Charles Dickens Invented Mindfulness
- Jules Robinson
- Dec 9, 2018
- 4 min read
Is Charles Dickens’s ‘A Christmas Carol’ the greatest story ever told? Short answer, yes. Long answer, maybe not but also probably.
Dickens and his storytelling have been analysed countless times and the overall assessment is always the same- he’s quite good at this stuff isn’t he? For example, his classic use of Want versus Need in his characters is a plot device that is used fundamentally throughout most of cinema’s stories today. Did Dickens invent film narrative as we know it? From the sheer amount of adaptations he’s had, there’s no doubting he will have shaped it.
No story of his displays a better character arc than his novella ‘A Christmas Carol’. Ebenezer Scrooge Wants, primarily, to be left alone and sit, miserable on his big pile of money. But he’s sad and lonely (gruel and anger does that to a person) and doesn’t realise that his Need is human companionship and intimacy, something he will only get once he is forced out of his bigotry and, essentially, scared into acting kindly.
With a simplistic yet vivid and allegorical narrative, A Christmas Carol remains a story that everyone can access and understand. Which is remarkable when you think of Dickens, his ideals and the story’s origins. A whacking great socialist, Dickens originally wanted to write an exposé on poverty during the Christmas period but quickly realised a piece of fiction could work better and infiltrate the public’s conscious more effectively (think Inception but instead of dreams it’s a tasty little socialist novella).
Ebenezer Scrooge at first appears the complete antithesis of Christmas as we know it today. What a brilliantly challenging character to start a story with- an utter bastard. Having to take a man with no sense of compassion or empathy or love and attempting to do a U-turn on that is spectacular writing. Dickens seems to say a person like that CAN change overnight, depending on their psychological breaking down of and re-moulding mixed with one hell of a trippy dream. Dickens pulls the spectacular feat of turning Scrooge into a ray of sunshine at the end because of his deep understanding of human nature, the true faces of poverty and how memories and fear influence us.
A strange offshoot from all of this is Dickens, seemingly also a part-time millennial spiritualist, coming up with a brief outline for what Mindfulness is and aims to be. The Ghost of Christmas Past or ‘creepy withered lamp head dude’ is soft and gentle. Lamp Head is calm because we (should at least) think of our younger selves with tenderness. Memories evoke some strong-ass emotions in us and it’s important to give them light but not linger on them for too long. Scrooge’s childhood plays out before us; the school days, the loneliness and the often over-looked sister who showed love to her brother unconditionally. As Lamp Head points out though, ‘These are but shadows of the things that have been. They have no consciousness of us.’ Which is BRILLIANT because A) This ain’t about no time travel, we don’t need to complicate things by actually interacting with the young characters but also B) our past has already happened and there’s no changing that. We can only learn from it, accept it and move on.
Which leads me to The Ghost of Christmas Present. This is the key to the whole mindfulness theory because what’s Present? A bloody hoot! He’s so much fun- joyful, cracking jokes non-stop and not in that annoying way where a person’s just ‘on’ all the time, no, in like a genuinely funny way. The iconic line ‘Come in and know me better man’ is essentially Present saying ‘you sure as hell seem miserable son, have you tried practicing a little mindfulness every now and then? Also meditation is great too.’ The nightmare-inducing Gargoyle Children under Present’s robes are there to remind Scrooge that being dumb and selfish are forever Bad Vibes that we must purposefully eradicate from our lives. Present is saying we have to work hard at not being a ballbag because it’s so easy to fall back into. He’s also saying eff-me! Look at how ruddy jolly I am! We’re all alive, right now, in this moment- isn’t that great!
Now for the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come (which, as names go, is A LOT). This ghost is fairly terrifying and that’s because Dickens makes no mistake in directly referencing him to the grim reaper. Death is coming, it’s inevitable. Obviously, modern mindfulness doesn’t have much to do with dwelling on a grim spectre of mortality, BUT let’s not forget how much of a DICK Scrooge was to begin with. Because he was a real dick. Sure, the first two ghosts had a right good crack at making him cry and feel sorry for a disabled boy but the only way to ensure Ebenezer will actually act on these things is to instill in him an absolute terror about the ticking clock that is his time on Earth.
So how do I conclude? Well, Dickens himself didn’t exactly ‘invent’ mindfulness per se but he did a pretty good job at reminding the masses that the time for being our best selves is now. He changed the tune on charity so that it became desirable to give and, you know, actually care about others. But Dickens also, miraculously, portrayed EVEN MORE STUFF. That our memories should be protected and treasured, that the future is only scary if we misuse The Now and that when it comes to the present, we should go in and know it better.
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