Jumat, Mei 11, 2012

Ghost???!




Scrooge and Marley's Ghost

And now, I mix up with one thing. What’s that?! What do you think is that?!

It’s the GHOST!!!! WHOAAA!! So, creeeeeeepyyyy........
Hey, what’s kind of ghost? Actually not really the ghost! Yeah, just the Ghost Stories, hahaha!! Yeah, from now on I will mix up with the ghost stories by Charles Dickens. This is actually for my last assignment in my Bachelor degree a.k.a SKRIPSI!

I don’t know why I’m so much interested in ‘that thing’. At first, actually I really want to discuss about fantasy, because I’m so interested, but because my lecturer said that it would be hard to be discussed. Then, I found A Christmas Carol in my Ebook collection, so I decided to choose this work to be discussed on my paper in Critical Theory. I was actually doubt with this work, but I tried to understand it. Well, okay shortly, I only wanted to discuss Dickens’ work, although I still feel hard to understand his language.


One thing I found which I never expected, the ghost in Dickens’ works is related to one of ideologies.  I learned that we have three ideologies in this world; there are Capitalism, Socialism, and Islam. Since

Dickens lived in 1800-s where the Industry Revolution developed in England, he saw many things happened on that period. The Industry Revolution was very related to the Capitalism, and I assume that Capitalism began at this period which the system of production developed because of Industry, and there were created the social class, especially the worker or labor class. The industry itself should be owned by whom has much money, then there would be appeared the investor. Actually investor itself had been developing since Elizabethan period.

Okay, back to the topic. Why should be the ghost related to one of those ideologies I’ve mentioned above? Since Dickens saw many things happened in England in 1800s which Capitalism had been developing, then he also saw that many social class were created, high class, middle class, and lower class. He felt empathic to people who lived as lower class and worker class. In, A Christmas Carol, the ghosts which appeared had functions. What are their functions?



Uncle Dickens with his cool beard and stories, haha

I saw that the ghosts who appear in A Christmas Carol are as liberator. Since Scrooge, the major character of the story is alienated by society, and then the function of the ghosts is as the liberator for Scrooge to release him from alienation. Alienation which was triggered by Marx, was really closed to Dickens idea in his story. So, Derida in his book The Specter of Marx said that – A specter is haunting Europe --- the specter of communism” according to Marx’s writing The Manifesto of Communist Party.


In A Christmas Carol, the ghost of Marley and three ghost of Christmas come to release him from his alienated condition, so he would save in his life. The word ‘specter’ is the same meaning with the word ‘ghost’. Then, so that’s why I have to say that the ghost in Dickens’ story is related with the ideology. The ideology is Socialism, including also Communism. Maybe, Dickens was also a humanist, since his writings always gave the criticism to the government indirectly which contained socialism inside.


Well, I just make an assumption according to what I’ve read many works of Dickens in his ghost stories.

But maybe I will find many new things after read all his works. So, just wait until I graduate from my university. ;)


The Ghost of Christmas Future in A Christmas Carol



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