How is the character of Scrooge developed and used in 'A Christmas Carol

Authors Avatar

How is the character of Scrooge developed and used in ‘A Christmas Carol” by Dickens?

The novel, ‘A Christmas Carol’, is more than just a mere story instead it tries to expose the negative side of Victorian society and the reason behind this horror, the greed of the wealthy, through the development of the character Scrooge. All this while attempting to prompt readers with Scrooge’s similar wealth to make a change. As mentioned earlier, the development of Scrooge’s character is vital to this and I will explain how his character develops as the story proceeds and how it is used to accomplish the aim as mentioned above.

In the first stave, Dickens tries to point out that Scrooge is a character that society considers negative. In the introduction, Dickens points out Scrooge’s wealth to immediately aim any point about society not only to average people but in particular to people of Scrooge’s similar wealth, he does this by describing Scrooge as ‘an excellent man of business on the very day of the funeral’, this not only proves Scrooge’s wealth but also that Scrooge is a cold character, the first hint of the truly negative character of Scrooge to be revealed later in this stave, since he has the heart to do business on the day of the funeral of his long time business partner. What makes this worse is that Marley was Scrooge’s equal in terms of character as far as the story goes since Dickens chose to describe what Scrooge meant to Marley as ‘his sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole friend and his sole mourner’, therefore since Scrooge showed little sympathy in the death of ‘his equal’ it gives the readers a sense of cannibalism since Scrooge is practically turning his back on Marley in his death.     Even in the introduction, Dickens is quick to point out Scrooge’s negative characteristics by describing him as a ‘covetous old sinner’, which means he is a person who not only has committed sins but also has an urgent and unscrupulous desire for possessions. This haste to put down Scrooge’s character was carried out by Dickens to set an impression of Scrooge as an overall negative character which is supposed to reflect, in exaggeration, the negative characteristics of the wealthy businessmen in Victorian society. The first stave also tries to pass Scrooge off as an isolated character, it does this through the use of repetition as the emphasis of Marley’s death is repeated several times in the first stave that even dickens admits this with the quote ‘permit me to repeat, emphatically, that Marley was as dead as a doornail’ which basically means that Dickens is admitting that he has repeated that Marley is dead, this proves that repletion is used to allow the reader to gain the impression that Scrooge is an isolated character which. This isolation is further emphasized when Scrooge described love and Christmas, both very social occasions, in one statement as ‘the only thing in the world more ridiculous than a merry Christmas’, this proves Scrooge’s isolation and his anti-social characteristic. Scrooge is also comes off the first stave as an anti-social and cold character, this is proven because Scrooge repeatly dismisses his nephew who is trying to make friends with him with the quote ‘Good afternoon’ which proves Scrooge’s anti-social and cold character. Not only is Scrooge’s character inhuman in the first stave, his views are also inhuman as not only did Scrooge refuse to donate money to the poor, as proven by the reply ‘ I wish to be left alone’, said when Scrooge was asked to make a donation proving that Scrooge is an inhuman miser, but also contributed his opinion that he shows no remorse for the poor with the quote ‘ they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population’ which basically means that Scrooge would rather that the poor die quicker. His greed is further show in the first stave when Dickens reveals that the wealthy Scrooge has gruel for meals as proven by the quote ‘the little saucepan of gruel’ which proves he eats gruel, a very cheap meal eaten by the poor, hence giving the reader an impression of greed as one of Scrooge’s characteristics. This view that Scrooge has towards the poor clearly shows Scrooge’s inhuman character, which is what the first stave is made to point out. This impression we have of Scrooge is used to show how un-likeable the wealthy and greedy are towards the average person, this is easily done as Dickens uses the fact that when reading a book we forget all our social statuses which boils us down to an average person, which enables the wealthier readers to get an idea of how the whole world feels about them thereby prompting them to make a change. This change is prompt particularly through Scrooge’s negative characteristics like his unwillingness to donate money to the poor and his views on them, this evokes a feeling of hate towards Scrooge and people like him, mainly the wealthy, hence prompting readers of Scrooge’s social status to make a change since they are the minority who can make the most difference. The first stave teaches us an overall lesson that lust for money has created the bad characters in our society like Scrooge.

Join now!

As the story develops, Scrooge begins to show more emotion making him more human. His first sign of emotion in the story occurs in the first stave when he shows not only his concern but also fear while checking every room in the house after his hallucinations, as proven by the quote ‘not a knocker, but Marley’s face’ which clearly shows that Scrooge imagined the knocker on his door to be Marley’s face. His concern and fear is shown with the quote ‘Sitting room, bed-room, lumber-room. All as they should be’, this not only proves that Scrooge checked every ...

This is a preview of the whole essay