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 description of Scrooge’s personality.
When the weather outside worsens Scrooge’s unsociability worsens as well for example when a caroller wishes Scrooge a Merry Christmas Scrooge seizes a ruler in his hand with so much energy that the caroller runs away in terror. A great part in the novel shows Scrooge’s unsociability is when Dickens writes, “No beggars implored him to bestow a trifle, no children asked him what it was o’clock, no man or woman ever once in all his life inquired the way to such and such a place, of Scrooge.” This proves that Scrooge was an unsociable person, everyone was afraid of him and no one would dare talk to him or ask him anything.
Scrooge was a very mean man.
He shows his dislike for Christmas with the incident with his nephew. When Scrooge’s nephew came to wish him a Merry Christmas Scrooge replied to his nephew by saying “What right to you have to be Merry on a day like this you’re a day older but not an hour richer.” Scrooge’s meanness is shown here because he replies to a seasons greeting from his nephew by questioning his right to being happy at Christmas when usually any civilised person would thank them and wish them a Merry Christmas. Another incident in which Scrooge’s meanness is shown is when he grudgingly gives his clerk the day off for Christmas. Scrooge shows his meanness and also his miserliness here because he reluctantly gives one of his employees the day off on Christmas day and he also wants to make money on the day when no one is really going to be buying things.
The author portrayed Scrooge’s miserliness by saying that Scrooge made an undoubted bargain on the day of his partner, his only friend Marley’s funeral. Instead of mourning the death of his work partner and best friend he is working and making bargains.
“Darkness is cheap and Scrooge liked it”. In his counting house Scrooge kept his fire very low on a very cold day not wanting to buy any more coal for the fire, not wanting to waste money on only a fire. He kept the coal bucket in his office so when an employee came in and asked for more coal for the fire in their work quarters he would refuse and even threaten to fire them because he did not want to waste money because he liked to keep his money tight to him. At home he also showed his miserliness by keeping his fire very low not wasting any coal.
Scrooge only had what he needed in his house, the essentials; his house was “sparsely furnished”. Dickens uses a metaphor to strengthen the effect of his miserliness, “Tight fisted hand at the grindstone”. “A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner”, here he uses a string of strong, powerful adjectives. Scrooge liked to squeeze money out of his customers that’s how Dickens describes Scrooge.
Dickens sets Scrooge out to be a lonely and sad man he shows it when he writes “Scrooge took his usual melancholy dinner in his usual melancholy way”.
Because Scrooge eats alone this makes him seem like a sad, old and lonely man. Dickens strong and powerful use of vocabulary, adjectives and descriptions create a sad, gloomy, depressing atmosphere or mood. Also because of his repetion the effects of the words are reinforced or strengthened.
Although Dickens firmly establishes Scrooge’s character in stave one of the novel “A Christmas Carol”, the rest of the novel shows us how Scrooge changes for the better. The two incidents that I have chosen to show these changes are in stave two when Scrooge says to the first spirit that he wished he had given something to the caroller and also in stave four when the last of the spirits and Scrooge visits Scrooge’s grave.
In stave two Scrooge is his normal mean self until the first of the three spirits visit him. The spirit takes Scrooge back to his past. Scrooge starts to see what he was like as a young boy he starts to change his feelings ever so slightly. When he is visiting one of his childhood memories when he is talking to his sister, Scrooge says to the spirit that he wished that he had given something to the caroller when the caroller came to the door of his counting house to wish him a Merry Christmas. This is because, when Scrooge saw that when he was given things when he was younger, how much happier the things made him. Scrooge thought he had a bad childhood but he didn’t it was that he just didn’t want to remember it. After being taken back to his past Scrooge became a nicer person.
In the second incident I have chosen, the third spirit comes to take Scrooge to the future. They visit Scrooge’s grave. Scrooge finds out that no one had visited his grave. Scrooge starts to think about what he had said to people to make them upset and not visit his grave. He realizes that his actions as well as his words had upset people and established him as a mean person to others. So from then on Scrooge became a much nicer person all together.
Scrooge had changed from our first thoughts of him, which were that he was a miserable, cruel, mean, miserly and hard old man to a nice, kind, and thoughtful old man after visiting his past, present and future.
Dickens establishes Scrooge’s character in stave one of the novel “A Christmas Carol” the first thought sticks with us for the rest of the novel because Dickens is such a successful writer. In conclusion this shows how powerful and strong Dickens’ writing is he uses a variety of good and useful techniques to vary his writing and establish Scrooge’s character.