The Metamorphosis of Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol Essay

‘A Christmas Carol’ covers a period of 24 hours from Christmas Eve to Christmas Day. It is a simple morality tale of the radical change in the character Ebenezer Scrooge from being bitter, ironfisted and miserable to becoming a new, openhearted and charitable man.

A Christmas Carol is the classic story by Charles Dickens about the transformation of Ebenezer Scrooge. He is guided by three spirits, as they conduct him on his travels through time, teaching him to move beyond his earlier cruelty and hatred of mankind. With the guidance of the spirits, Scrooge learns the true meaning of family, love and Christmas. The spirits all influenced Scrooge in unique ways and taught him different lessons. The spirit that was the most significant in Scrooge’s transformation was the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come.

In the beginning of the book, “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens, Ebenezer Scrooge is a cold, selfish and greedy man. He owns a business and is rich, but never does anything good with his money and keeps it to himself. He thinks of Christmas as a useless holiday and does not care to talk or smile to anybody he sees. However, as the spirits of the past, present and future visit him, Scrooge becomes much kinder and wants to become a better person. He learns to care for others and becomes more engaged in his community.

At the beginning of A Christmas Carol, Scrooge is bitter, greedy, and selfish. He was rude to just about everyone he met, because he was discouraged over losing some really important people in his life. And since he was upset over that, he definitely didn’t have to try to act the way he was feeling. He had a right to be feeling that way, but he shouldn’t have taken action. But as he met three ghosts, Scrooge changes from these traits through his experiences throughout the story.

In the play, A Christmas Carol: Scrooge and Marley by Israel Horovitz the main character Scrooge is a cold-hearted miser who despises Christmas and people. At the beginning, he shows very different and mean actions towards people and how he is always mad. For example when Scrooge leaves his office's people start to walk past him in a happy and merry mood. But in contrast to the people, Scrooge has a frown and looks unhappy for the Christmas time. Another example is that when his nephew is talking to him he is wanting him to leave so he keeps on repeating the words, “Good Afternoon!” until he leaves. The last example would be that when Cratchit is cold in the office, Scrooge starts yelling at him saying that he would fire him because he was showing he was cold. Scrooge also shows it in his own words by saying “...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.”(647).

From the reading, I know that Scrooge is a dolorous and crabby man who is identified as all head no heart. A tight-fisted hand at the grindstone kind of man is he accounting for every sterling. I know he hates Christmas by the response he gave to his nephew when he came to ask Scrooge to join his family for dinner. Fred, his nephew, says to Scrooge, “Christmas a humbug, you don’t mean that , I am sure.” Scrooge replies, “I do.” “Merry Christmas! What right do you have to be merry?” Fred ignores Scrooge’s negative response and continues to spread his joy by asking his uncle to join his family for dinner. On page six when carolers visited at his door, “Scrooge seized the ruler with such energy of action, that the singer fled in terror, leaving the keyhole to the fog and even more congenial frost.” The foggy frozen mist outside his office crept through the door to freeze his old features as it did his heart. That one of a kind man is very greedy and selfish. The text claims he is a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Scrooge’s business partner Marley is “dead as a doornail!” Marley’s ghost appears within Scrooge’s door knocker one day. Scrooge is slightly freaked out by the fact that Marley’s ghost is at his house! He then asks the ghost who he is. The ghost immediately responds telling him to ask who he was. Marley’s ghost continuously asks Scrooge if he believes in him. Scrooge responds as if he does, but does not.

Ebenezer Scrooge is the major character in the story, A Christmas Carol written by Charles Dickens. A Christmas Carol is about how a “cold-hearted, tight fisted, selfish” money grabbing man is offered an opportunity of a life time, to change his behaviour, attitude... to have a second chance in life.

The outlook of his house was dull. This quotation illustrated this “It was old enough, dreary enough, for nobody but Scrooge" ---------------------------------------------------------- The inside of his house was also dull and dark and was like nobody lived in it. He had splinters on his staircase and it was dark and dull, which was very similar to Scrooge’s character.

Scrooge keeps the coal-box in his own room so the clerk is not able to

Have you ever seen something that you did not beleave in? Well this is how the gost changed Scrooge and this is the story be hind it all.

Acquaintances and family members of Ebenezer Scrooge might typically think of him as someone with negative qualities. Although this may come as a surprise to you, Scrooge has recently had a change of heart. Upon meeting him my ears were astounded to hear that Scrooge, as pleasant as he now is, was once cruel, unsympathetic, and selfishly treasured money.

Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is a moral tale that depicts the protagonist’s Ebenezer Scrooge’s moral journey from selfishness to redemption. It can be seen that his new found way of life is derived from the desire to be a good man of the community and to assist others such as Tiny Tim. The idea of Scrooge’s transformation not being selfish can also be seen in his aspiration to contribute to the wider community that suffers from a poverty stricken way of life. In addition to this, Scrooge also reforms his way of life in order to feel love and care from family, which satisfied his nephew Fred aswell as himself. However, this selflessness is only to an

Charles wrote A Christmas Carol in 1843. This short novel has a Christmas theme and has been popular since it was first published. This moral story is about an old man called Scrooge who hates Christmas and is mean to everyone, but he is transformed. The lessons he learns are as much for the reader to benefit from as Scrooge.

What’s in a name? A name can hold meaning or provide context for someone’s character. Before even reading A Christmas Carol, if we analyzed the infamous name we know as Ebenezer Scrooge, we could determine his character through two words. The name Ebenezer derives from the Hebrew dialect, meaning “stone of help”. Scrooge can be used in a different context, which would mean someone who is “miserly”, or someone who is befitting a miser. Dictionary.com further defines a miser as, “A person who lives in wretched circumstances in order to save and hoard money.” It’s a befitting description for Scrooge at the beginning of the novel. Scrooge’s first and last name can show us how at the beginning of the novel, Scrooge was a stingy man, hence the last name; but he underwent a major positive change, which is signified by his first name. Dickens wants the reader to understand how mankind’s business is not financial gain, but kindness, and the well-being of others. However, Scrooge’s beginning belief in the novel contradicts what Dickens is trying to teach his readers. Scrooge believes that mankind’s business is to financially gain as much money as you can-while Dickens conveys in the novel that the pursuit of compassion towards others and their common welfare is our business a humans. While Scrooge was firm in his belief, Dickens’ lesson that he is trying to teach us through Scrooge’s character development slowly seeps through Scrooge’s well-sewn seams, which were forged by his

Ebenezer Scrooge is the major character in the story, A Christmas Carol written by Charles Dickens. A Christmas Carol is about how a “cold-hearted, tight fisted, selfish” money grabbing man is offered an opportunity of a life time, to change his behaviour, attitude... to have a second chance in life.