This quotation implies that Scrooge has an extremely frosty and cold era about him at all times, as Dickens describes Scrooges’ lips ‘blue’, and a ‘frosty rime on his head’, the reader would get an acknowledgement of Scrooge’s appearance from the emotive language Dickens uses.
There is further evidence of Scrooge being a cold hearted person, ‘made his eyes red’ this is indicating that the cold made his eyes turn red, this portrays to a reader that Scrooge is a devilish character and has the features of a devilish nature. The language in this passage portrays Scrooge to be very cold hearted, unfriendly and hard. The way Dickens describes Scrooges’ external appearance can say a lot about the personality, or internal soul, of that particular character. Dickens uses an array of colour, similes and adjectives to describe the way scrooge looks, by doing this the reader would pick up that Scrooge’s hard exterior matches his cold personality.
Dickens uses emotive language to paint a picture of scrooge’s physical description; ‘The cold within him…’; This quotation would be another piece of evidence that scrooge’s cold exterior description matches his inner personality, to describe this Dickens uses imagery throughout stave one to portray what kind of evil person Scrooge has turned out to be.
Scrooge has a very unique personality which links in with his physical description, Dickens emphasise the fact that scrooge is a stingy miser; he does this by describing him using negative imagery:
‘Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster.’
This quotation shows that Dickens described Scrooge as being tight-fisted, suggesting that he is not generous and not willing to part with his money. The passage goes on to show evidence of Dickens using the form of consecutive adjectives, Dickens uses six adjectives in a row to create an immediate impact of Scrooge’s personality on the reader, he also emphasises Scrooge’s alienation through the use of language for example the use of similes such as; ‘ Hard as flint’. The use of such language creates the effect on the reader that an omniscient narrator is looking for; using similes describes the personality of a person in more depth. Dickens uses another simile, when he describes Scrooge as being as; ‘solitary as an oyster’, this implies that Scrooge is compared to an oyster; very secretive and it could also suggest that he has a good inside, however has a hard shell indicating Scrooge’s cold, hard personality. Dickens comparing Scrooge to an oyster is an extremely discrete way of putting a point across that scrooge may well have a soft inside; the reader would realise this towards the end of the book. Dickens’ description of Scrooge’s personality could have been gathered by the reader through the description of his physical being. The reader can gather from Dickens’ use of negative imagery and language to describe Scrooge, that the only thing that scrooge would value or regard as important in life could only be one thing; business and wealth.
The people which Dickens described in the novella have a very low opinion of a miser like scrooge. Dickens describes this with the use of emotive language;
‘Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with gladsome looks, "My dear Scrooge, how are you? When will you come to see me?" No beggars implored him to bestow a trifle, no children asked him what it was o'clock’
The fact that no one stops him in the street to even talk to him gives the reader an opinion straight away of what kind of character Scrooge is, people on the street have a very low opinion of him as he is known for his misanthropic and stubborn behaviour. Therefore as other people have a low opinion of Scrooge he would have an even lower opinion of them, even though he portrays himself out to be a mean person. Scrooge disliked most form of human contact. Therefore Dickens’ language is very effective in terms of showing how distanced Scrooge is.
Scrooge has a very strong dislike for Christmas during most of the novella; towards the closing stages of the novella Scrooge changes his views completely on Christmas. Scrooge himself was obsessed with his business and wealth, he always believed that no one should have any kind of holiday as it is only wasting valuable time; this shows that scrooge really does have a dark, cold heart. Christmas is meant to be a time of joy and happiness to celebrate the birth of Jesus; however Scrooge sees Christmas as a waste of time and money:
‘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, but not an hour richer; a time for balancing your books and having every item in 'em through a round dozen of months presented dead against you?’
Scrooge hates Christmas as he sees it as not a time for joy and happiness but as a time for paying bills without money. Scrooge’s attitude towards Christmas is that he only wants to work throughout the festive period, as he is an obsessive business man. Scrooge is even extremely reluctant to allow his clerk, Bob Cratchit, one day off work for Christmas day.
‘…every idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. He should!’
This indicates that scrooge feels that every person who would be merry at Christmas time should be killed, these words are extremely emotive, however at times are meant to be a little humorous, Dickens uses this strong language to describe scrooges’ personal attitude.
Scrooge has a menacing affect on people around him. As scrooge is a mean man he would have a certain affect on most people, they appear to resent talking to him;
‘Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say…‘My dear Scrooge, how are you? When will you come to see me?’ No beggars implored him to bestow a trifle, no children asked him what it was o'clock, no man or woman ever once in all his life inquired the way to such and such a place, of Scrooge. Even the blind men's dogs appeared to know him...‘No eye at all is better than an evil eye, dark master!’
This paragraph describing the effect that Scrooge has on people gives the sense that no one would want to talk to scrooge as they all fear him, ‘even the blind men’s dogs appeared to know him…’ this quotation implies that even the dogs know how unfriendly he is, this is another form of emotive language. Dickens portrays Scrooge to be extremely hard and unfriendly in this paragraph and also that Scrooge was set in his ways, and that he quite liked being the way he was; lonely, no one to talk to and obsessed with business.
Scrooge’s behaviour towards is clerk is threatening and menacing, Bob Cratchit is a poor clerk who works with Scrooge and he is extremely scared of him just as every one else in that village. Scrooge did not even let his clerk light a fire in the freezing cold this is because he believed that it was unnecessary and would waste valuable money, even though Scrooge an extremely wealthy man;
‘Scrooge had a very small fire, but the clerk's fire was so very much smaller that it looked like one coal. But he couldn't replenish it, for 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 the kind of effect that Scrooge has upon his clerk, Bob was too scared as to even come in and reach for more coal, partly because he knew the answer would be a negative one and partly because he knew what kind of a person Scrooge was.
Scrooge was such a miserly man that he dismissed the ‘two portly gentlemen’ asking for a donation for charity, at Christmas time people usually open up their hearts and provide for the poor:
‘At this festive season of the year, Mr. Scrooge,’ said the gentleman, taking up a pen, ‘it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the Poor and Destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time.’
As the two gentlemen were asking for money for charity, scrooge bluntly asked if there were no prisons, workhouses and poorhouses. The two gentlemen believed it to be quite rude as to suggest that all the poor should be in workhouses or prisons, this shows what kind of persona Scrooge has, not willing to give up any money to help the less capable when Scrooge himself is able to do so as he is rich. Scrooge refused to give money to the charity and believed that that he should not give money to idle people; ‘If they would rather die,’ said Scrooge, ‘they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.’ Scrooge would have rather let the poor die and ‘decrease the surplus population’ than to give money to help the needy. This portrays a lot about how stubborn and unfriendly he is. Dickens went through poverty as he was a child and he would have experienced the hardship of life in poverty. I believe that Dickens uses this example of Scrooge to show people what a miserly person would do, in a way he wants people to realise their behaviour and ultimately change their attitude to Christmas and poverty.
Dickens described the house in which Scrooge lived in; his house reflects the unfriendly nature of his life. A person’s house can describe and show the character of a person. Each room can reveal details about the individual, as it reflects the personality of that person. This can also be said for the place in which a person works in, work environment. Dickens describes the details of Scrooges’ house to show the reader the inner personality of Scrooge. Scrooges’ house is dark and gloomy just like him at the beginning of the novella, ‘…were a gloomy suite of rooms…’ Dickens describes the rooms of the house as ‘gloomy’, if a person has gloomy rooms in their house you would immediately get an idea that the person was in their self gloomy. Scrooges’ house was also seen as dilapidated and unkempt, hardly any time was spent in the house so Scrooge feels that he should not attempt to rectify any problems with the house. The house was old and dreary; ‘It was old enough now, and dreary enough’, this describes Scrooge yet again, old and dreary. His house is also described as dark like his personality; ‘The yard was so dark’. Scrooge is exactly like what Dickens describes his house to be.
Charles Dickens sums up the different details of Scrooge by comparing him to the weather, this is called pathetic fallacy, and Dickens uses this technique to compare Scrooge to the weather;
‘Foggier yet, and colder! Piercing, searching, biting cold!’
This is an example of pathetic fallacy, adding details to the description of Scrooge. Scrooge is mainly seen as being a cold and dark character and Dickens lets the reader know by using the weather to back up his points made. To emphasise the aspects of Scrooge Dickens also uses a variety of different techniques such as: sibilance, alliteration, metaphors, similes, personification and onomatopoeia. By using these and emotive language dickens can get the point across to the reader.
Towards the end of the novella Scrooge begins to realise his behaviour, he acknowledges the bad things he has done in his life because of the spirits changing the way he looked upon life. During stave two Scrooge realises that he should have given the Christmas caroller some money, aid the poor, and in certain ways begins to change; ‘I wish…but its too late now’ Scrooge tells the spirit of Christmas past that he should have given the Christmas caroller something the night before, Scrooge was feeling remorseful of himself and sympathy for the caroller. This is very unusual for a man like Scrooge and this shows the first sign of any change in Scrooge. The spirits change the way Scrooge sees things by showing him what has happened in the past, present, and future. Scrooge eventually realises that if he does not change his ways he would end up living a sad and painful after life.
The spirit of Christmas present shows Scrooge the hardship of life for the Cratchits and he feels sympathetic towards his clerk’s son ‘Tiny Tim’; ‘Spirit’, said Scrooge with an interest he had never felt before, ‘tell me if Tiny Tim will live.’ Scrooge has never felt the need to sympathise with someone who may not be able to survive, he is hopeful that Tiny Tim will live, this is another example of Scrooge changing as Dickens points out; ‘…with an interest he had never felt before’, Scrooge has never felt any sympathy for the poor, his feelings was always strongly against poverty. The spirit of Christmas future scares Scrooge by showing him his own gravestone and the horrors that come with it. He promises the spirit that he will change his attitude towards Christmas and the poor for the benefit of himself and others. Scrooge sticks by his word and is ecstatic with joy in the morning, a sudden euphoria comes over scrooge; ‘I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am merry as a school boy…’ These similes show that Dickens portrays Scrooge to be as merry and joyful as other things, these similes portray the joy of Scrooge and show that he has consequently, changed for the good.
In conclusion, I believe that Scrooge was a misanthropic miser, and later on realised the mistakes that he had made in life to become a better person. Charles Dickens used imagery and motive language to show the change of Scrooge and his different personalities. Scrooge realises that he had become overwhelmed by wealth and greed, and is now willing to rectify his problems.
