What was really happening to Scrooge?

[Tomtomkent]

Just for festive fun, pretend that A Christmas Carol was reported as a real event. Scrooge goes home a mizer and wakes a changed man, while claiming strange visions. As sceptics. What are the plaussible explanations?

In the book he tells Marley he is more of the gravy than the grave, but would it be food poisoning? Or brain damage caused by a mini stroke? A psychotic event? Drug enduced hallucinations?

What would be your theory?

 

[Dave Rogers]

(a) He's making it all up to get attention.
(b) He's barking, temporarily or permanently. I don't have the expertise to determine the precise cause.

Poe's Law makes it difficult to distinguish between the two, but simple lying shouldn't be ruled out as a possible explanation.

(c) He dreamed it all, and he doesn't have the sense to realise it. This may be a subset of (b).

It's a single anecdote unsupported by verifiable evidence, so for the time being the main thing I wouldn't conclude was that he'd been visited by a bunch of anthropomorphic personifications.

Dave

 

[Cainkane1]

A bit of spoiled potato or the Salvation army got hold of him.

 

[bruto]

I'd guess just a bad dream, brought on by a guilty conscience and a stomach cramp or two, but that seems kind of bland.

One possibility would be that Scrooge has made it up. People can get into a rut, especially with people they are conected with, engaging in behavior they know isn't productive, but don't know how to get out of it in any style. People often change a good deal, for example, after a divorce. So perhaps he just realized that his way of life was lonely and miserable, wished he could reinvent himself a little, and decided a string of ghostly visitations would be a plausible story. After all, anyone who'd known the old Scrooge would likely have assumed ulterior motives and shady schemes if he'd simply told them "I've decided to change."

 

[Explorer]

A psychological appraisal of Ebeneezer Scrooge can be found here:

http://www.perryweb.com/Dickens/work_carol_analysis.shtml

 

[Beady]

Umm... Remember, we're not talking about a religious conversion here, rather a major attitude change. Personally, I've always thought that Scrooge was always a decent man, deep down, but could never find an excuse for that to come to the fore. I don't particularly care for the Alistair Simm version of the movie, but it has the perfect line in there, when Scrooge is giving Cratchit a raisse: "No, Bob, I've not lost my senses, I've come to them."

 

[stilicho]

Just for festive fun, pretend that A Christmas Carol was reported as a real event. Scrooge goes home a mizer and wakes a changed man, while claiming strange visions. As sceptics. What are the plaussible explanations?

In the book he tells Marley he is more of the gravy than the grave, but would it be food poisoning? Or brain damage caused by a mini stroke? A psychotic event? Drug enduced hallucinations?

What would be your theory?

Side effects from Cialis.

 

[Crossbow]

Just for festive fun, pretend that A Christmas Carol was reported as a real event. Scrooge goes home a mizer and wakes a changed man, while claiming strange visions. As sceptics. What are the plaussible explanations?

In the book he tells Marley he is more of the gravy than the grave, but would it be food poisoning? Or brain damage caused by a mini stroke? A psychotic event? Drug enduced hallucinations?

What would be your theory?

Well, A Christmas Carol is one of my favorite stories, however it is not entirely unusual for an old person who is quite set in his ways to suddenly change the course of his life and claim that it was due to a religious experience, a dream, or some sort of other personal relevation.

In the case of Scrooge, I expect that such a thing could be readily induced by his poor diet, poor living conditions, constant overwork, and a decided lack of emotional depth.

 

[EventHorizon]

Umm... Remember, we're not talking about a religious conversion here, rather a major attitude change. Personally, I've always thought that Scrooge was always a decent man, deep down, but could never find an excuse for that to come to the fore. I don't particularly care for the Alistair Simm version of the movie, but it has the perfect line in there, when Scrooge is giving Cratchit a raisse: "No, Bob, I've not lost my senses, I've come to them."

That's surprising to me; I love the Simm version. In fact I think I prefer it to the book. I like the expanded Ghost of Christmas Past section. I feel it does a better job at explaining why Scrooge is the way he his than the book does.

 

[johnnyace]

Maybe he just got tired of receiving a Ghost of a Christmas Present every year.

 

[rjh01]

He wants to get a girlfriend. Now this girlfriend has said she is not interested in a person who is like, well Scrooge. She is interested in another personality. So what better than to change and blame it all on a dream?

 

[fuelair]

Actually the government used the just-in-it's-infancy Steam-powered Holographic Image Realization Enhancement System (SHIRES) to move Scrooge through the changes in order to induce him to provide freely an excess of funds previously unavailable to the government in a time of general poverty. He was selected as a basically simple target given certain knowledge of specific events in his life.

 

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Hallucinogenic bread mold. Scrooge wouldn't be the type to throw bread out just because it was moldy.

Have a trippy Xmas!
Signed, the Freak Brothers.

 

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Says wiki:

The ergot sclerotium contains high concentrations (up to 2% of dry mass) of the alkaloid ergotamine, a complex molecule consisting of a tripeptide-derived cyclol-lactam ring connected via amide linkage to a lysergic acid (ergoline) moiety, and other alkaloids of the ergoline group that are biosynthesized by the fungus.[7] Ergot alkaloids have a wide range of biological activities including effects on circulation and neurotransmission.[8]

 

[Bram Kaandorp]

Hallucinogenic bread mold. Scrooge wouldn't be the type to throw bread out just because it was moldy.

Have a trippy Xmas!
Signed, the Freak Brothers.

And again, the simple answer saves the day.

Priceless.

 

[Vic333]

It was all a hallucination caused by a piece of undigested beef, as Scrooge himself hypothesized.

 

[Foolmewunz]

It was all a hallucination caused by a piece of undigested beef, as Scrooge himself hypothesized.

Love that line... "There's more of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are!"

Personally, I think Scrooge was faking it. He went on to start the Scrooge Foundation and take in contributions from everyone under the auspices of his new found charitable heart. He doled out thirty quid worth of presents every Christmas to much huzzahing from the press and his fellow businessmen, and pocketed the rest to use for the upkeep of his one-eyed mistress in Marleybourne. (The Scrooge Foundation was later reincororated as Oral Roberts Enterprises, I think.)

 

[Explorer]

It was all a hallucination caused by a piece of undigested beef, as Scrooge himself hypothesized.

He also said it was a piece of cheese, or an underdone potato! At least in the Alistair Sim version.

Great clip from that scene here:

http://www.squidoo.com/whiteoak-achristmascarol

You have to scroll down a bit for this video

 

[Foolmewunz]

He also said it was a piece of cheese, or an underdone potato! At least in the Alistair Sim version.

Great clip from that scene here:

http://www.squidoo.com/whiteoak-achristmascarol

You have to scroll down a bit for this video

That's a direct quote from the book.

 

[Steve]

He wants to get a girlfriend. Now this girlfriend has said she is not interested in a person who is like, well Scrooge. She is interested in another personality. So what better than to change and blame it all on a dream?

It always comes down to sex, doesn't it.