The main character is a man named Scrooge who is middle class, he is a selfish ,mean, spiteful and bitter man

Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol

A Christmas Carol was written in 1843 by Charles Dickens who is a very popular writer. He was born in 1812 and died in 1870. In a week of selling A Christmas Carol it had sold 6,000 copies and Dickens called it his most prodigious success. The book has influenced the way people in Britain thinks of Christmas. He wrote the novella for the upper class to try to tell them how the poor was being treated and try to get the upper class to help them. He aimed the book at the upper class because most of the working class couldn’t read or write and the only people who could make a difference was the upper class. The Christmas Carol was set in London because this was where most of the poverty was. And Dickens also lived in London. And by 1851 half of the British population lived in London so there was mass overcrowding in the poor areas and this lead to a breeding ground for diseases. So Dickens wrote this short story in hope it may change some of this.

The main character is a man named Scrooge who is middle class, he is a selfish ,mean, spiteful and bitter man who lives on his own. The theme of the novella is based on Scrooge and how he acts and treats people, and then how he changes for the better through the novella. At the start we see him as a mean spiteful man and by the end he has changed to a kind generous person.

At the opening of the novella Scrooge is described as a greedy, nasty, selfish, bitter and an “old sinner”. Charles Dickens describes Scrooge as a, “squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner”. his image is described as “hardened sharp as flint” and “the cold within him froze his old features”. these quotes tells us that Scrooge is bitter and grumpy man. The character Scrooge is portrayed as a middle class man we know this because he is a business owner (Scrooge and Marley) and also of where he lives which is an apartment in a middle upper class area with no overcrowding problems. Scrooge doesn’t help his image by the way he treats people. His main concern is himself and his money and the more greedy he is the more bitter he becomes. One of the main person who is affected by this is his clerk. He gets paid very little money and this affects his children and wife and especially one of the youngest of his children Tiny Tim. He is very ill and is crippled and will soon die because of the lack of food there is too go around the whole family.

This is a preview of the whole essay

On a Christmas eve Scrooge is told by the ghost of his old business partner (Marley) that if he doesn’t change his ways, when he dies he will suffer in his afterlife. At first Scrooge is shocked by the ghosts presence but he quickly dismisses the ghost as a dream and is quite calm. But Marley persuades Scrooge he is real but Scrooge is not persuaded to change his ways. We see Marley’s ghost as unhappy and lonely because of the things he done when he was alive and is in full regret. He makes the point about his chains which he has got all over his body and draped behind him. He explains to Scrooge that these chains symbolises all the bad things he has done, he tells Scrooge that if he doesn’t change his ways he will have a mass of chains which are far bigger and heavier than Marley’s. we see this in a quote. “the weight and length of the strong coil you bear yourself ? It was full as heavy and as long as this, seven Christmases ago, you have laboured on it since, it is a ponderous chain!”

The ghost of Christmas past reminds Scrooge of how happy he once was, and how he once was kind and thoughtful. The ghost of Christmas past is gentle and shows Scrooge when he was happy and when he had a fiancée, and this was the time when money wasn’t the most important thing and this was the time where he had the most fun in his life. The ghost then shows Scrooge when money started to dictate his life and when his fiancée Belle broke up with him, because she could tell that Scrooge cared more about making profits and money than their relationship. This is the first stage where money started to take over Scrooges life and in this case it ruined his marriage. The ghost starts to persuade Scrooge by showing the wrong things he has done instead of telling him.

The ghost of Christmas present makes Scrooge realise how you don’t need money to have some of the best things in life and happiness is more important than money. Slowly Scrooge starts to understand the wrong things he has done and starts to thoughtful and caring for others, we see this in a quote. “I see a vacant seat, replied the ghost, in the poor chimney corner, and a crutch without an owner, carefully preserved, if these shadows remain unaltered by the future , the child will die. No, no said Scrooge, oh no kind spirit say he will be spared.

These two quotes shows us that Scrooge is beginning to care for others. In this situation it is Scrooges Clerks son Tiny Tim. His brothers and sisters all still have to work and are poor as they are working class. The ghost shows Scrooge this because even thou they are poor and have hardly any food they are all happy and they look after each other.

The ghost of Christmas in the future shows Scrooge what might happen in the happen in the future if he doesn’t change his ways. And if he doesn’t Tiny Tim will die. By now Scrooge is serious and is also quite scared of the final ghost. Quote “Scrooge feared the silent shape so much that his legs trembled beneath him, and he found he could hardly stand when he prepared to follow it”. Scrooges attitude is now serious and frightened, he is now scared because he now knows when he dies people will remember him as a mean, spiteful, greedy man and most people will be glad that he has died. By this stage in the book Scrooge is convinced he must become a better man.

At the end of the novella Scrooge is persuaded and realises he has to change his ways and be a better person. When he wakes up on Christmas day he is extremely happy and begins to laugh and cry and we see evidence of this in a quote. “I don’t know what to do! Cried Scrooge, laugh thing and crying in the same breath, and making a perfect lagoon of himself with his stockings. I’m as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a schoolboy, I am as giddy as a drunken man. A merry Christmas to everybody! A happy new year to all the world! Hallo here! Whoop! Hallo!” and when Scrooge took to the streets and he was a different man. He said merry Christmas to passers by who were very shocked and confused. Another quote to show how he has changed is when Scrooge and Bob Cratchit next meet. “a merry Christmas Bob. Said Scrooge. With an earnestness that could not be mistaken, as he clapped him on the back, a merry Christmas Bob my good fellow than I have given you for a many a year. Ill raise your salary, and endeavour to assist your struggling family, and we will discuss your affairs this very afternoon, over a Christmas bowl of smoking bishop, Bob. Make up the fires, and buy another coalscuttle before you dot another, Bob Cratchit”. here is a quote in the book to show how much Scrooge has changed and the end of the novella. “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 farther. He became as good as a friend, as good as a master, and as good as a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world, some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laughed”. Dickens tries to tell the reader through Scrooges transformation, that it is better to be happy with or with out money, and that any one can change to a better person.

The character of Scrooge learns that you don’t have to be rich to be happy and you become a happier man if you don’t become greedy or mean. his character is used as a device through which Dickens highlights the importance of happiness than wealth and also helping others whom are in need.

Louis Jenkins