The festive period owes Charles Dickens a monumental intellectual debt. A Christmas Carol largely invented the festivity as we continue to celebrate it today. But his tale also reminds us of the power of magic and restitution in the blizzards of unforgiving times: it gives agency and voice to the marginalised, the disposable, and the forgotten of history. It’s a tale that resounds through time to reveal what happens when we grapple with the truth of being human.

A Christmas Carol is a tale of two tragedies. There is the tragedy that is destined to happen: the death of Tiny Tim, victim of the structural violence of destitution. But the second tragedy belongs to the past. The tragedy that turned a kind and humble person into a monster. This is the tragedy that defines Ebenezer Scrooge.

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