Let's talk about BELLS
***a thread***

Bells have long been used throughout history - to celebrate, to warn, to commemorate, & to communicate. One of the most prominent connections with bells has been in relation to death and dying - - 1/

The passing bell (mentioned in Wilfred Owen's infamous poem 'Anthem for Doomed Youth') was rung immediately after death as a signal for prayer. "What passing bells for these who die as cattle?" Owen wrote - 2/

"Only the monstrous anger of the guns. Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle can patter out their hasty orisons"...

His point was that there was no honour in death for these young men, a far cry from the glory that was promised them... 3/

Have you paid much heed to the bells that Dickens draws our attention to in Stave 1 of the novella? We all note the significance of bells in 'Macbeth' - the ringing of the bell within; the "knell for Duncan". What about the knell for Scrooge? 4/

In Stave 1, the narrative voice informs us that 'the ancient tower of a church('s) ... gruff old bell was always peeping slyly down at Scrooge out of a Gothic window in the wall'. Could this perhaps signify that Death (represented here by the bell) has its eye on Scrooge,&that 5/

that night was the day (or night) of reckoning (as it were)?

Of course, in the same stave, once Scrooge is home, a solitary bell begins to (quite spontaneously) ring throughout the house,followed by the subsequent ringing of every bell in the house,prior to Marley's entrance.6/

Bells were long since credited for the ability to summon the spirit world. In dreams, the home represents the Self - so perhaps Scrooge's inner-self, his subconscious, is summoning the assistance of the spirits. But of course, there is the possibility that these bells are 7/

indeed Scrooge's passing bells, or his knell; that this night will be his last upon this earth - either literally or figuratively.

With this in mind, it is interesting to consider that Dickens uses the semantic field of Death in his first descriptions of Scrooge - 8/

the 'low temperature' he carries about with him; the 'ic(y)' conditions of his office space; his 'thin blue lips' and 'frosty rime' on his eyebrow. Could the message be that Scrooge (on the inside, at least) is already dead? Or, in any event, not truly living? 9/

Of course, what follows is a fast-track healing programme, with divine intervention, & Stave 4 presents us with an appeal (via the narrative voice) for Death to 'set up thine altar here', in order to honour the death of this man who, beneath it all, was 'open', 'generous' & 10/

'true'.

Scrooge dies. And a new Scrooge is born. "I'm as light as a feather",he declares in Stave 5. "I am quite a baby".He has been given a new lease of life, life that is 'springing forth from the wound'

So there you have it! A knell for Scrooge (but a good one!) 11/11