The Name Game!

While checking out those early stage adaptations of "A Christmas Carol," it seemed as if the adaptors were pretty keen on giving every character a name, even if they were not named in the book and were also not called by name in the play itself.

This reminded me of the interesting literary device used by Charles Dickens in the book by which the omniscient "narrator" only tells us the name of a few of the characters. A few others are called by name by another character, at which point the narrator might start using the names. Still others are never named at all.

I'll explain what I mean for each of those as the book moves along...

The book famously begins with us being told that "Marley was dead: to begin with" then adds "Scrooge knew he was dead." So, right away we know there was a Mr. Marley and there is a Mr. Scrooge.

We only learn their first names, however, from Marley's Ghost. The ghost refers to formerly being Jacob Marley and addresses said Jacob Marley's former partner as Ebenezer Scrooge.

The only other character who addresses Scrooge as "Ebenezer" is Fezziwig. Neither Fan nor Belle calls him by name and nobody else is on a first name basis with him anyway! Even Fred just calls him "Uncle" and Fred's sister-in-law refers to him as "your Uncle Scro-o-o-o-oge."

The only other reference to Scrooge's first name is his full name showing on his future gravestone. The narrator says Scrooge a zillion times, but never Ebenezer except for the grave thing.

In the Christmas Past sequence, the narrator doesn't tell us anyone's name, but we learn a few from other characters

Young Scrooge calls his sister "Little Fan" a couple of times. Fan's not really a name, but we never learn whether or not it's a nickname and what her actual name is. I'm guessing Frances? Just don't try to tell me it's Fran!

Scrooge identifies old Fezziwig and Dick Wilkins and Fezziwig calls Dick by his first name, otherwise we don't know anybody else's name, including the first names of Mrs. Fezziwig and the three Fezziwig daughters.

Scrooge never says the name of his former fiancée, but her husband calls her "Belle," which may or may not be her actual given name. It could be a pet name. Is that why her name gets changed a lot in various adaptations?

In the Christmas Present section, the narrator does tell us Bob Cratchit's full name. We did not learn his name in the opening scenes, although he's a major presence.

Most curious to me is that the narrator tells us the full names of  Belinda Cratchit and Master Peter Cratchit rather than having another character call them by name first. Mrs. Cratchit (whose own first name is not revealed) namechecks Martha and Tiny Tim, which is how we learn their names. The two other Cratchit kids are never directly addressed by another character and the narrator does not name them.

Similarly, we only learn that Scrooge's nephew's name is Fred when his wife calls him that. We don't know his last name, but it would be that of Fan's husband, so it's not Scrooge. Fred calls Topper by name and that's the end of it. We never learn the name of Fred's wife or her plump sister, other sister or anyone else at the party. Just Fred and Topper, and even then is "Topper" his first name, last name or a nickname?

Scrooge does call Fred by his first name when he comes for Christmas dinner. Previous to that, he had only called him "Nephew."

Moving to Christmas Yet to Come, the charwoman calls old Joe and Mrs. Dilber by name, but nobody says her name, nor that of the undertaker's man. We also don't know the names of any of Scrooge's former business acquaintances.

The man who is relieved that Scrooge died so that he'll have additional time to pay off his loan calls his wife "Caroline" a couple of times, but she does not say his name.

And I think that's it! No one else gets a name!

Let's recap the characters with names:

Full Name:
Jacob Marley
Ebenezer Scrooge
Dick Wilkins
Bob Cratchit
Belinda Cratchit
Peter Cratchit
Tim Cratchit
Martha Cratchit

First Name Only:
Fred
Old Joe
Caroline

Last Name Only:
Old Fezziwig
Mrs. Fezziwig
Three Miss Fezziwigs
Mrs. Cratchit
Young Boy and Girl Cratchit
Mrs. Dilber

Undetermined and/or Possible Nicknames:
Fan (Last name Scrooge)
Belle
Topper

I'm not enough of a scholar to know how common of a literary device this is or even if Charles Dickens himself used it frequently, but I find it fascinating.

Carry on!