In stave one, Scrooge is depicted as a cold, melancholy, old man firstly due to the death of his only friend: Jacob Marley. The reader gets the impression that Marley was Scrooge’s only friend as Scrooge was described as Marley’s ‘sole friend, and sole mourner’ however the reader is then told that Scrooge ‘was not so dreadfully cut up by the sad event but that he was an excellent man of business on the very day of the funeral’. This tells the reader that Scrooge did not even bother to attend the funeral of his ‘sole friend’ therefore the reader gets the impression straight away that Scrooge is a heartless, selfish man who is self-centred, only cares about making money and has no time for anything let alone friends.
The reader can then second the idea of Scrooge’s personality as he is later described as a ‘squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, and clutching, covetous old sinner!’ again giving the impression of his horrible personality. Also the words are associated with greediness thus exaggerating his need for money and his selfishness to others. The quotation is also very effective at portraying Scrooge’s character as it is over exaggerating his negativity so the reader automatically perceives him as an unpleasant person.
The ghost of Marley has a very profound impact on Scrooge. At first Scrooge does not believe he is real and that Marley’s ghost could be ‘an undigested bit of beef’ as Scrooge believes he is seeing things and is dreaming. But after the phantom dropped his lower jaw ‘down upon his breast’ Scrooge ‘fell upon his knees, and clasped his hands before his face’ this implies that Scrooge was scared and shocked that the phantom was real and began to believe in its existence. Marley’s ghost then tells Scrooge of the chain that he made ‘link by link, and yard by yard’ which Marley ‘girded it on my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it’. This also scares Scrooge as Marley tells him of Scrooges ‘ponderous chain’ that is waiting for him unless he changes his ways. Scrooge is then described looking around him expecting to see the chain wrapped around him. The reader can deduce from this that Scrooge is petrified of this happening to him. Overall, Scrooge appears to be scared of Marley’s ghost, which, already, shows a slight change in his personality.
After Scrooge’s encounter with The Ghost of Christmas Past, in stave three, a second ghost haunts him: The Ghost of Christmas Present. The ghost is described as wearing ‘one simple deep green robe, or mantle, bordered with white fur’ and also on its head it ‘wore no other covering than a holly wreath, set here and there with shining icicles’ this description depicts the Spirit to look Christmassy, festive and very much so like Father Christmas exaggerating the excitement and joy of Christmas even in the 19th century. The Spirit takes Scrooge to see his clerk, Bob Cratchit, and his family having their Christmas dinner. A glorious dinner scene is portrayed in this stave through the language used by Dickens. He uses alliteration, ‘feathered phenomenon,’ to emphasise the fantastic turkey that the family have been able to buy. The alliteration used also emphasises the greatness of Christmas and being able to eat such wonderful food as typically, in the 19th century, families would have eaten cheap meals in restaurants. Also the Christmas dinner eaten by the families would have often been the only adequate meal they could afford all year so it was much celebrated. This dinner scene has a big effect on Scrooge as he realises that even though the Cratchits are extremely poor they still manage to enjoy Christmas and are very grateful for what they have. Tiny Tim, a member of the Cratchit family who is described as a ‘cripple’, is a very significant character in this stave and has a huge effect on Scrooge. This is shown to the reader as Dickens wrote that Scrooge asked the Spirit ‘with an interest he had never felt before’ if ‘Tiny Tim will live?’ this shows that Scrooge is still changing as he is thinking about others and is feeling new feelings and becoming less miserable and self-centred. The Spirit cleverly puts Scrooge down and reminds him of what he used to be by replying that if Tiny Tim would die ‘he had better do it, and decrease the surplus population’ Scrooge then ‘hung his head to hear his own words quoted by the Spirit, and was overcome with penitence and grief’ showing that’s Scrooge was ashamed of what he used to be like and how selfish he was and he also regrets saying it and wishes he could change what he said.
