‘External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. No warmth could warm, nor wintry weather chill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than he.’
In this small paragraph dickens has used a good use of imagery – weather imagery. He compares Scrooge with the weather and shows that he a cold person who could never be warm hearted. Dickens shows that Scrooge has no feeling, nothing can chill him, and nothing can warm him. Scrooge is immensely described as worse than the weather:
‘No wind that blew was bitter than he’
This meaning nothing could be worse than Scrooge; Dickens insults his own character with no grief. Nothing could be worse than having Scrooge on your case – he is bitterer than the wind.
Dickens goes on to downgrade Scrooge to nothing by saying rain, show, hail and sleet could:
‘Boast an advantage over him, they often came down handsomely and Scrooge never did’.
This meaning that the weather could come down gently and calmly but Scrooge is an old man who is not gentle or calm instead fierce and very uptight.
Myself as a reader I would feel that Scrooge is an old hag who is most likely very lonely and despises everyone but himself; and that he is very selfish and would never spare a penny to anyone but himself. I would also feel that Dickens is trying to get across a strong description of Scrooge. When Dickens was describing Scrooge a key line is:
‘The cold within him froze his old features’.
The line above has no meaning, for example it adds to his description and as a reader it could feel as though the cold within him has frozen his good side like an ice age. It exists inside him but he can’t release it.
Another example is:
‘Hard and sharp as a flint’
This is a simile; it shows two sides of Scrooge. Flint is a rock; which was used by humans in the Stone Age. It was used for two things, which shows two sides of Scrooge. They used it for warmth which shows that Scrooge could have a good side in him, and they also used it for weapons, to harm things i.e. a tool could cut you. This shows the bad side of Scrooge – he is two faced.
Once the reader hears about Scrooge’s appearance, we think as if Scrooge was a ghost, or he was dead with his corpse still existing. Dickens uses adjectives like:
‘Blue lips’
‘Red eyes’
These lines make us think as if Scrooge was dead because he has frozen lips and bloodshot eyes as if he doesn’t sleep. It makes the reader feel aware of how dangerously scary Scrooge looks to go with his attitude and lifestyle.
The place in which Scrooge’s house is situated also shows his personality. His house is away from other houses and is in the middle of a business district. Also, inside his house it is dark and gloomy he double locks the doors as if to lock himself away form the world. His house sets the scene for later in the novel. His house reminds the reader of a haunted house; linking Scrooge with his description of being like a ghost.
Scrooge doesn’t like Christmas. The word which he uses to sum up Christmas is:
‘Humbug’
Meaning nonsense. Scrooge makes a speech about Christmas to his nephew, part of it is:
‘Merry Christmas! Out upon merry Christmas! What’s Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills without money; a time for finding yourself a year older, and not an hour richer’
This sums up what he feels about Christmas. He doesn’t see the fun side of it, or the religious side of celebrating a special time in the Christian faith. He just looks at the gloomy side, and thinks it is a waste of time. Also Scrooge talks bout money, saying you find yourself a year older, and not an hour richer, and also saying it is just a time where you have to pay the bills showing again he is thinking bout his money and nothing else.
Scrooge also says that the poor don’t have a right to be happy:
‘What right have you to be merry? What reason have you to be merry? You’re poor enough.’
He’s saying that the poor should be unhappy, that they are not rich enough to be happy, and that they should be gloomy and sad and not have the right to have a good time.
This shocks the reader. Before, the reader just feels that Scrooge is gloomy and lonely, but now they feel as though Scrooge is a cold-hearted, nasty, mean old man who doesn’t care about anybody but himself.
Later in the novel we find out more about why Scrooge may be like this. I think Scrooge thinks this way about Christmas because of how he was treated by his father when he was a child. His father used to leave him alone and not take him home from boarding school but leave him there in a dull little room reading books. Scrooge once fell in love with a woman called Bell. This brought the Christmas spirit into him but then they broke up and that made Scrooge go back to hating Christmas.
When people saw Scrooge in the street nobody would stop him to talk, everyone would leave him alone and not dare speak to him.
‘Even the blind men’s dogs appeared to know him; and they saw him coming on, would tug their owners into doorways and up courts; and then would their tails as thought they said, ‘no eye at all is better than an evil eye’
This sentence shows what everyone thought of Scrooge. Even dogs didn’t like him; they would pull their owners way from Scrooge as if they were scared of him. And then wag their tails to ‘say an evil eye’ is worse than being blind. ‘No beggars implored him to bestow a trifle.’ This is another sentence which shows how people are scared of him. Everyone knows that he is rich but not even a beggar asks him for anything because they already know of how much of a cold-hearted person he is.
Two charity workers come to Scrooge and ask for money for the poor and need but Scrooge gives them nothing and tells them to go away.
‘I wish to be left alone,’ said scrooge.
…I help support the establishments I have mentioned: they cost enough: and those who are badly off must go there.’
‘Many can’t go there; and many would rather die.’
‘If they would rather die,’ said Scrooge, ‘they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.’
This also shows the way Scrooge treats other people. He kicks out these people who are working for good because Scrooge says that he is already helping the poor enough by supporting the establishments which are union workhouses and prisons. Scrooge shows how nasty he is by saying that they should die if they want to and decrease the growing population. Scrooge treats these workers rudely like they are trying to steal his money, and they come for the poor but Scrooge doesn’t care about the poor or want to help them so he just treats the workers nastily and makes them leave.
Scrooge treats everyone badly; this also includes his family. He treats his nephew sarcastically because his nephew, as a strong believer in celebrating Christmas, makes a speech about it to Scrooge. After his speech Bob Crachit; Scrooges’ apprentice, claps in approval of the speech. This is Scrooge’s reply:
‘Let me hear another sound from you,’ said Scrooge, ‘and you’ll keep your Christmas by losing your situation. You’re quite a powerful speaker, sir,’ he added, turning to his nephew. ‘I wonder you don’t go into Parliament.’
Scrooge treats his nephew with sarcasm by say he should go into Parliament. His apprentice clapped towards the speech and Scrooge angrily reacted by threatening to sack him if he were to make another sound. Scrooge also treats Bob Crachit very nastily. From what I know later in the novel when Scrooge used to be a apprentice of someone he used to be treated very nicely and be very happy with what he did. But now when he has an apprentice Scrooge treats Bob harshly:
‘Scrooge kept the coal-box in his own room; and so surely as the clerk came in with the shovel, the master predicted that it would be necessary for them to part.’
This shows how Scrooge treats Bob. Bob has a very little fire with one piece of coal in it, so he goes to get some more coal so he can make the fire bigger to warm up. Then before Bob can put the coal in the fire Scrooge says that he would be sacked if he were to use the coal. Scrooge will not even let his apprentice warm up or have at least a happy time like Scrooge did when he was younger as an apprentice.
Scrooge’s attitude towards other people shocks the reader as they see that Scrooge doesn’t like to interact with anyone. He likes to be alone and miserable. As a result we feel that Scrooge is just a miserable man who doesn’t like to see other people having fun. I think Scrooge likes to be alone because of the way he was treated by his father when he was younger; he used to be left alone in a little dull room.
Dickens uses a lot of techniques. In every paragraph there is a meaning, and to describe Scrooge he uses a paragraph for every little thing. I think the most interesting and effective technique Dickens uses is when he describes something, for example Scrooge, he goes into a lot of detail using lots of adjectives and making the image easier to see in your head. The language he uses is old English but it is still easy to understand because of the image Dickens puts in your head of whatever he is writing about. My opinion of what I think this novel’s message is supposed to be is it is directed towards the people of the time he wrote this novel. It was the time of the industrial revolution; people had forgotten about Christmas or had no time for it because they were working too hard in factories.
In summary I think Dickens wanted to revive the Christmas spirit into Britain with this novel. I think he wanted our attitudes to Christmas to be happy and cheerful and not to forget it. And by writing A Christmas Carol he has accomplished that.