A Christmas Carol was published in 1843. Lately, partly because of things going on in the news, and partly just because of the time of year, there's been a decent amount of talk about how we still often seem to ignore the lessons Scrooge learned over 150 years ago.
But I'm not going to be talking about Scrooge today; I'm going to be talking about the women of A Christmas Carol.
First, let's discuss Belle. Belle doesn't get a lot of "screen time," but she is arguably an extremely strong and progressive woman. In A Christmas Carol, Belle spends a very long time engaged to Scrooge; ostensibly because Scrooge claims that he wants to wait until his finances are better so that they can afford a good home after they marry. But after years of Scrooge putting the marriage off because he still doesn't feel that he is successful enough, Belle realizes that he will never attain his unreachable financial goal, and worse, that he has come to value riches more than he values Belle herself. With this realization, she does something drastic - she breaks the engagement. This was virtually unheard of during the Victorian era.
During this time period, many women would not have had a way to support themselves without either their father still caring for them, or a husband. For Belle to break a multi-year engagement was extremely drastic. A woman who had been engaged but was no longer would have been viewed with suspicion at best, and become a pariah at worst. And yet, in this story, we see Belle many years later, happily married to another man. Belle took a huge risk, something most women probably would not have done in her position. And yes, it did work out for her, but she was incredibly brave to do what she did.
Then there are the Cratchit women. First, Mrs. Cratchit. And, yes, here I'm going on the interpretation of her as presented by A Muppet Christmas Carol, because I haven't read the original since college... Mrs. Cratchit is a strong woman. She cares for her family (both emotionally and technically) and can be what is needed for them at any given time. She is tender when Tim is ill, does her best to show a strong front to Bob when Tim dies in the avoided future (despite the fact that her heart is broken, too), and when Scrooge comes knocking to joke about Bob being "late" for work, she is right there to defend her husband. (OK, it helps that she's played by Miss Piggy...)
And who remembers Martha Cratchit? (Don't worry, most people don't - she's not in a lot of the adaptations...) Martha is the eldest Cratchit child. I don't recall her age from having read the book, but she's old enough that she's working somewhere that she doesn't come home every day. And, as we see from Scrooge's reluctance to close the office, and the fact that food shops were open, Martha is somehow able to swing getting off from work to come see her family for Christmas. I imagine she was a maid or cook, possibly a governess. These were jobs that would not have Christmas Day off.* I imagine that she had this sort of job, because her parents are NOT expecting her to be home. She arrives home and her siblings make a big deal about making her hide so that their parents will be surprised to see her.
*In Britain, Boxing Day - the day after Christmas - was the day that the Help had the day off, and leftovers from Christmas were boxed up so they could take food home with them on their day off.
So while we always like to think of and remember that miraculous change of heart, the reformed misanthrope, whether it's Scrooge or the Grinch, let us also remember the Christmas Belles - the strong women who are just as worthy of attention.