Dickens uses each Ghost’s tale to function as a parable; as such ‘A Christmas Carol’ illustrates the central Christian moral ideas, particularly associated with Christmas. The book also offers relatively modern ideas of how to celebrate Christmas for the Victorian age, which is less concerned with solemn religious traditions and more concerned with the utilising of the Christian traditions of sharing gifts, festive celebrations and displays of prosperity. This moral message has a big effect on the rest of the text, as it is pivotal to the story in its entirety. As the message is about those whom are worse off than ourselves, the book has a very sad and dark mood at times. The Cratchit family for example, who live on almost nothing at all. The mood of the story at the start is very cold, and in this way the author presents Scrooge as central to the moral message. As well as the surface meaning, that money doesn’t make people happy, and those with it, should use it to help people that don’t have that luxury.
Moreover, Charles Dickens portrays the character of Ebenezer Scrooge as someone who originally lives life in contrast to this moral message, in order to highlight the importance of it in the text. Scrooge is portrayed as an old, grouchy, selfish man, who cares for nothing but himself and his ever amounting riches. He is someone who has changed as years have gone by, due to the success of his business, and his greed has consumed him as a reason, making him into a very cold person. Charles Dickens does not hint that Ebenezer Scrooge is like this, but he says it at the start of the book:
‘Scrooge! A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as a flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire.’ (Stave 1, pg 2)
Dickens’ portrayal of Scrooge makes the reader dislike him almost immediately. However, as the book goes on, the reader starts to feel sympathetically towards the character. In Stave three the reader becomes aware of a chance of salvation for Scrooge as he expresses pity for Tiny Tim. Of course at the end of the book Scrooge has changed into someone who can, does and will care for other people, rather than the old Scrooge who was the opposite. Through Scrooge’s portrayal the moral message is made very clear. Through the story’s timeline, Scrooge is representing both ends of the spectrum, the wealthy people who don’t care to help the poor; and later he becomes someone who follows the moral code and shows empathy to his fellow man. Scrooge also represents an important Christian feature, that of redemption. He learns how to let his spirit walk among his fellow men, shown by his becoming “a better man, a better master” (Stave 5); he shows this redemption slowly through his reactions, emotions and actions.
What Ebenezer Scrooge represents and how this affects the rest of the story is the next area for discussion, ‘A Christmas Carol’ was written in The Victorian era, around 1843, at a time when peoples’ view on Christmas was very different to the view of our modern era. Scrooge is used in the early parts of the text to demonstrate the general feeling of the public in that period, a time when charity workers came to ask for money. Scrooge is told that many people would rather die than go to the Union workhouses and prisons that had been established for such people. Scrooge replies to this: ‘If they would rather die, they had better do it and decrease the surplus population.’
In this way the character Scrooge is highlighting the social injustice, of the time that the poor suffered. This social injustice being the way that people in different levels of society are treated according to this alone. Charles Dickens was very aware of this and was making a political and social commentary when he wrote his books. The moral message which he put out into the text was designed in order to highlight the plight of the poor at the time it was written, Dickens hoped to raise people’s awareness; however, it is also a relevant message for readers today. There is always a difference in affluence in all societies and era’s thus making the novel timelessly relevant.
Ebenezer Scrooge is therefore representing the people who can change things for the better if they choose to do so. This change affects the mood of the book accordingly, as the character of Scrooge progresses from dark to enlightened, so too does the tone of the text. “Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more; and to Tiny Tim, who did not die, he was a second Father” (Stave 5).
Having identified and discussed the moral message contained in the text ‘A Christmas Carol’, and that the way Charles Dickens presents the character of Ebenezer Scrooge, as central to this moral message; Scrooge is clearly shown to be ultimately the key to the story and its pivotal focus. Through the points discussed, it has been sufficiently explained the pivotal role that the character of Scrooge plays, through his representation and the way in which Dickens has portrayed him. As both ends of the spectrum in terms of this moral message, illustrating the consequences of not following this code and that change is indeed possible as well as important. Scrooge is proven to be the central character through whom many important social and political points in historical context of the text; but, through those which are also relevant today.
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