A Christmas Carol By: Charles Dickens This story unravels mysteriously as an old man named Scrooge is visited by three time relevant ghosts. He is burdened by greed and is ignorant to the world, while his family and friends stand by with no expectation of his company or generosity. He is first visited by the ghost of Christmas past, this ghost merely tells him what he has done, but does not give him much reason to atone afterward. He is then visited by the ghost of Christmas present; this ghost took a different approach. This ghost gave Scrooge additional room to speak to his disadvantage. He genuinely used the words that scrooge used against him in a reflective manner. After his visit from the ghost of Christmas present, shortly, he was visited by the ghost of Christmas future. While I thought that none of the ghosts were more convincing among one another, I have reason to believe why the ghost of Christmas future displayed the greatest effect to Scrooge after their visit. The ghost of Christmas future took a mostly logos approach to the visit he had with Scrooge. He did something that the other ghosts did not do on arrival to their flurry of destination. He showed Scrooge the aftermath facts of what would happen and he made it clear that Scrooge’s worst fears would come true. Scrooge didn’t have many things to worry about, but he did hold on to some very horrifying fears that he would wish never to endure. The ghost showed him his own death which seemed to shock him in a subtle yet obvious way; it was so obvious that he did not wish to see his death. He then showed him the behavior of his family and friends as they grieved, but they did not grieve for the death of scrooge. They cried for the little amount that they could sell his belongings for and they did not show any sign of care for his death. So I think it all added up to this moment when he finally understood what the ghosts were trying to get through to him. He did not tell Scrooge anything and I think this played an important role in the ultimate goal of convincing him. I think it didn’t give scrooge an argument and the fact that Scrooge had no argument made it more difficult to convince himself otherwise. The ghost laid out the facts for him and showed him only what will happen so it didn’t give Scrooge a very wide range for thinking around it or avoiding it. It just showed him what is going to happen to him if he continues on the path that he is following. I could also believe that the ghost of Christmas future used some pathos with their visit. He didn’t say anything to Scrooge so in a way he made Scrooge feel like he could not communicate and convince himself that none of the things that the ghost was displaying would come true. The ghost also made Scrooge come to his senses. He did this by showing Scrooge his worst fears and this triggered Scrooge’s emotions which I think is the best tactic for convincing Scrooge. It may not be the best tactic for convincing anyone, but for Scrooge I think it was critical for the ghost to use this tactic in order to get through to Scrooge. I honestly don’t believe that any of the ghosts are the most convincing. I believe that everyone thinks differently and in that sense convincing someone compared to their neighbor can be drastically different. I think in Scrooge’s case though, the ghost of Christmas future was the most convincing because it seemed to have the greatest impact on him, but this could also rely on another variable. There are so many variables that this question is irrelevant in the process because the closest you can ever get is a wild guess unless you were to ask the author or person that it is effecting. Even if the author told you the answer you would never know if they are telling the truth. You would have to rely on trust and trust is only true by a chance, there is always another variable or factor that may interfere with someones credibility. Though it seems like Scrooge changed after visiting the ghosts it could have also been caused by the build up of visits from the previous ghosts. How would he react if he was only visited by the ghost of Christmas future? You wouldn’t know because the author didn’t write the story that way and you couldn’t accurately conclude what would happen because the mindset of a human changes rapidly over the course of time so there is no real answer to this.
A Christmas Carol
By: Charles Dickens
This story unravels mysteriously as an old man named Scrooge is visited by three time relevant ghosts. He is burdened by greed and is ignorant to the world, while his family and friends stand by with no expectation of his company or generosity. He is first visited by the ghost of Christmas past, this ghost merely tells him what he has done, but does not give him much reason to atone afterward. He is then visited by the ghost of Christmas present; this ghost took a different approach. This ghost gave Scrooge additional room to speak to his disadvantage. He genuinely used the words that scrooge used against him in a reflective manner. After his visit from the ghost of Christmas present, shortly, he was visited by the ghost of Christmas future. While I thought that none of the ghosts were more convincing among one another, I have reason to believe why the ghost of Christmas future displayed the greatest effect to Scrooge after their visit.
The ghost of Christmas future took a mostly logos approach to the visit he had with Scrooge. He did something that the other ghosts did not do on arrival to their flurry of destination. He showed Scrooge the aftermath facts of what would happen and he made it clear that Scrooge’s worst fears would come true. Scrooge didn’t have many things to worry about, but he did hold on to some very horrifying fears that he would wish never to endure. The ghost showed him his own death which seemed to shock him in a subtle yet obvious way; it was so obvious that he did not wish to see his death. He then showed him the behavior of his family and friends as they grieved, but they did not grieve for the death of scrooge. They cried for the little amount that they could sell his belongings for and they did not show any sign of care for his death. So I think it all added up to this moment when he finally understood what the ghosts were trying to get through to him.
He did not tell Scrooge anything and I think this played an important role in the ultimate goal of convincing him. I think it didn’t give scrooge an argument and the fact that Scrooge had no argument made it more difficult to convince himself otherwise. The ghost laid out the facts for him and showed him only what will happen so it didn’t give Scrooge a very wide range for thinking around it or avoiding it. It just showed him what is going to happen to him if he continues on the path that he is following.
I could also believe that the ghost of Christmas future used some pathos with their visit. He didn’t say anything to Scrooge so in a way he made Scrooge feel like he could not communicate and convince himself that none of the things that the ghost was displaying would come true. The ghost also made Scrooge come to his senses. He did this by showing Scrooge his worst fears and this triggered Scrooge’s emotions which I think is the best tactic for convincing Scrooge. It may not be the best tactic for convincing anyone, but for Scrooge I think it was critical for the ghost to use this tactic in order to get through to Scrooge.
I honestly don’t believe that any of the ghosts are the most convincing. I believe that everyone thinks differently and in that sense convincing someone compared to their neighbor can be drastically different. I think in Scrooge’s case though, the ghost of Christmas future was the most convincing because it seemed to have the greatest impact on him, but this could also rely on another variable. There are so many variables that this question is irrelevant in the process because the closest you can ever get is a wild guess unless you were to ask the author or person that it is effecting. Even if the author told you the answer you would never know if they are telling the truth. You would have to rely on trust and trust is only true by a chance, there is always another variable or factor that may interfere with someones credibility. Though it seems like Scrooge changed after visiting the ghosts it could have also been caused by the build up of visits from the previous ghosts. How would he react if he was only visited by the ghost of Christmas future? You wouldn’t know because the author didn’t write the story that way and you couldn’t accurately conclude what would happen because the mindset of a human changes rapidly over the course of time so there is no real answer to this.