Describe Scrooge's character in stave 1 of "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens. How does the author convey this character to us? Describe how Scrooge's character changes, concentrating on two incidents from the rest of the novel.

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Kieren Phillips                                                    Literature.3. (Prose).

Describe Scrooge’s character in stave 1 of “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens. How does the author convey this character to us? Describe how Scrooge’s character changes, concentrating on two incidents from the rest of the novel.

        Charles Dickens created a very powerfully gloomy character when he wrote his novel “A Christmas Carol” the character was Ebenezer Scrooge; most people consider Ebenezer Scrooge to be an unsociable, mean, miserable and miserly old man who likes to be by himself. Dickens did this with his use of strong adjectives, powerful use of vocabulary and his use of various techniques for example in the section of the novel when Scrooge is going through the rooms in his house to see if anyone is there. In this section Dickens describes the rooms in Scrooge’s house, with the use of this technique we can picture the rooms in our mind.

        The techniques Dickens used in stave one include similes and repetition.

“And solitary as an oyster”, is a perfect example of one of the similes. Solitary, which means alone, is a strong adjective to use. It needs to be a strong adjective because we need to have a strong presence of this character; this is why Scrooge is such a strong character in the novel and with us at the present time. The technique works well in this section because we gain a better understanding of Scrooge’s character and can feel his presence.

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        Dickens uses repetition in stave one, “Scrooge took his melancholy dinner in his usual melancholy tavern”, the word melancholy, meaning sad, is repeated twice. Dickens use of repetition of the word melancholy emphasises the word and reinforces the atmosphere.  

After Scrooge’s partner, Marley, had died, Scrooge worked alone he also lived alone; he preferred this, he then became known as a loner. He did everything by himself, which added to him being grumpy and very gloomy. Dickens describes Scrooge’s house as gloomy, grumpy, miserable, dreary and old. This description of Scrooge’s house goes hand in hand with a ...

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