Like Christmas morning itself - when each present represents a discrete mystery, separate from the last - the Christmas Carol is divided into a set of episodes. The book's chapters are episodic, with the duration of each spirit a single episode. Within each chapter, there a number of discrete scenes that can be considered separately, and called episodes. While the division into episodes becomes predictable, the way Scrooge and the ghost physically move between these …showed first 75 words of 663 total…

…showed last 75 words of 663 total…able to interact with the time. When the present spirit appears ready to move on Scrooge's nephew and his family are just beginning another game. Scrooge pleads, "one half hour, Spirit, only one!" While the spirit does not explicitly answer, Scrooge is allowed to watch the new game "called Yes and No" (61). Scrooge has agency. In both the past and future Scrooge makes similar appeals to alter the apparent course of movement, but is denied.