You cannot analyse a novella you cannot follow, so get the plot of A Christmas Carol straight first. Dickens tells it in five parts he calls 'staves', a musical word that fits its structure like a carol. Here is the whole story stave by stave, with the moments that matter most.
Stave 1: Marley's Ghost
We meet Ebenezer Scrooge, a cold, miserly moneylender, on Christmas Eve. He is rude to his cheerful nephew Fred, refuses to give to charity, and grudgingly lets his underpaid clerk Bob Cratchit have Christmas Day off. That night he is visited by the ghost of his dead business partner, Jacob Marley, bound in a heavy chain 'forged in life'. Marley warns Scrooge that he will suffer the same fate unless he changes, and tells him three spirits will visit.
Stave 2: The Ghost of Christmas Past
The first spirit, a strange childlike-yet-old figure with light streaming from its head, takes Scrooge back through his own memories: his lonely childhood at school, the generous Christmas party thrown by his kind first employer Fezziwig, and, most painfully, Belle, the woman he loved and lost because he came to love money more. The memories begin to thaw Scrooge's hard heart.
Stave 3: The Ghost of Christmas Present
The second spirit, a jolly giant surrounded by Christmas food, shows Scrooge the joy and warmth of others. He sees the Cratchits' loving but poor Christmas, and the frail Tiny Tim, whom he begins to care about. He sees Fred's happy party. Then the ghost reveals two starving children beneath its robe, Ignorance and Want, and throws Scrooge's own cruel words about prisons and workhouses back at him.
Stave 4: The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come
The third spirit, a silent, hooded phantom, shows Scrooge the future. He sees a dead man whose death pleases his debtors and whose belongings are stolen and sold, and he sees the Cratchits grieving the death of Tiny Tim. Only when the phantom points to a neglected gravestone does Scrooge realise the unmourned dead man is himself. Terrified, he begs for the chance to change his fate.
Stave 5: The end of it
Scrooge wakes on Christmas morning transformed, 'as happy as an angel'. He sends a huge turkey to the Cratchits, gives generously to charity, and joyfully joins Fred's Christmas party. He raises Bob Cratchit's wages and becomes 'a second father' to Tiny Tim, who does not die. Scrooge ends the novella 'as good a man as the good old city knew', his redemption complete.
With the story clear, go deeper on the characters, learn the lines on the key quotes page, and understand the world of the novella on the context page.