Preview

Ebenezer Scrooge Analysis Essay Example

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
707 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Ebenezer Scrooge Analysis Essay Example
Character Analysis of Ebenezer Scrooge

At the beginning of A Christmas Carol, abundant evidence is provided to support the conclusion that Ebenezer Scrooge is the protagonist of Dickens' tale, who doesn't want to spend any more money than is absolutely essential, and who begrudges spending for what is necessary. A grasping, covetous, flinty old pinchpenny... With his pointed nose, shrivelled cheeks, and stiff gait, he is repulsive to all his acquaintances. In his novella, Dickens portrays Scrooge with words that are equally as familiar as his name-- “Bah...Humbug!".

Scrooge's character is shaped by the conditioning he experienced as a young child, as our characters as humans always are. He has been suffering psychologically for years from the abuse of neglect he received as a child when he was left alone during Christmas. However, another conflict manifests itself on that Christmas Eve when the do-gooders stop by to ask Scrooge for a donation for charity by mentioning Marley's name which triggers Scrooge's memory of friendship, love and benevolence. He sent them off by a gruffly reply "It is not my business....It's enough for a man to understand his own business, and not interfere with other people's. Mine occupies me constantly. Good afternoon, gentlemen!" Finally, the day draws to its close and Scrooge must release his clerk, Bob Cratchit, but not before he grumpily says, "...you don't think me ill-used when I pay a day's wages for no work" as he must allow the man a holiday on Christmas. Ordering the man to "Be here all the earlier" the next day, Scrooge reluctantly lets the man go home. Clearly, Ebenezer Scrooge is a misanthrope who shares no warmth with any man. As he dismisses his nephew, Scrooge declares, "If I could work my will, every idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. He should!"

The conflict intensifies when Marley's spirit

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Within ‘A Christmas Carol’, Scrooges redemption, as initiated by the Ghost of Jacob Marley, is central to Dickens’ message regarding the importance of social responsibility. In Stave One, Scrooge is initially described as a character with little care for those around him; he was a ‘squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, covetous old sinner… hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire’. He refuses to donate to ‘those who are badly off’ insisting that ‘if they would rather die’ than go to the cruelly overcrowded prisons and demeaning workhouses of 19th century London, ‘they had better do so, and decrease the surplus population’. The readership are exposed to a character who has become so detached from society that he feels his only responsibility…

    • 1277 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    In the beginning of the novella, the main protagonist, Ebenezer Scrooge, opposes Christmas and all the kind-hearted, charitable values it stands for. Throughout the tale Scrooge is visited by Ghosts from a Christmas past, present, and future, who show the “bitter” Scrooge how to be compassionate towards others. Money is a big part of the story, and it plays a role as a contrast to how generosity is viewed. Scrooge is rich but lives a life as “solitary as an oyster” and “warning all human sympathy to keep its distance.” He initially supports the inhumanity of cold-hearted decisions made by governments with his response to the charity collectors being, “Are there no prisons?... And the Union Workhouses. Are they still in operation?” He feels no compulsion to give charity to support meagre gifts to the poor and dispossessed and dismisses the collectors with “I cannot afford to make idle people merry” and with suggestions that such people would be better dead to “reduce the surplus population.”…

    • 1130 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In ‘A Christmas Carol’, Dickens uses memories from Scrooges childhood to assist him in his transformation throughout the novella. As the Ghost’s take Scrooge on adventures back into his childhood, thoughts charge into his mind that causes abundant feelings of regret and disappointment towards the person he has become today. He is reminded that it’s not too late to revolutionize his ways to improve himself, and comes to the realization that he isn’t content and does wish to persist along a positive path in life rather than the pessimistic course he’s currently resting on.…

    • 1080 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    He is happy with the small life that he never wanted, doing what he knows is right for the sake of others instead of his own. But once doing the right thing is not an acceptable option any more, George wants an out. Ebenezer Scrooge, the main character from “A Christmas Carol” is a sad grumpy man who is never satisfied with what he has. He is harsh, and devious, but most of all he is selfish. Together, these men experience a loss more dear to them than their own lives, both angry and sad on the coming of the most joyful day of the year.…

    • 437 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Scrooge is remarkably remorseful when he relives his last conversation with his fiance. Once the spirit presents Belle breaking off the engagement, Scrooge asks: “‘Show me no more! Conduct me home! Why do you delight to torture me?”’ (Page 16). Scrooge chooses money over, who is supposed to be, the love of his life. He is filled with immense grief after seeing his break-up with Belle. When he experiences the conversation…

    • 527 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Scrooge starts explaining how his power lies in his words and in things so slight and insignificant that is impossible to count up and the happiness he gives them costs a fortune, while he is saying this remembers about his clerk and wishes he could say a few things to Bob Crachit, which shows us that there is vast changes being made to his outlook in life as his thinking is changing.…

    • 1791 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    A Christmas carol by Charles Dickens is a significant novella written in the Victorian era. The protagonist Ebenezer Scrooge is used to demonstrate the upper class society and their attitude towards the poor. Throughout this redemption story, Dickens combines a descriptions of hardships faced by the poor with a heart-felt sentimental celebration of the Christmas season. The novella contains a dramatic and comic element as well as a deep felt moral theme. The text promotes the values of Ebenezer Scrooge, delving into his past, present and supposed future as well as contrasting between the enriching and depressing story; specifically evaluating the authors message, the Cratchit family, Scrooges nature and alternatively the ghostly circumstances outlined in the parable. Dickens message and the spirits of Christmas is one that intends to inspire and uplift the reader.…

    • 744 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dickens chooses to set his novella amidst the depth of hearty Christmas celebrations highlighting the abundance that was evident in contrast to the extreme poverty in Victorian London. Dickens highlights the ever-increasing degradation of the poor by the intervention of the charity collectors, who state the stark reality that the poor are unable to afford, “meat and drink and some means of warmth” The contrasting live of the wealthy in whose lives, “abundance rejoices” is distinctly different and obviously noticed. Dickens was intending to generate sympathy from the reader before outlining the full extent of his massage. Dickens points up Christmas as a time of special giving, highlighting the disregard of the basic Christmas message, by those who are able yet not willing to give to the poor; during this giving season. Scrooge portrays the exact attitude Dickens is disdaining when he says, “what is Christmas to you but a time for paying bills without money,” showing the total misunderstanding of Christmas. Dickens again instructs the audience by teaching Scrooge a vital lesson in generosity, through the use of the Ghost of Christmas Past, who through careful questioning, forces Scrooge to admit that the happiness the Fezziwig generated was “quite as great as if it has cost a fortune.” This one comment of Scrooge’s, whilst reviewing his past, highlights to the readers that sacrificing a few pounds out of abundance, not only gives…

    • 832 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    At the beginning the audience hated Scrooge, because of his cold-hearted and mean-spirited cheapskate. “Oh! But he was tight-fisted man at the grindstone, Scrooge! A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, covetous old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster” he is very stubborn and doesn’t wanted to listen to his nephew Fred’s advice, and never change his mind to accept other and also to change his own fate. Also he is selfishness about ignore those poor people. “If they would rather die,” said scrooge, “they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.” Scrooge doesn’t care about other people’s death, and he’s greedy as hell not even spend money to celebrate Christmas time. Also he has a big house but inside the house is dark and cold, like his own personality cold-heated and miserly. But after phantom teach him a lesson, then he start to change and becomes differently.…

    • 873 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    At first, Scrooge is very unhappy, unfriendly, and selfish and shows it in his actions. In the first stave it says, “The cold within him froze his old features… he carried his own low temperature always about with him” (2). This explains that Scrooge never had a smile on his face or skip in his step. He was unhappy all the time. Scrooge is also very unfriendly, “Nobody…

    • 739 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”, the character of Scrooge goes through a transformation which results in him being a generous and considerate man instead of a cruel and bitter one. This transformation is not primarily stimulated by the character Tiny Tim; it is instead as a result of encounters with a series of ghosts and other significant people, such as Tiny Tim. The Ghost of Christmas Past, The Ghost of Christmas Present and The Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come each lead Scrooge through a different part of his life in an effort to guide him away from his miserable existence and in a more positive direction. Scrooge is also influenced by rendezvous with Tiny Tim, who helps to change Scrooge’s attitude towards the poor.…

    • 431 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Many reforms are suggested through the evolution of Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens. The Victorian Society progresses through the same changes that Scrooge went through in the story. In this novella, Dickens uses Scrooge to critique Victorian Society by showing his greed and treatment of the poor. As a solution to these problems, he shows how the Christmas season can be viewed as a spirit of giving.…

    • 603 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol” Ebenezer Scrooge changes from a bitter old man to a good person through the help of the ghosts of Christmas past, present and yet to come. When Scrooge was a young man he was kind, nice and good person. However, Scrooge slowly changes from towards a more miserly direction the more wealthy he becomes. At the start of the story Scrooge is a bitter old man who is obsessed with money, completely shuts himself of from society and has a strong hatred for Christmas time and anything Christmas related. Slowly with the help of the Jacob Marley and the ghosts of Christmas past, preset, and yet to come, Scrooge changes back to a good person.…

    • 838 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In 'A Christmas Carol', Charles Dickens represents Scrooge as an unsympathetic man who is offered the opportunity to redeem himself. Through use of language, the reader is positioned to view him adversely, but during the journey of morality lessons shown by three spirits, Scrooge recovers his sense of joy by undergoing a significant transformation. Scrooge seeks redemption through the many lessons taught by the Spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come.…

    • 810 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dickens is able to show the change in Scrooge’s character by establishing what Scrooge is like at the very beginning of the story with the first two words he says: ‘“Bah! Humbug!”’ It is clear from the dismissive tone and the two exclamation marks that Scrooge has no patience with the idea of Christmas as a special time.…

    • 2624 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays