The Chimes: A Goblin Story

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The novel's setting is contemporary and the 1840s (the " Hungry Forties") were a time of social and political unrest. They have no earthly right or business to be married, ... they have no earthly right or business to be born!" As the story opens its New Year’s Eve and Trotty’s daughter Meg, has announced the news that she and her fiancée are getting married in New Year’s Day, which to them sounds like an auspicious date. As the bells of a nearby church, known as the chimes, start to ring, Trotty is drawn to their magical sound. He climbs up to the bell tower, where he encounters a group of goblins who personify the bells and take him on a surreal journey. These goblins present Trotty with visions of potential futures that may occur in the lives of people he knows, including his daughter Meg. After trying in vain to help a couple of poor people who are in trouble, Trotty reads of a woman who killed her child and herself, and finds himself concluding that impoverished people like himself are, as he puts it, “Unnatural and cruel! None but people who were bad at heart, born bad, who had no business on the Earth, could do such deeds….We’re Bad!” (p. 54)

The society’s scorn and disregard for the situation of people living in poverty is personified by a justice of the peace named Alderman Cute. Modelled in part on a real-life London politician who was known for claiming that there was no social problem that he couldn’t “put down,” Cute thinks of himself as a “Famous man for the common people”, but shows his real attitude toward the common people when he discourages Meg from marrying her fiancé Richard, telling Meg that she will inevitably quarrel with her husband, become a distressed wife, have sons who will get in trouble, become homeless, and attempt suicide – all of which, Cute adds, “I am determined to Put Down” (pp. 25, 28). Cute’s solution to poverty seems to be that the poor should never fall in love, marry, or have children. There are still politicians with his sort of attitude at work today in London, and in Washington, D.C. All Genoa lay beneath him, and up from it, with some sudden set of the wind, came in one fell sound the clang and clash of all its steeples, pouring into his ears, again and again, in a tuneless, grating, discordant, jerking, hideous vibration that made his ideas "spin round and round till they lost themselves in a whirl of vexation and giddiness, and dropped down dead." [2]It seems as if we can’t go right, or do right, or be righted….I hadn’t much schooling, myself, when I was young; and I can’t make out whether we have any business on the face of the Earth, or not. Sometimes I think we must have – a little; and sometimes I think we must be intruding. I get so puzzled sometimes that I am not even able to make up my mind whether there is any good at all in us, or whether we are born bad. We seem to be dreadful things; we seem to give a deal of trouble; we are always being complained of and guarded against. One way or other, we fill the papers.” (p. 10) More seriously, Trotty debates who is worthy of time—that is, who is worthy of life. On a New Year’s Eve, he considers himself and his working-class fellows and muses that they are perhaps unworthy, We seem to give a deal of trouble; we are always being complained of and guarded against … supposing it should really be that we have no right to a New Year. The Phantoms of the Bell, and the Goblins who serve them, then tell Trotty that he died in the bell tower nine years ago, and that it is now his lot to witness what has happened to those he loved. Meg is now a young woman, and a mother, but she is worn by the cruel life that she has endured – “The light of the clear eye, how dimmed. The bloom, how faded from the cheek” (p. 68). She did indeed marry Richard, but Richard has become “A slouching, moody, drunken sloven, wasted by intemperance and vice” (p. 80).

Christmas Carol. Όπως και σε αυτό παρακολουθούμε την ιστορία ενός ανθρώπου που αμφισβητεί πάρα πολλά πράγματα για την ανθρώπινη φύση αλλά τελικά μία μεταφυσική παρέμβαση τον κάνει να ξανασκεφτεί τα πράγματα και να καταλάβει ότι μπορεί να κάνει πολλά πράγματα για να βελτιωθεί η ζωή του αλλά και οι ζωές των ανθρώπων που είναι γύρω του. Σε αντίθεση με την πιο γνωστή ιστορία, όμως, ο πρωταγωνιστής δεν είναι κάποιος πλούσιος αλλά ένας φτωχός γέρος εργαζόμενος. Ο συγγραφέας δεν θεωρεί επαρκή την δικαιολογία της φτώχειας και θεωρεί κατακριτέα αυτή την αντιμετώπιση της ζωής ως κάτι το πεζό και των ανθρώπων ως ανίκανων να καταφέρουν οτιδήποτε πέρα από την επιβίωση και την ικανοποίηση των εγωιστικών τους απαιτήσεων. Φυσικά σε καμία περίπτωση δεν έχουμε την άποψη ότι όλη η κοινωνία έχει το ίδιο μερίδιο ευθύνης, κάθε άλλο, ο συγγραφέας αντιμετωπίζει ειρωνικά αυτή την ιδέα, παρωδώντας εκείνους τους ανθρώπους των ανώτερων τάξεων που αυτοανακηρύσσονται ειδικοί και κατηγορούν τους φτωχούς ανθρώπους για τον τρόπο ζωής που αναγκάζονται να υιοθετήσουν εξαιτίας της κοινωνικής ανισότητας. Upon returning to reality, Trotty realizes the importance of individual kindness and how a single act of goodwill can create a ripple effect, transforming the lives of others for the better. He is determined to bring positive change to society and becomes an advocate for the poor and oppressed. The final words of The Chimes seem fitting So may the New Year be a happy one to you, happy to many more whose happiness depends on you! So may each year be happier than the last, and not the meanest of our brethren or sisterhood debarred their rightful share, in what our Great Creator formed them to enjoy.Le Père Martin" (1888) by Ruben Saillens and unwittingly plagiarized as " Papa Panov's Special Christmas" by Leo Tolstoy So may the New Year be a happy one to you, happy to many more whose happiness depends on you! So may each year be happier than the last, and not the meanest of our brethren or sisterhood debarred their rightful share, in what our Great Creator formed them to enjoy." The Chimes was adapted into a 24-minute clay-animated film in 2000 by Xyzoo Animation. It won a Cine Special Jury award in 2002. [8]

observed Sir Joseph, glancing at the poor man present.‘As such I may be taunted. As such I have been I hoped that such prophecies as parted them when they were young, may not often fulfil themselves as they did in this case ..." The little book is now, as far as I am concerned, all ready. One cut of Doyle's and one of Leech's I found so unlike my ideas, that I had them both to breakfast with me this morning, and with that winning manner which you know of, got them with the highest good humour to do both afresh. They are now hard at it. Stanfield's readiness, delight, wonder at my being pleased with what he has done is delicious. Mac's frontispiece is charming. The book is quite splendid; the expenses will be very great, I have no doubt." At the end of the book, Trotty finds himself awakening at home as if from a dream as the bells ring in the New Year of the day Trotty originally climbed the tower. Meg and Richard have chosen to wed, Will discovers that their kind landlady is the old family friend he was in search of and thus presumably he and Lilian will now be all right, and all of their friends have spontaneously chosen to provide a wedding feast and celebration. The author explicitly invites the reader to decide if this "awakening" is a dream-within-a-dream. The reader must choose between the harsh consequences of the behaviour of the upper classes in Trotty's vision, or the happiness of the wedding. Gates, Barbara T. Mad Crimes and Sad Histories Chapter 3 at VictorianWeb" . Retrieved 13 February 2008.arm’s-length, and looking in her face imploringly.‘The worst of all, the worst of all! Strike me old, As New Year’s Eve advances toward midnight, Trotty is confronted by the Spirits of the Bells, who take him on a journey to witness what will become of those dear to him if they are infected by his opinion that they are unworthy of a New Year. In a final crisis, Trotty declares I know that our inheritance is held in store for us by Time. I know there is a sea of Time to rise one day, before which all who wrong us or oppress us will be swept away like leaves. … I know that we must trust and hope, and neither doubt ourselves, nor doubt the good in one another. … O Spirits, merciful and good, I am grateful!

During the night, Trotty has a dream that the Chimes call to him and they are actually goblins that are very disappointed in him for losing faith in humanity. They tell Trotty he is dead and he must learn about the true nature of humankind by watching his daughter's life unfold. Trotty is once again convinced that people are indeed innately good and circumstances drive them to desperation and the poor are not a plague on society and they do have a right to exist. He also learns that poor like their "betters" are constantly trying to improve their lives... just like Trotty did during his life. Yet, the poor seem to always be fighting a losing battle because of the structure of society. On New Year's Eve, Trotty, Meg and Richard have an encounter with some arrogant terrible men who are a higher social class than Trotty & co. These men make Trotty, Meg and Richard feel like they do not have a right to exist because they are so poor and a burden on society. Their words to Trotty and Meg just boiled my blood! Trotty's "crime", he is told, is in not taking personal responsibility, in not having any inner convictions, and in losing confidence, faith in a higher power, and hope and determination that life would improve. He is reprimanded for his condemnation of people less fortunate than himself, offering them neither help nor pity. On his walk to Sir Joseph Bowley's house he had condemned a "cutpurse" (thief), and ignored the plight of a prostitute in the power of her pimp. He had read the account in a newspaper of a woman, driven from her home by poverty and misfortune, who had killed her child and herself. Trotty had seen this as final proof of the badness of the working class, and had cursed the woman as "unnatural and cruel". The goblins and spirits tell him that he has begun to emulate the behaviour of those such as Alderman Cute, At the end of the book, Trotty finds himself awakening at home as if from a dream as the bells ring in the New Year of the day Trotty originally climbed the tower. Meg and Richard have chosen to wed, and all of her friends have spontaneously chosen to provide a wedding feast and celebration. The author explicitly invites the reader to decide if this "awakening" is a dream-within-a-dream. The reader must choose between the harsh consequences of the behaviour of the upper classes in Trotty's vision, or the happiness of the wedding. Trotty loves the church chimes and he and Meg feel the chimes have always been their constant friend.Trotty, raising his hands in an attitude of supplication.‘I hardly know why I am here, or how I came. I have