Ebenezer Scrooge is the focal character of Charles Dickens' 1843 novella, A
Christmas Carol. At the beginning of the novella, Scrooge
is a cold-hearted miser who despises Christmas. Dickens describes him thus:
"The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, made
his eyes red, his thin lips blue, and spoke out shrewdly in his grating
voice...". His last name has come into the English language as a byword for
miserliness and misanthropy. The tale of his redemption by the three Ghosts of
Christmas has become a defining tale of the Christmas holiday in the
English-speaking world. Ebenezer Scrooge is arguably both one of the most famous
characters created by Charles Dickens and in English literature.
Scrooge's catchphrase, "Bah, humbug!" is often used to express disgust with many
of the modern Christmas traditions. Origins
Several theories have been put forward as to where Dickens got inspiration for
the character. It has been suggested that he chose the
name Ebenezer help") to reflect the help given to Scrooge to change his life.
The surname may be derived from the now obscure English verb scrouge, meaning
"squeeze" or "press". One school of thought is that Dickens
based Scrooge's views on the poor on those of demographer and political
economist Thomas Malthus. Another is that the minor character
Gabriel Grub from The Pickwick Papers was worked up into a more mature
characterization. Jemmy Wood, owner of the Gloucester Old
Bank and possibly Britain’s first millionaire, was nationally renowned for
his stinginess, and may have been another.
The man whom Dickens eventually mentions in his letters and who strongly
resembles the character portrayed by Dickens's illustrator, John Leech, was a
noted British eccentric and miser named John Elwes.
Appearance in the novella The story of A Christmas Carol starts on
Christmas Eve in 1843, with Scrooge at his money-lending business. Dickens
refers to Scrooge as "... a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping,
clutching, covetous old sinner!" Among his many flaws, he despises Christmas as
a "humbug", and subjects his clerk, Bob Cratchit, to gruelling hours at low pay.
On Christmas Eve in 1843 Scrooge shows his cold-hearted attitude towards others
by refusing to dine with his nephew Fred and refuses to give a donation to two
businessmen for the poor instead supporting the prisons and workhouses
and claims they are better off deceased and 'decrease the surplus population'.
While he is preparing to go to bed, he is visited by the ghost of his business
partner, Jacob Marley, who had died seven years earlier on Christmas Eve.
Like Scrooge, Marley had spent his life hoarding his wealth and exploiting the
poor, and as a result is damned to walk the Earth for eternity bound in the
chains of his own greed. Marley warns Scrooge that he risks meeting the same
fate, and that as a final chance at redemption he will be visited by three
spirits of Christmas: Past, Present, and Yet-to-Come.
The Ghost of Christmas Past takes Scrooge to see his time as a schoolboy
and young man. These visions reveal that Scrooge was a lonely child whose
unloving father sent him away to a boarding school. His one solace was his
beloved younger sister Fan, who repeatedly begged their father to allow
Scrooge to return home, and he at last relented. Fan later died giving birth to
her son, Fred, Scrooge's nephew. The spirit then takes him to see another
Christmas a few years later in which he enjoyed a Christmas party held by his
kind-hearted and festive boss, Mr. Fezziwig. Then, the spirit shows him a
Christmas in which his fiancée, Belle, leaves him as she realizes his love for
money has replaced his love for her. Finally, the spirit shows him a
Christmas Eve several years later, in which Belle is happily married to
another man. Scrooge is then visited by the Ghost of
Christmas Present, who shows him the whole of London celebrating Christmas,
including Fred and the impoverished Cratchit family. When Scrooge expresses
concern for Cratchit's sickly son Tiny Tim, the spirit informs him that the boy
will die unless something changes and uses Scrooge's earlier words about
"decreasing the surplus population" against him. The spirit then produces
two misshapen, sickly children he names Ignorance and Want. When Scrooge asks if
they have anyone to care for them, the spirit throws more of Scrooge's own
words back in his face: "Are there no prisons, no workhouses?"
Finally, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come shows Scrooge visions of the
future. Just as the previous spirit predicted, Tiny Tim has died; his father
could not afford to give him proper care on his small salary and there was no
social health care. The spirit then shows Scrooge scenes related to the
death of a "wretched man": His business associates snicker about how it's likely
to be a cheap funeral and one associate will only go if lunch is provided; his
possessions are stolen and sold by his housekeeper, undertaker and laundress,
and a young couple who owed the man money are relieved he is dead, as they
have more time to pay off their debt. The spirit then shows Scrooge the man's
tombstone, which bears Scrooge's name. Scrooge weeps over his own grave,
begging the spirit for a chance to change his ways, before awakening to
find it is Christmas morning. He immediately repents and becomes a model
of generosity and kindness: He visits Fred and accepts his earlier invitation
to Christmas dinner, gives Bob Cratchit a raise, and becomes like "a second
father" to Tiny Tim. As the final narration states, "Some people laughed
to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for
he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good,
at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and
knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as
well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in
less attractive forms. His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for
him...it was always said of him that he knew how to keep Christmas well if any
man alive possessed the knowledge." Change in personality
Throughout A Christmas Carol the personality of Ebenezer Scrooge shifts
from a man who only cares about himself and his wealth to a man who cares about
others. This change in personality is due to the messages of all four visiting
ghosts. The first ghost, the ghost of Jacob Marley, gave Scrooge the initial
warning of how a wasted life of greed, spite and selfishness towards others,
such as shady business practices, meagre wages, long work hours, and unreasonable
punishment, will result an agonizing afterlife full of unending torment;
constantly suffering and never resting. The Ghost of Christmas Past reminds
Scrooge of how kind he used to be and makes him realize how much he’s changed
since then. It reminded Scrooge of the joy he once felt and could spread to
others, such as his sister or wife. The Ghost of Christmas Present showed him
the abundance of society and how it was not properly distributed amongst the
social classes. Want and Greed appear to show that if the people are not taken
care of properly, then the gap between the classes and the anger in society
will grow. Finally, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come shows what
Scrooge’s fate is; however Scrooge questions if it was Christmas yet to
come, or Christmas of what could be. This final encounter really showed
Scrooge that in order for others to care about someone, that person must first
care about others. Actors portraying Ebenezer Scrooge
Scrooge has been portrayed by: In popular culture
The name "Scrooge" is used in English as a word for a person who is misanthropic
and tight-fisted despite the fact Ebenezer Scrooge reformed later.
The character is most often noted for exclaiming "Bah! Humbug!" despite
uttering this phrase only twice in the entire story. He uses the word "Humbug"
on its own on seven occasions, although on the seventh we are told he "stopped
at the first syllable" after realizing Marley's ghost is real. The word is
never used again after that in the book. A species of snail is named Ba humbugi
after Scrooge's catchphrase. Scrooge appears in Louis Bayard's 2003
novel Mr. Timothy, which is told from Tim Cratchit's perspective.
See also Scrooge
Grinch Scrooge McDuck
Scroogenomics Scrooge, or, Marley's Ghost 1901 silent
film, References
External links Works by or about Ebenezer Scrooge in
libraries