Stave Two. The First of the Three Spirits. (Part 2!)

Now the Ghost of Christmas Past takes Scrooge on a journey to the past. They're there strictly as "shadows," so they can't interact with anyone or change anything that's already happened.

I've broken down five distinct periods and/or events that the spirit shows Scrooge in the book. The various adaptations always include some of these, but it's rare to see them all. Each offers its own insights.

First, we go back to the town where Scrooge attended boarding school. He's excited to see it once again. However, when they go inside the schoolhouse and see the lonely young Ebenezer, he weeps. He compares himself as a boy to the caroler that he chased away, so he's already learning a lesson!

An interesting little touch that occasionally pops up is that Scrooge sees the characters from the books that the young Ebenezer is reading (Ali Baba, Robinson Crusoe, etc.). Old Scrooge is excited to see them!

The next image is Scrooge growing and the same school getting older. He had been a boy, but now seems to be perhaps a teenager. He's visited by his "much younger" sister Fan, who has come to take Scrooge home because their father is kinder these days. No mention at all of their mother. Scrooge loved his sister very much.

The spirit reminds Scrooge that his nephew is Fan's son. Something else for Scrooge to think about.

Sometime later, Scrooge is now an apprentice with Fezziwig. He sees another version of his younger self, a little bit older, along with his fellow apprentice, Dick Wilkins. We only see Dick in this one sequence, but Scrooge says, "Poor Dick! Dear, dear!" which has always made me wonder what happened to him. Fezziwig is apparently deceased in the "present," as Scrooge exclaims, "It's Fezziwig alive again." Presumably Fezziwig had passed away from natural causes, as he was quite a bit older than Scrooge.

In any event, Fezziwig throws an awesome Christmas party, vividly described by Dickens. And through it all, present day Scrooge has a blast reliving it!

The spirit needles Scrooge a bit about whether Fezziwig is so great, which makes Scrooge realize that he's rather un-Fezziwig-like to his own employee! So, he's learning some lessons!

Next we get another version of young Scrooge, perhaps now in business for himself. Whatever the case, he's now consumed with the pursuit of wealth. This change does not sit well with his fiancée, who releases Scrooge from his promise. Present-day Scrooge certainly does not look upon this as a fond memory and the spirit has to restrain him in order to show him one more vision.

One thing to note is that, in the book, the fiancée comes out of nowhere. In so many adaptations, we see her interact with Scrooge at Fezziwig's ball. It's another one of those things that's so common, you would think it's in the original text. Definitely not, though!

The last sequence we encounter from the past is not actually one of Scrooge's own memories. From here on, everything he sees with this ghost and the others is new to him.

This last one takes place seven years earlier, on the night that Marley died. It shows Scrooge's former fiancée now married with a family. Scrooge catches on that this is something he missed out on, especially the oldest daughter (whom Dickens himself practically drools over!), who might have been "a spring-time in the haggard winter of his life" - great line!

The actual husband/father calls Scrooge's former fiancée "Belle" just one time, but naturally that gets retconned in the various versions where Scrooge sees her at Fezziwig's party. Is Belle her name or is her husband calling her by a pet name? We may never know!

Scrooge is getting more agitated and really does not like Belle and her husband pitying him. He gets so mad that he extinguishes the ghost with its cap and falls back asleep. Did the spirit have any other visions lined up?

One thing mentioned in the book that is seldom picked up on is that Scrooge sees all the faces the spirit has shown him in the spirit's face right before he extinguishes it. Another tough trick to pull off in live action.

Scrooge's past is an important part of the story, so these sequences get a lot of play in the various adaptations, but, as mentioned before, there are a lot of variations and many added twists.

There really are four distinct young Scrooges, but it's not common to have four different actors for each scene. It's no doubt much easier to cast a couple of actors and use them as necessary to show Scrooge aging.

Now that we're done with past, what's happening in the present?