From The Baptist Press
By Jason Duesing, posted December 20, 2023 in Discipleship
G.K. Chesterton called Charles Dickens the poet of fog.[1] In A Christmas Carol, the fog of London serves as a backdrop from which characters emerge with lamps, light.
When Scrooge is first greeted by the caroling of “God bless you merry gentlemen,” he responds such that “the singer fled in terror, leaving the keyhole to the fog.”[2]
Of the fog in Dickens, Chesterton remarks that fog is not used as dismal or dark, but rather something that draws in and, in the case of Scrooge, corners. Fog “makes the world small, in the same spirit as in that common and happy cry that the world is small, meaning it is full of friends.”[3] The fog of London brings Scrooge messengers and eventually sees him return to friends.
In this sense Chesterton picks up on the theme of comfort in Dickens. For comfort, he says, “belongs peculiarly to Christmas; above all it belongs pre-eminently to Dickens.”[4] The fog draws Scrooge inward to a place of comfort. For inside there are fires and feasts. Chesterton explains:
“The beauty and the real blessing of the story do not lie in the mechanical plot of it, the repentance of Scrooge, probable or improbable; they lie in the great furnace of real happiness that glows through Scrooge and everything round him.”[5]
In our day, we live in a fog. Current events and the conflict of culture pervade our streets and the airwaves in which we live and move. Yet, often when burdened by this fog and darkness we fail to see it as a reminder to move us to places of comfort. Places with fires and friends. Places that arrive naturally at this time of year. More Here
