Furthermore, Dickens uses effective language to give us a vivid picture of what the character of Scrooge is like. Firstly, he uses present participles to show the reader how important money is to him. Scrooge is described as a ‘squeezing, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner’. The verbs all emphasise that money means everything to Scrooge by associating with hands and thereby showing his desperation ; he is a money grabber. The rhythmic use of these verbs which are repeated could also imply that the list does not stop and that Scrooge is even crueler than depicted. This already makes the reader think negatively about the character from the beginning of the story, because it gives him the idea that he does not value important things in life, like family and friends, but that money takes precedence for him.
Furthermore,Dickens uses cold words when describing his character to emphasise that he is not a kind person ; ‘a frosty rime was on his head and his eyebrows…’ and ‘he carried his own temperature about with him’. It tells us that he is a cold-hearted person, and that there is nothing warm or friendly about him. It also allows us to picture his features- they are cold and sharp, making him appear unapproachable. He does not care about what state other people are in; he only cares about himself and money. Dickens also makes use of pathetic fallacy to describe Scrooge’s character. In the first stave he again uses weather to give the reader insight into his character; “The heaviest rain, and snow, and hail, and sleet, could boast of the advantage over him in only one respect”. The harshness of the weather reflects Scrooge’s character; it’s as though wherever Scrooge goes, the atmosphere becomes cold and harsh. Scrooge’s character can be explained through his past as when he was young he had a tough life because he grew up without any love from his father. These descriptions of Scrooge reflect his unforgiving, unwelcoming and heartless personality.
Lastly, Dickens used similes to demonstrate to the reader how unsociable and cold-hearted Scrooge is. They encourage interpretation as they let the reader imagine Scrooge in his own way. The first simile he uses is: ‘as solitary as an oyster’, which shows how unsociable he is. An oyster lives in a shell in its own little world; Scrooge is the same- he likes to be isolated away from the rest of the world and he avoids contact with other people as much as he can. It could also imply that he is a good person inside, but has a hard shell around himself and does want to get close to anyone. His enjoyment of isolation can be explained through his past as he was abandoned by his father when he was young, so he got used to being on his own. This brings in the theme of change, as the reader sees that Scrooge is like this because that is how he grew up and he didn’t know any different, not necessarily because that is how he wants to be. It shows the reader that if Scrooge learned how much better it is to socialise with other people he would want to change and spend more time with his nephew.
Moreover, the simile ‘hard and sharp as flint’ tells the reader how heartless and uncaring Scrooge is. Flint is a piece of rock that is very sharp and hard and nothing can get to it. .The characteristic hardness of flint links to Scrooge’s character, showing how Scrooge is just as unchanging: nothing will make him feel sympathetic towards poor people, and nothing will make him a nicer, more caring person. It emphasises that he is very callous and only cares about how he is doing and how much money he has, but he does not care the slightest about other people.
You can tell a lot about a character by observing the way they behave and by other people’s attitudes towards them. Firstly, we get to know that Scrooge does not like to socialise and be pleasant to people. We get to know this as we see that he is miserable towards his only relative- his nephew. When he invites him to Christmas dinner, Scrooge repeats ‘Good afternoon’ to show that he is not interested in socialising and he does not wish to discuss it. He is infatuated with money, so on Christmas he wants to be in his office working. He also thinks that love is ridiculous, and he criticises his nephew for marrying for love: “Because you fell in love’ growled Scrooge, as if that were the only thing in the world more ridiculous than a merry Christmas.” Scrooge thinks love is ridiculous because when he was younger, his fiancée Belle left him because he became obsessed with money and started to love it more than her. He now does not have any time for love because it gets in the way of making money.
As you can see, Scrooge has no desire to celebrate Christmas. He simply thinks that Christmas is ’bah humbug’; it is nonsense and that people should not celebrate it. However, the phrase ‘bah humbug’ does not only represent his views on Christmas, but also suggests his attitude on the morals surrounding Christmas; generosity, humanity and love towards others do not mean anything to Scrooge and he ignores throughout the whole year. He also said to his nephew “What right have you to be merry? You’re poor enough”. This makes us aware that Scrooge was not in the Christmas spirit, and also that Scrooge thinks that you can only be merry if you’re wealthy, again showing how important money is for Scrooge. However, to an extent I understand Scrooge’s strong hate for Christmas; Christmas is a Christian celebration and Christianity teaches people that they should be loving, generous and considerate, and Scrooge resents all of these values.
At the end of the story, Scrooge had changed. He was no longer a mean, selfish, cold-hearted old man. He bought the Cratchits family the ‘prize turkey’ in the shop, he wished passers by ‘Merry Christmas’ and he went to spend the day socialising with his nephew. This was because the three Christmas spirits made him realise what kind of a person he was, by showing him his past, present and future. Firstly, he saw the happy times he had when he was younger. He saw the past in a different point of view miserly person he was, but most importantly they showed him what will happen to him if he will not change, and this really scared him. Moreover, when his dead business partner came to visit him with chains on his body, Scrooge started to think about the way he was living. Marley had been damned because he was like Scrooge; all he cared about was money, and he had been a mean person all his life. Scrooge saw that he wasn’t isolated and unloved like he thought, but that his fiancée and sister loved him and that he had had a happy life. This made him want return to these times and experience the feelings again. The next spirit showed him the contrast between poor people who can still be happy at Christmas, and him- a wealthy man who had lots of reasons to be happy - a sad person sitting in his office on Christmas day. The last of the Christmas spirits had the biggest impact on Scrooge; it showed him what would happen to him if he did not change and this really shocked and scared him. It also showed him that he had the power to change the future and that everything that happens is his own responsibility. He started to be liberal and to be more considerate; he thought about other people and their wellbeing, not just about himself and money. Dickens emphasises his change in character by repeating the adjective ‘good’: ‘‘He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew...’’.
In the 19th century, when the book was published, the level of poverty was high, especially in London where the story is set. Those who had no income were forced to go to a workhouse, an unpleasant place where people had to do hard work in order to get food and accommodation. At this time, the Victorians believed that the poor were poor due to their own laziness, not because they were less fortunate than them. Dickens uses Scrooge as a mouthpiece to demonstrate the attitude of the Victorians in Stave 1 when two men knocked at Scrooge’s office asking him for a donation, and he responded with the rude and insensitive question “Are there no prisons...And the Union workhouses? Are they still in operation? ”. It demonstrates the opinion of the Victorian social reformers and businessmen that charity encourages the poor to be lazy and that poor people should die and "decrease the surplus population". Scrooge did not believe in giving to charities, and he said he would give ‘nothing’ as there are prisons and workhouses to which the poor could go to, to pay off their debt, which he already claimed to support. He also thinks that it is incongruous that people don’t work on Christmas. He says “I don’t make merry myself at Christmas and I can’t afford to make idle people merry”, which is one of the reasons he does not celebrate Christmas. This shows that Scrooge was not a big-hearted person and how parsimonious he was. It tells us that he was an insensitive person because he didn’t think about other people and their welfare. It also illustrates how hard it was for the poor in the 19th century and how harsh the upper-class Victorians’ attitudes were towards the poor. ‘A Christmas Carol’ does not only explore the poverty which was present in England at the time the novella was written, but it also reflects Charles Dickens’ views on politics and his interest in social reform. Dickens contributed to the newspaper ‘True Sun’ which expressed views on political, economic and social reforms. He disliked business people who were infatuated with money, which is who Scrooge represents in this novella.
My first impression about Scrooge was that he is a stingy, appalling, unpleasant old man who only cares about money. Dickens has influenced me about the way I think about Scrooge: he made me realise that partly he was the way he was because of his childhood; he grew up without a mother, and his father hated him, which led him to view love as unimportant in life. I enjoyed the story as it was very entertaining and interesting to read; in my opinion Dickens portrayed the character of Scrooge very well through his use of effective language devices which make Scrooge’s character vivid and larger than life.
The book has a universal theme which society should live by every day, not just on Christmas. The message in ‘The Christmas Carol’ is that you should think about people who are less fortunate, not only about yourself and you own well-being. Still now, there are lots of people who are like Scrooge: all they care about is money and they never give themselves a break and enjoy themselves. Another message is that people should value the important things in life, not money. Even though Scrooge was a wealthy man with lots of money, he was poor in terms of happiness, morals and generosity. It shows that money does not bring happiness, as he chose money over his fiancée Bella, who got happily married while he was leading a miserable sad life. Through these themes it conveys the true meaning of Christmas: that it is about being happy, generous and caring to others, not a commercial holiday.