Point | Evidence | Explanation | All Scrooge cares about is his money. | ‘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.’ | This suggests that Scrooge believes that the economy is the main focus of Christmas, that nothing else should matter to an individual apart from the state of his finances. | Scrooge thinks people that like Christmas are insane. | ‘There’s another fellow, my clerk, with fifteen shillings a week, and a wife and a family, talking about a merry Christmas. I’ll retire to Bedlam’ | This demonstrates that Scrooge can’t understand how someone can have positive emotions and be in control of their …show more content…
round to make sure no one disapproved.’ (p.39) |
Dickens' political diatribe 'A Christmas Carol' explores the effects of loneliness and isolation and shows how they can change someone such as Scrooge from being loving and kind to 'cold' and unfeeling. Dickens aims to connect with the people of Victorian England through his novella as he shows the consequences of isolating someone. When we are first introduced to Scrooge, we are full of sympathy. We are told that Scrooge's'sole friend' Marley is 'dead as a doornail'. Dickens continuously uses the noun'sole' throughout his first part of the novella to emphasise Scrooge's loneliness.
Their holiday food “nobody said or thought it was at all a small pudding for a large family”. “ had a paradoxical nature, the pudding was tangibly small, which is symbolic of the scarcity of food, but it is their compassion and connection to each other that make it almost an abundance for them. The “pudding” is an iconic Christmas dessert. As they are all sharing it, it visually demonstrates their connection and unity as a family - something that Dickens wants the readers to achieve. Perhaps, Dickens wants to not only dispel the stereotype of the poor being lazy, criminals, and amoral but also criticise the
The journey to his childhood results in visible signs of emotion in Scrooge, which we do not associate with him to start with, as this one of the first ways that Dickens presents the change in Scrooge. ‘“Your lip is trembling”’. ‘“And what is that upon
Scrooge is a rude, dismal man who hates mankind, and Christmas. During Christmastime there is a lot of charity and for being such a wealthy man that Scrooge is, he hates to give money to charity. He also thinks that Christmas is waste of time, and it could be used for
This is backed up by the many things that Scrooge is shown, but denies. One of these things is when he saw all of his possessions being sold after he died. He is shown everything of value he owned being sold after he died, but he denies it because of his fear. The last example is when he sees his grave. He denies that that will be the final outcome, and he begs to have the chance to make up for the things he has done.
‘If you please,’ said Scrooge. ‘Not a farthing less. A great many back payments are included in it, I assure you. Will you do me the favour?’” (Dickens 78)
In a Victorian Age society where making money is everyone’s goal, one may forget that making money isn’t the most important thing. Children grow up knowing they’d be no one without money, but they aren’t being taught that this isn’t the most imperative thing to worry about. A lot of people tend to ignore the negatives that come with having a lot of money. One such book that teaches this lesson would be A Christmas Carol. In A Christmas Carol, wealth is a sign of a moral corruption and the devastating effects of greed because it changed Scrooge into a cheap, selfish person who valued money above all.
In 'A Christmas Carol', Dickens represents Scrooge as a 'squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner' who is against Christmas and happiness and values money, yet given a chance to redeem his fate. Marley's Ghost has come to warn Scrooge to change
In the blistering cold of a dim Christmas Eve, a man with a frozen heart of stone was able to find a spark of warmth and goodness through the three spirits that guided him to hope and happiness. In A Christmas Carol, a classic tale by Charles Dickens, Ebenezer Scrooge, a man with a cold empty heart who had learnt a lesson of a lifetime. He never could comprehend and seem to understand why people were so joyous on this one specific day, as he preferred to live his life alone and in the dark. When requested to donate some money for the poor, he greedily rejected and responded with a cruel answer. In the heartwarming and magical story, this stingy man travels through time to the past, present, and future with three different spirits to learn
the needs of many suffering out on the streets. The Spirit of Christmas Past teaches scrooge some
Scrooge lost his companionship with other humans. Through all of the struggles that these people are faced with on a day to day biases, at the end of the day, they have each other. Companionship helps these people cope with the pain of everyday life and its struggles. The miners, lighthouse keepers, sailors, and to an end, a great percentage of the population, understand that Christmas is a time for joy, happiness, and love. Christmas is a time in which people come together despite their own personal problems to bring happiness and joy to each other through companionship. With all of Scrooges wealth and security, he has lost all companionship with others; furthermore, losing a part of his humanity. At the beginning of “A Christmas Carol”, Scrooges
The text explicitly states Scrooge, a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, clutching, covetous, old sinner has passed away. According to the text, he despises many things such as happiness, humor, and even Christmas. From the reading, I know that he is depressed all the time, consequently his mental state has led him to call other people stupid, dumb, and idiots. On page three, in the conversation with his nephew Fred, Scrooge insults his nephew about marrying and loving his wife. The text states, that he also “seized the ruler with such energy of action, that the singer fled in terror, leaving the keyhole to the frost and even more congenial frost.” From the reading I know that Scrooge isn’t a people person and is very down about life. Based on the text he doesn’t really like being around them. For example Scrooge didn’t donate any money to the poor, and blew off his nephew about spending Christmas with them. In the text it states that there is no wind as bare as Scrooge, this means he doesn't really care or doesn't have many feelings.
Christmas is the time of year where everyone seems to be happy no matter what is going on currently in the world around them. But not for Ebenezer Scrooge. Everyone makes mistakes, but some that Scrooge had made, made a big impact on his life. Because of his lack to spread kindness and charity, Scrooge’s consequences were three lovely visits from the Spirit of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come that made Scrooge reflect on his previous decisions so he can have an even greater future. When Scrooge’s partner, Marley, passes away, he lives an even more greedy and selfish life, finding another reason to strongly hate Christmas. Thus one part of why his poor action will provide a future consequence. Secondly, since Scrooge had been so selfish to everyone, including the whole town of London, it is pretty certain that all of London dislikes Scrooge. Although the Spirit of Christmas Yet to Come shows Scrooge that if he does indeed stay selfish, he most certainly will not be missed when he passes away. Lastly, his mistake in life was from his past when he decides to worry and obsess over making money and being successful rather than making sure he and his fiance’s future was more secure rather than secure finances. A Christmas Carol displays actions and consequences depend on one's own actions and decisions whether good or bad.
As it is shown in A Christmas Carol, Scrooge is a man that cares mainly about his wealth. In the beginning of the story he is asked to give money to the less fortunate and destitute, his response is shocking, Scrooge says,” … I can’t afford to make idle people merry… they cost enough”. The men are tremendously disgusted by his statement. Scrooge shows that he mainly cares about keeping his wealth to himself, he doesn’t feel the need to give to others who are less fortunate. After they continue to speak, Scrooge also states,” If they would rather die, they better do it, and decrease the surplus population”. Scrooge feels that if people are going to be poor and not have as much wealth as him, that they should be put to work in factories, or they should just go away altogether. He mainly cares about how much
Let's go back and contrast what Scrooge is also faced with here. He is told that all he cares about is