Scrooge doesn’t really have any friends, and when people do try and visit him he acts arrogantly and negative towards them, we could describe scrooge as selfish because he is an extremely wealthy man but somehow he can’t afford to give a few pennies for the homeless.
The story is set on Christmas Eve in London, and as we know people are happy and having a good time but Scrooge doesn’t he is still nasty.
The language in this book is very different to modern day this is due to when Dickens wrote the book.
The plot line of the story is to show how and why Scrooge changes. Dickens shows Scrooge gradually changing from this selfish man to what he actually wants to be.
Dickens shows how people can change their ways, he shows some of the reasons why the certain person might be unhappy and he does this with Ebenezer Scrooge.
The main character in the story is Ebenezer Scrooge, as a child he enjoyed the pleasures of his imagination, and he was close to his sister.
As a young man working for Mr. Fezziwig he did not become greedy for the sake of it but a fear of poverty which drives him to work so hard that he forgets about the important things in life and now he is working for all the money he can get, working to earn lots of money becomes Scrooges passion, he does this so he is sure to stay clear of poverty.
Dickens makes us feel sorry for Scrooge because he does not find any pleasure in his wealth, he does not spend any of his money on himself and he definitely does not spend money on others.
Scrooge’s appearance is a small, slim, grey haired man, and he wears a hat for most of the time. He looks like an unhappy man and as we read further into the book we find that this is true.
As we read Stave 1 we get the impression that Scrooge is a very miserable, unkind, selfish, ignorant man, but if we read on we can find out why Scrooge has come to be like this.
Other characters include scrooge’s sister, Fan; though she is very frail she tries to help Scrooge and works to improve his relations with their father. Fred has inherited her good nature and is as obstinate in his kindness as Scrooge is bad-tempered. Scrooge has no other family but his fiancée, Belle, is the first to see how money has changed him. She rejects money and finds happiness in her family.
And as my final character that I am going to describe is Mr. Fezziwig: a large kind man who is mostly always happy. He will welcome almost anyone poor or rich. Scrooge notes how Fezziwig has the power to make people happy or unhappy. Scrooge has the same power but he and Fezziwig use it in completely different ways.
An extremely obvious technique which Dickens uses in this story is the use of speech to show what people think or feel. Dickens uses a lot of speech in the book which creates an atmosphere, there has been a lot of films about “a Christmas carol” this is because the dialogue is very easy to follow.
Another technique which Dickens uses is that when the spirits are visiting scrooge they do not tell him what he has done wrong but they let him see what he has done with his own eyes. The first two spirits especially do this. The Ghost of Christmas Past argues that Mr. Fezziwig has done nothing special, causing Scrooge to praise his generosity. And the Ghost of Christmas Present quotes Scrooge's own earlier words so that Scrooge can see why they are wrong. Elsewhere, but Marley's ghost does tell Scrooge what he has done wrong.
On a whole I think that this book was an extremely good one with a powerful message, Dickens uses such a cold-hearted man so that it has a larger effect upon the audience when they see his changes.
I think that the message of the story should be that nothing is impossible, even a man like Scrooge changed, so Dickens is basically saying that anybody can change.