Scrooge is so tight, that he will not even spare a few coals for his clerk, who has to work in the cold conditions all day. In the quote, it says that the clerk fails to warm himself because of his lack of imaginations. This suggests that one would need a very strong imagination to be able to warm them self at such a pathetic flame.
Dickens uses several different people to expose Scrooge’s many faults even more. One of the main people used for this task, was his nephew.
‘He had so heated himself with the rapid walking in the fog and frost, this nephew of Scrooge’s, that he was all in a glow; his face was ruddy and handsome; his eyes sparkled, and his breath smoked again.’
Dickens uses this to highlight how different the two are. It is a comparison from the description of Scrooge’s coldness.
‘“What’s Christmas to you but a time for paying bills without money; a time for finding yourself a year older, but not an hour richer; a time for balancing your books and giving every item in ‘em through a round dozen of months presented dead against you?”’
Scrooge is clearly dead set against Christmas, he thinks nothing but bad can come of it, namely, money is wasted on it.
His nephew, however was in a totally different mind set. He thinks of Christmas as
‘a good time: a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time’.
Scrooge’s nephew sees nothing but the good in Christmas, whereas Scrooge sees nothing but the bad.
Scrooge not only scorns Christmas, but also love. After his nephew explained that he got married because he fell in love, Scrooge responds;
‘“Because you fell in love?” growled Scrooge, as if that were the only thing in the world more ridiculous than a merry Christmas. “Good afternoon!”’
This shows how Scrooge seems to dislike anything happy.
Scrooge’s nephew is used to show how Scrooge treats his family, and what he thinks of Christmas.
As Scrooge’s nephew leaves, two charitable gentlemen come in. They talk to Scrooge about the Christmas season, and his dead partner, Marley, and liberality.
‘At the ominous word “liberality”, Scrooge frowned, and shook his head, and handed the credentials back.”
This shows Scrooge’s lack of generosity even more. He immediately stops what he’s doing at the mere mention of liberality, which means generosity. It’s like it scares him.
Scrooge then asks about the workhouses, and prisons, to show where he thinks poor people should be. He tells the gentlemen he supports such establishments.
‘“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.”’
Scrooge goes so far as to say he’d rather let them die than help them. He clearly is a spiteful man, to have the thoughts of these deaths on his conscious and to not care.
The gentlemen show how uncharitable Scrooge is, and how is thoughts are completely occupied with himself.
Scrooge’s clerk, Bob Cratchitt is another person used to make Scrooge’s faults stand out. Scrooge actually thinks himself to be ill-used, for having to give Bob half-a-crown, once a year, at Christmas.
‘“A poor excuse for picking a man’s pocket every twenty-fifth of December!”
To Scrooge half-a-crown is nothing compared to his overall sum of money, but him being such a miser, he can barely part with it to Bob Cratchitt who needs it so much more.
Also, a carol singer dared to begin a carol outside Scrooge’s door, before fleeing in terror as “Scrooge seized the ruler with such energy of action”.
The ghost of Marley, Scrooge’s former partner (who was definitely of kindred spirit with Scrooge) appears to him in his house, in an attempt to prove that he must change his ways.
‘“I wear the chain I forged in life,” replied the Ghost. “I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it. Is its pattern strange to you?”’
In this quote Marley tells Scrooge of the chain he forged throughout his evil life, which he is now forced to wear in his eternal wanderings of the world. The pattern he refers to is in his description earlier.
‘The chain he drew was clasped about his middle. It was long, and wound about him like a tail; and it was made of cash-boxes, keys, padlocks, ledgers, deeds, and heavy purses wrought in steel.’
The pattern is made of things that Scrooge is defiantly well acquainted with, for they are his life. It is showing Scrooge that the very things he believes his life depends upon will later be used to chain him up, and weigh him down.
Marley’s ghost then goes on to tell Scrooge about his own chain.
‘“It was full as heavy as this, seven Christmas Eves ago. You have laboured on it, since. It is a ponderous chain!”
He tries to sway Scrooge, by describing it as ‘ponderous’, long and heavy.
Scrooge still cannot understand why this would happen to his business partner, because he was always good at his job… He voices this to Marley.
‘“Business!” cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. “Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!”
Marley is contradicting Scrooge here, because these are all the things Scrooge wants nothing to do with. Marley is trying to put the world in perspective for him, and trying to show him that money is not what matters.
Charles Dickens uses each of the three ghosts (past, present and future) to make Scrooge recognise his faults. I think it is clever how Dickens uses the ghosts to teach him a lesson.
The Ghost of Christmas past was described very vividly by Dickens, but he particularly emphasised, that
‘the strangest thing about it was, that from the crown of its head there sprung a bright clear jet of light, by which all this was visible;’ (the rest of the description) ‘and which was doubtless the occasion of its using in its duller moments, a great extinguisher for a cap, which it now held under its arm.’
Scrooge, for some reason wanted to see the spirit in his cap, and asked the spirit to put it on.
‘“What!” exclaimed the Ghost, “Would you so soon put out, with worldly hands, the light I give? Is it not enough that you are one of those whose passions made this cap, and force me through whole trains of years to wear it low upon my brow?”’
The Ghost is trying to tell Scrooge, that it is people like him that put out the light of the world with their greed and selfishness but Scrooge still denies it.
‘“No. I should like to be able to say a word or two to my clerk just now! That’s all.”’
This quote shows that Scrooge is starting to improve slightly, after seeing how his old employer Fezziwig used to treat him.
Finally, the Ghost
The Ghost is trying to teach him to learn from his past mistakes, but leave them behind as well, so he can start afresh.
The Ghost of Christmas present takes Scrooge to his own clerk’s house, where Scrooge witnesses what their Christmas is like. Seeing this, and Tiny Tim especially, who is crippled, and at risk of death.
‘“Spirit,” said Scrooge, with an interest he had never felt before, “tell me if Tiny Tim will live.”’
This shows that Scrooge is starting to care about more people than himself, and his money. He is interested in someone else’s welfare for once, and when the Spirit predicts an empty chair if things do not change, Scrooge is quite upset.
The Ghost went on to say
‘“If he be like to die, he had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.”
Scrooge hung his head to hear his own words quoted by the Spirit, and was overcome with penitence and grief.’
This also shows how Scrooge has changed for the better. Earlier on in the story, Scrooge had said that sentence without feeling at all guilty for it, but now he is ‘overcome with penitence and grief’.
The Ghost then takes him to Scrooge’s nephew’s house, to show him the party he is missing out on. Scrooge gets very involved in all the merriment.
‘Uncle Scrooge had imperceptibly become so gay and light of heart, that he would have pledged the unconscious company in return, and thanked them in an inaudible speech, if the Ghost had given him time.’
This shows that Scrooge can be merry, he just doesn’t let himself, but in such wonderful company, he cannot stop his mood gradually improving.
The Ghost shows him two children; refuge and resource. They were ‘yellow, meagre, ragged, scowling, wolfish’. Scrooge was shocked.
‘“Have they no refuge or resource?” cried Scrooge.
“Are there no prisons?” said the Spirit, turning on him for the last time with his own words. “Are there no workhouses?”
Once again, the Ghost uses Scrooge’s own words against him, to make him feel guilty.
The Ghost of Christmas present represents what Scrooge is missing, right before his own eyes. The Ghost is showing Scrooge that if people like Tiny Tim can be happy, he should be too.
The Ghost of Christmas future was very different to the other cloaks. It was dressed simply in a black cloak, and did not speak a word, which made it all the more frightful.
‘“Ghost of the future!” he exclaimed, “I fear you more than any spectre I have ever seen. But as I know your purpose is to do me good, and as I hope to be another man from what I was, I am prepared to bear your company, and do it with a thankful heart. Will you not speak to me?”
It gave him no reply.’
Even though Scrooge is very scared of the Ghost, he says that he will go where it will take him, so that he can improve. He is admitting that what he was like before was wrong, and he wants to change. He is also putting other people’s discomfort above his own, because he is scared by the ghost, but for everyone else’s sake he realises he needs to change.
The Ghost then shows him people’s response to someone’s death.
There are many ways in which Scrooge’s actions show he has transformed for the better.
Scrooge sends a boy off to buy him the prize turkey in the window of the Poulterer’s. He delights in the idea of sending it to Bob Cratchit. Also, the fact that Scrooge gave the poor boy his money shows that he has trust. He trusts that the boy will bring the turkey back to him, and not just run off with the money.
‘The chuckle with which he said this and his chuckle as he paid for the turkey and the chuckle with which he paid for the cab and the chuckle that he recomposed the boy.’
Charles Dickens repetitively uses the word chuckle to emphasise how happy Scrooge is.
As Scrooge walks through the streets he sees many people.
‘Scrooge regarded every one with a delighted smile. He looked so irresistibly pleasant, in a word, that three or four good-humoured fellows said, “Good morning, sir! A merry Christmas to you!”’
Scrooge is finally acknowledging people’s good points rather than just the bad. Previously, he would’ve been scowling at all the people he walked past, or he just wouldn’t be in public at all. Not only that, but he looked pleasant, which is a huge change than how people would’ve normally described him.
He goes to his nephew’s house, and surprises him with his presence.
‘“It’s I. Your uncle Scrooge. I have come to dinner. Will you let me in, Fred?”’
He is finally accepting Fred as family, my calling himself Fred’s uncle. He never used to even talk to Fred, especially not to admit he was family.
The next morning Scrooge waits for Bob to come in, late. He attempts to act like his former self, by having a go at him for being late.
‘“It’s only once a year, sir,” pleaded Bob, appearing from the Tank. “it shall not be repeated. I was making rather merry yesterday, sir”
“Now, I’ll tell you what, my friend,” said Scrooge, “I am not going to stand this sort of thing any longer. And therefore,” he continued, leaping from his stall and giving Bob such a dig in the waistcoat that he staggered back into the Tank again: “and therefore I am about to raise your salary!”
Scrooge has changed so much, that he finds it hard to even imitate his former self. He calls Bob his friend, which he would never have done before.
At the very end of the story, it says
‘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.’
In some ways, it was thanks to Tiny Tim that Scrooge changed so well. After seeing Tiny Tim with such hope, even though his outlook was so grim, Scrooge was already prepared to change.
I think a lot can be learnt from this novel.
