Fezziwig's warehouse
Fezziwig's warehouse is the setting of one of the most vividly joyful scenes in A Christmas Carol, a Christmas Eve ball that the Ghost of Christmas Past shows Ebenezer Scrooge to remind him of the happiness that generous fellowship can create. The warehouse, transformed from a place of labor into a ballroom, becomes a living emblem of the warmth, gratitude, and communal spirit that Scrooge has abandoned. The memory of this night stirs in Scrooge a profound emotional response, marking a crucial step in his reclamation.
Identity and Setting
The warehouse belongs to old Fezziwig, a merchant whom Scrooge served as an apprentice in his youth. The Ghost of Christmas Past stops at a certain warehouse door and asks Scrooge if he knows it; Scrooge cries out in great excitement, "Know it! Was I apprenticed here?" Inside, they find an old gentleman in a Welsh wig sitting behind such a high desk that if he had been two inches taller he must have knocked his head against the ceiling. This is Fezziwig, whom Scrooge greets with the words, "Bless his heart, it's Fezziwig alive again!" The warehouse is a large commercial space, but on this night it is cleared of all movable goods, swept and watered, its lamps trimmed, and fuel heaped upon the fire, so that it becomes "as snug, and warm, and dry, and bright a ball-room as you would desire to see upon a winter's night."
The Christmas Eve Ball
At seven o'clock, Fezziwig lays down his pen, rubs his hands, adjusts his capacious waistcoat, laughs all over himself, and calls out in a comfortable, oily, rich, fat, jovial voice, "Yo ho, there! Ebenezer! Dick!" Scrooge's former self, now a young man, comes in briskly accompanied by his fellow apprentice Dick Wilkins. Fezziwig declares no more work tonight and, with a sharp clap of his hands, orders the shutters up before a man can say Jack Robinson. The two apprentices charge into the street with the shutters and have them up in place in a matter of moments. Then Fezziwig skips down from the high desk with wonderful agility and calls for the floor to be cleared. In comes a fiddler with a music-book, who makes an orchestra of the lofty desk and tunes like fifty stomachaches. In comes Mrs. Fezziwig, one vast substantial smile. In come the three Miss Fezziwigs, beaming and lovable. In come the six young followers whose hearts they break. In come all the young men and women employed in the business, the housemaid with her cousin the baker, the cook with her brother's particular friend the milkman, and the boy from over the way. Away they all go, twenty couple at once, dancing hands half round and back again, down the middle and up again, round and round in various stages of affectionate grouping. There are more dances, forfeits, cake, negus, a great piece of Cold Roast, a great piece of Cold Boiled, mince-pies, and plenty of beer. The great effect of the evening comes when the fiddler strikes up "Sir Roger de Coverley," and old Fezziwig stands out to dance with Mrs. Fezziwig as the top couple, with three or four and twenty pair of partners. Fezziwig cuts so deftly that he appears to wink with his legs and comes upon his feet again without a stagger. At eleven o'clock the ball breaks up, and Mr. and Mrs. Fezziwig take their stations one on either side the door, shaking hands with every person individually and wishing each a Merry Christmas.
Scrooge's Response and the Scene's Significance
During the entire scene, Scrooge acts like a man out of his wits. His heart and soul are in the scene, and with his former self. He corroborates everything, remembers everything, enjoys everything, and undergoes the strangest agitation. When the Ghost remarks that Fezziwig has spent but a few pounds of mortal money—three or four perhaps—Scrooge heatedly replies, "It isn't that, Spirit. He has the power to render us happy or unhappy; to make our service light or burdensome; a pleasure or a toil. Say that his power lies in words and looks; in things so slight and insignificant that it is impossible to add and count 'em up: what then? The happiness he gives is quite as great as if it cost a fortune." This realization leads directly to Scrooge's wish to say a word or two to his own clerk, Bob Cratchit. The memory of Fezziwig's warehouse thus functions as a moral counterweight to Scrooge's miserliness, demonstrating that true generosity is measured not in money but in the human warmth one extends to others. The warehouse, transformed from a place of commerce into a space of communal joy, becomes the template for the kind of life Scrooge must learn to embrace.
