginary death of priest’s lovely daughter Olivia, “revived” at the end of the novel, nevertheless, the happy-ending organically follows from the here expressed philosophy of life. Thus, author does not express his villain Tornguil as the originator of all misfortune of the family, quite repented. And, nevertheless, this goes right due to that among the oppressed people but also among the strong people, there are men who care for the “law and justice”. Uncle of villain, Sir William Tornquil, appears to be a kind personality, whose purpose is to make happy suffered man and to punish the criminal.
Similar cases are less and less in the novels of Charles Dickens. Villains as Kvilp, Riderhood, Rigo-Blandoir, Uri Gip or Ralph Nickleby need to be punished cruelly, relentlessly. They perish not being forgiven by the author, who does not believe that they can radically change to the better in the frame of reality. Only Scrooge can change because it happens to him in the Christmas night. Christmas stories of Charles Dickens about good villains – are the most fantastic fantasies about the impossibility, realized exactly as impossibility. These sensibleness inventions, impossible in reality, are rather significant. And not without reason, common joy and vitality of their color constantly are accompanied by the shade of sentimental sadness, concerning to that this is only a tale. To the order with the funny inventions, author constantly shows also unfunny inventions, which always exist in the world, contrary to one fantastic night composed by the writer himself, which he himself half believe.
And as the joyful flames of the fireplace seems to be brighter because of the darkness in the rooms, darkness in the streets, similar in the Christmas stories of Charles Dickens holiday night is fantastic and full of kindness, because only this night of the year is able to bring changes to better. And if the poor man celebrates a joyful holiday in this evening and if the rich men join to them, then in the future there will be many gloomy everyday life and severe tests, where this magic clocks of the human unification will disappear. This hopelessness of “merry Christmas”, its fictitiousness constantly felt in Charles Dickens’ Christmas stories and add to them original melancholic color.[29]
Charles Dickens trying to save the idyll should limit its scale; leave the great social-philosophical questions, so idyll is powerless contrast to the bourgeois society. Dickens finds idyllic symbiosis of poor with the rich, about what he dreams in his sentimental stories, not in the world where openly happens class struggle, but in the “small world” of intimate family life. Idyll of Dickens, expelled from the sphere of big social laws, appears too correlated with the insignificant events of family life, getting meaning and sense by the subjective perception of the participants of this event. Miracles of this idyll – is the miracles of the “small world” with its dissolution about daily life cares and psychological microscopis Dickens such a realist that he describes that the manufacturer is not able to feel sorry for the working man’s misfortune, when he acts as the businessman on official reason. And some operator, coming to the poor man’s home for “personal reason”, and feeling atmosphere of love, mutual understanding and support dominating there, can suddenly be moved, and change even for a time, even for a night refuse his operational essence.
The author attributes to this “domestic” ideology special, all-conquering authority. He searches for the means among the oppressors of the modern capitalism, which could unite poor men with the rich man, serving as the bridge to them from the other, gloomy world.
Some characters of the human Dickens wanted to announce as common for all people, as the humanist of the last century. Dickens can not do this in the field of the wide social question, because in the XIX century it was already appeared and formed as class ideology. The questions of common outlook, life philosophy, conscience or honour of bourgeois or poor man will be defined completely differently in Dickens, and author will emphasize that differentiation. But some nuances of similarity, some of the opportunity of rapprochement he will try to find in all people. This is secondary for society, but nevertheless, Dickens uses it as the basis of his utopia of the human unification. This basis – is sentimental ideology of the family. Abstracted “family” feelings can be unifying power for all the people. Rich father can understand his poor father, because they both are fathers. The rich person in due time, probably was little badgered boy, and that is why he is able suddenly to be touched, when he meets as little badgered boy as he himself.
Characterizing avidity and callousness of English bourgeois, Engels wrote:
“Of course, these English bourgeois – are good husbands and fathers…”
In the ideology of Dickens and Haskell, “domesticity” (because it is understood as the abstract category, as the nobility of any “human generally”) is equivalent to the ability of exploitator to leave his class limits to the wide sphere human commonwealth. In the limited form XVIII century’s ideology had great ideological influence.
In his three main Christmas stories Dickens produced not only the principles of “domestic”, “Christmas world outlook”, but also he set steady form to express it.
Christmas Carol in prose,The Chimes and The Cricket on the Hearth are unified by their mood and similarity of the compositions.
They are related also by the unity of the narrative intonation. In all three stories, more and less, appear the figure of the story-teller sitting by the fireplace and addressing to his listeners also sitting there, too. He as if continues conversation, which then gradually develop to the related narration, and thus, by its presence emphasizes Christmas spirit.
“The cattle started the first. Do not object that Mrs. Pirinbingle thinks differently. I know better. Let her repeat endlessly that she can not tell who began the first; but I say the cattle. I guess I should know? For the Holland clocks standing at the corner, the cattle began five minutes earlier than the cricket started its song”.
The Cricket on the Hearth begins as this.
The Christmas Carol in prose begins with the establishment of the fact, that Marley was as dead as the door nail.
“Let me, - go on. – it does not mean that I certainly know that there is nothing more dead than the door nail” – etc., with the sound of the friendly conversation with the listeners.
The Chimes begins with description of the night wind, howling on the walls of an old empty church:
“Oh, Lord! Save us from it, - us, sitting around the fire. It has horrible sound, - of the midnight wind, howling in the church.
Oh! On the campanile! That is where he whistles and growls with the anger! – etc. “And so I am going to tell the story about such bells in such an old church”.
Gradually, the voice of the story-teller weakens and disappears, conceding its place to the narration, and, however, in order to appear in the end of the story. Thus, the impression of the story by the fire keep presenting till the end of the narration.
In many stories story teller reminds us about his presence, interfering into the story:
“As to my mind, I do not agree with Toby’s opinion about the bells, so I do not doubt that he had much time to think deeply about it and also develop it. I will stand for Toby, but I doubt that he stood at the doors of the church any day or any week. The matter is that Toby was messenger, and he was waiting for the order.”
In The Cricket on the Hearth, when the talk begins about Tekleton, the story-teller appears again:
“Did I tell you that one eye of him is always widely opened and another almost closed; and the almost closed one was just more expressive? I suppose I did not”.
And not only story-teller’s personality, but also fiction of the listener, whom he addresses, appears in the narration from time to time:
“But as to the stuffing tobacco, Dot was the master of it; how dexterously she fired the rolled scrap of the paper when he needed to light the grape stalk, - that was an art, sir, real art”.
However, the appearance of the fiction “story-teller on the fire” sometimes interrupted by the real story-teller, an author, Charles Dickens.
This is one of the not numerous examples:
“Bright light spread all over the room, and curtains in the Scrooge’s room moved.
Curtains of his room, I say, were moved by the invisible hand. Not those curtains what was hung near his legs, and nor at his head, but the curtains before his face. The curtains of his bed were moved, and waking up Scrooge came to be face to face with the supernatural visitor, who moved the curtains: as close to him as I am close to you now, and me, near your elbow as the ghost!”
That person who told that the curtains were moved – is fiction author of the story, “story-teller by the fire”. The man who appears near the reader’s elbow as the ghost is – Charles Dickens himself.
Both story-tellers do not bother one another and all these interlacing of intonations develop newer lyric-humorous shade.
However, that is not all. Fiction of the story-teller means also another thing: with the help of the fiction is emphasized that the told accidents are just a tale, not more. Despite of there area lot of sad and even horrible things, as the same the story is false, or the story with the happy-ending should not be taken so close to heart, too serious.
Because of that, story-teller before beginning to tell the story makes some joke that will not offend anybody.
This little domestic joke, yet little bit concerning to the context of the narration, gives people safety and presentiment about the happy-ending.
For example, in Christmas Carol it happens as follows:
Mention about the funeral of Marley makes me return back to the beginning of my story. There was no doubt that Marley is dead. It should be comprehended because there will be no extraordinary thing in the occasion which I am going to tell. If we doubted that Hamlet’s father was dead until the raising of the curtains, then his night walks under the burst of the eastern wind would not amaze us such as appearing of any other gentleman in the dark empty place, - for example in the cemetery of St. Peter.
Or it can be said also about Toby in The Chimes, when author describes his inconveniences in his work as messenger, and poor Toby’s struggle with the northern wind:
“The wind, especially northern, was striking him with frenzy from the corner, as if purposely came from nowhere to slap in his face… his cane was vainly taken by him to fight with the bad weather. Soon, his weak legs began horribly shake, he was turning to the right, then to the left, he shivered, he bent but nothing helped him. He was terribly exhausted, tormented, hackneyed, he hardly stood on his legs that fortunately was not taken up and thrown down by the wind hundred times like the frogs, snails or other ugly creatures.
The hero, who is described with jokes by the author, can not be tragic hero, and if only unhappiness follows him, it reminds us about the happy outcome of the story.
But not only the narrative intonation gives especially comfortable, “domestic” mood to the Charles Dickens’ stories. The attitude to the phenomena of the world, to the life is full conformity with this intonation. Here it is described special form of the myth of the home, where the action and dead subordinated God’s will of the “little world”. [30]
All the accidents are valued by the listeners sitting around the fireplace. There is nothing worse to them than the cold winter night, sharp wind, the fog or the slush. Idyll of Christmas consists of idolized dot of the light in the darkness of the night. That is why the description of the city moving from one source of the light to the other: brightened shops, the windows of the houses, lantern. The reality is divided into two visual and sharply limited spheres – lightened and darkened, that some kind of treatment of the light settled down concordant to this principle. However, even “big nature” is lowered to the domestic environment by the corresponded methods.
The description of the fog in the streets of London is as follows:
“Watching these dark clouds, coming down and enveloping the surrounding everything with the deep darkness, it seems that the Nature is settled somewhere so near.”
Thus, Dickens creates a world of original artificial, idyll reality in his Christmas stories which attracts to its sphere only what is taken from the darkness of the “big world” and what can be brighten the family life with the reconciliatory fire.
In this “domestication” of any theme, even more horrible and serious, the main thing is Charles Dickens’ humor. This is special holiday relation to the life, reducing all everyday disturbances to the absence of the fun and fried turkeys, and all happiness of the life – to their presence.
The special kind of “culinary” humor of Charles Dickens is created to soften, dissolve the comic, and “domesticate” any theme, even the horrible or traditionally severe theme.
The most horrible things in Dickens creative activity can seem very comfortable, “family” thanks to his humor.[31]
In “Master Humphrey’s Clock”, in the introductory chapters, where we again meet the heroes of “Pickwick Papers” – with Mr. Pickwick and his servant described the story about middle-ages prosecutions, burning and drowning of the old women who were suspected in diablerie. This is typical sample for Dickens to outplay the history humorously and also characteristic example of his “culinary” aspect of humor at all.