Scrooge in The Novel A Christmas Carol

Scrooge happens to be a horrible, tight fisted man who excludes himself from his community. However throughout the Novel the reader realises the dramatic change in his personality. This change is brought by the ghost of Scrooges deceased business partner Marley, who warns him to change his personality and views or he’d end up in a forever punishment similar to the one he’s experiencing.

This is followed by three other ghosts who show Scrooge the error of his ways by making him visit his past, present and future in the hope of changing him and saving him from the punishment that waits. During this period we see Scrooge change and realise his mistakes.

In stave 1 of ‘A Christmas Carol’ Dickens shows all the bad in Scrooge, such as when Scrooge, rejects his nephew when his nephew invites him to dinner, “Bah!” said Scrooge, “Humbug!” Here Dickens, is described Scrooge, as a cold hearted man who sheds no emotion The cold within him froze his old features, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice, and said “Merry Christmas!  What right have you to be merry?  What reason have you to be merry?  You’re poor enough.”, here Scrooge shows how low he thinks of his nephew, especially when Scrooge says “your poor enough”, also the way Scrooges voice is grained as if, him speaking to his nephew is a waste of time, as well as making Scrooge feel disgusted by his nephew, his very own blood.  Another point showing how greedy Scrooge is, when Scrooge doesn’t even use the heating in his house even though Scrooge is rich, he chooses to save his money and freeze “Thus secured against surprise, he took off his cravat; put on his dressing-gown and slippers, and his nightcap; and sat down before the fire to take his gruel” because that is the type of person he is, also another reason as to why Dickens describes Scrooge as a revolting person. Scrooge is described in this way because he wouldn’t agree to give his employee a day off for Christmas to spend with his family; in addition with all the money that Scrooge has he is unable to give money to charity. Dickens does this to show all the bad habits that Scrooge has, as well as to make the audience have the same hatred towards Scrooge as he has towards other people, and Christmas.

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Later on in stave 2, Scrooge gets visited by the ghost of Christmas past, which makes Scrooge realise that if he carries on the way he is he will end up like his old friend Marley, in chains paying for all the revolting things that he did with Scrooge in his life before he passed away.  We see Scrooge start to change when he is reminded of his sister’s child and he remembers how much he loved his sister “Scrooge seemed uneasy in his mind; and answered briefly, “Yes.”. the fact he is uneasy makes it clear that he is thinking about something deeply, maybe he is missing his sister, maybe he is thinking about how rude he was to his nephew, but either way he is starting to show his feelings, which makes the audience have a slight change of heart for Scrooge, and start seeing a part of Scrooges good.

In stave 3, Scrooge is visited by the ghost of Christmas present, Dickens does this so that Scrooge, is able to see how people spend their Christmas with their family’s, something that Scrooge has been missing out on as a part of his life, which makes Scrooge realise how much of a ‘Humbug’ he is. Dickens does this so that Scrooge will think to himself that he “must” change his way of life. On the other hand the Ghost of Christmas present, also shows Scrooge shows how a family that is living in poverty are spending their Christmas, and the way they were spending their Christmas was by them living on the street, the father having to look for food in bins or left over from restaurants. Dickens does this to show Scrooge how a less fortunate family spend their Christmas, and if he donates money to charity, the money will help people like the less fortunate family he saw.

 In stave 4, Scrooge is visited by the ghost of Christmas future, which helps Scrooge realise that if he does not change he isn’t going to have a good ending to his life. By Dickens doing so Scrooge is able to realise what he needs to improve on, which make Scrooge beg for things to be different, also wishing that he could help Tiny Tim, his employee’s son with giving him another chance by Scrooge paying for Tiny Tim’s surgery. Another example as to why Scrooge wanted to change was because in the novel Scrooge says, “Your nature intercedes for me, and pities me. Assure me that I yet may change these shadows you have shown me, by an altered life.”, By this dickens is showing the difference between the upper class which have everything they want, need, and they can afford it all, but on the other hand  the disabled  aren’t able to afford what they would like to have for themselves which leads to them only having wishes and pray to God for them to get what they want.

By the end of stave 5 Dickens shows how Scrooge changes, and some examples are when Scrooge begs the ghost to make things different for him and he promises that he will change his way of life, also when Scrooge makes a very large offer to the charity he denied when they asked him for charity, as well as when he buys the biggest turkey for his employee as a present for him, and he even visits his nephew, and apologises to him for the crewel things he said to his nephew, in addition it is mentioned that Scrooge is kind forever more.

Dickens wrote this novel to show people that any-one could have a change of heart, also to make people stop denying the fact that there are people less fortunate than them-selves, and if they are able to, they should give to the people that are less fortunate than them-selves, also the novel is popular for the reason being it has an effect on people, and it teaches people to appreciate what they have, not what they don’t have. In my opinion this novel has an effect on people because it allows them to realise that if they are doing wrong in their life they will still have a chance to change into something better with no regrets of living the past.