Spirits' features

[Angie]

The features of each spirit are very interesting, specially because of the time they are representing.

Past - Candle
Present - Father Christmas
Yet to Come - Death (and all the time is mute)

What do you think?, and why in almost all the adaptations the one which was more respected was the one of the Spirit of Christmas Yet to Come?

[[deleted user]]

The ghost of Christmas yet to come is probably most respected because of our fear of the unknown and superstitious nature, don't you think? Not sure about the candle, although light was issuing from teh first spirit - he had a flickering face, like a film of people who lived before. So I would think more of a movie camera than a candle, though obviously that would not have been Dicken's intent...

[C. J.]

There was at least one adaptation I remember (it may have been from the 70's) where they respected the Ghost of Christmas Past.

A woman actor with nearly masculine-like features (so one wouldn't tell in a way if she were man or woman) had lots of hair spilling from her head (like light) and would stop her visions with a cone that would be placed over her head. I think that one is pretty well-adapted.

[Maddy]

Angie wrote: "The features of each spirit are very interesting, specially because of the time they are representing.

Past - Candle
Present - Father Christmas
Yet to Come - Death (and all the time is mute)

What..."

I think the Features of each spirit represent something to do with the tences.
For example:

Past-
If we see the flame of a candle we feel happy and bright. If we have fond memories in our past we also feel good.
But if that flame is blown out, or those memories are forgotten, then we are in darkness and we feel sad.

Presant -
The belief in Santa Claus is something children all around the world love. And what he brings is even more exciting. Preasants!
I heard a saying once in a movie, "Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery and today is a gift, that is why they call it the presant."

Future -
We all fear the unknown, as Andy said, and we also fear Death. We don't know when or how it is going to happen but sometime in our lives, we are going to die. The reason Death didn't speak was most likely because we don't know what is going to happen after we die so it's not going to tell us yet. We're not really ready to hear about what is to come.

[Anna]

Hmm. Never thought about this before. It's intriguing.
For the Ghost of Christmas Past. . . A candle can easily be blown out. When you forget a certain aspect of your past, the original version is gone. Maddy, I agree that the flame could be the warmth of a happy memory.
As for the Ghost of Christmas Present being Father Christmas. . .I don't know if Dickens would have used Father Christmas just because Present is another word for Gift and what Father Christmas brings to children. Maybe he used Father Christmas as how a child sees life. Father Christmas is traditionally someone a child believes in. Perhaps it was symbolism for seeing the Present as a child sees it: simplistically and happily? I'm assuming here; I don't know for sure.
But, superstition would be my guess for fearing the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. For example, I'd be a lot more careful not to offend that particular Spirit. Since he never spoke, how would I know if he was spitefully showing me a future that wasn't my own? "That's for making fun of my cloak, Eliza. Now look at your future." But then again, our futures are never the same from one day to the next. Our choices affect our futures.

[Allan]

Perhaps, instead of Father Christmas, the spirit was Father Time. Given that, "his time on earth is limited,” it was most likely for the term of one year. I think this because he had more than 1800 brothers and sisters, exactly the number of the current year.