...In the novel, A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge is a rude, grumpy, mean old man. He thinks Christmas is a humbug and he doesn’t want to get in the Christmas spirit because he treasures his money and doesn’t want to spend one bit of it. Scrooge will be visited by three spirits throughout the book. The spirits will try to teach him a lesson and that he needs to change his ways before it is too late. In A Christmas Carol, the author Charles Dickens, shows that one’s business in life is helping others and being charitable through Scrooge’s experiences with the three ghosts. In Stave I, Scrooge thinks the definition of man’s “business” is money. This impacted Scrooge because he has become greedy and uncharitable. Scrooge does not care about...
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...Character Analysis Essay for Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol "Greed, Ebenezer Scrooge, wealth. Feel them. Know them. Yours was as heavy as this I wear seven years ago, and you have labored to build it since," wailed Jacob Marley in Frederick Gaines's adaptation of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol (396). Burdened by his greedy life, Marley, Ebenezer Scrooge's deceased business partner, is forced to wander the spirit world with no sense of peace. He warns Scrooge to change his selfish ways to avoid the same miserable fate. Marley's ominous warning sets in motion three life-altering journey through time for Scrooge with the Spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet To Come. Ebenezer Scrooge, originally a greedy and heartless character, changes drastically after his ghostly experiences influence him to become a generous and caring man by the end of the story. In Scene I of "A Christmas Carol", Scrooge is a bitter and self-centered man. For instance, Scrooge's own nephew, Fred, asked Scrooge if he would join Fred and his family for dinner. Scrooge coldly denied Fred's invitation by saying "Nephew, keep Christmas in your own way…"(390)....
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...‘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, iron fisted and miserable to becoming a new, openhearted and charitable man. The novel was first published in 1843, a time when many of the wealthy people neglected the old Christmas spirit of charity. In addition, the Industrial Revolution had further done away with the simple pleasures of the season. Dickens’ intentions in writing ‘A Christmas Carol’ were not only linked to his own childhood and sympathy for the poor, but he was also making an appeal to the rich people of society to mend their selfish ways. Dickens is able to show the change in Scrooge’s character by establishing what Scrooge is like at the very beginning of the story with the first two words he says: ‘“Bah! Humbug!’’ ’It is clear from the dismissive tone and the two exclamation marks that Scrooge has no patience with the idea of Christmas as a special time. At the start of the novel, Dickens is using Scrooge, someone who associates happiness with nothing but money, as a classic example of a wealthy person in the 19th Century. He does this with Scrooge inquiring of his nephew ‘“What reason have you to be merry? You’re poor enough.”’ Scrooge’s manor in saying this reveals certain elements of his character such as his shallowness and uncaring nature. In Scrooge saying this it demonstrates to the reader that Scrooge does...
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...A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens Ebenezer Scrooge acts as the main character within this novel in which he is depicted as a “squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, old sinner as self-contained and as solitary as an oyster”. He is incapable of relationships. However, throughout his life of suffering he is guided by the Ghosts of Christmas past, Christmas Present and of Christmas future. A Christmas Carol is a celebration of Christmas and the good it inspires. Scrooge was a cold and old disgruntled man that saw no purpose in life, wouldn’t accept changes, and wished to be alone. The heaviest rain, snow, hail and sleet were just like any other days that had no effect on him. Nobody ever stopped him in the streets to greet him or even ask what time of the day it was. The only relationship he had was with his lifelong business partner Marley, who had been dead for seven years when the novel began. He despises the poor and hates any part of life that is in relation to happiness or spending money. Scrooge’s appearance has been made very “cold and bitter”. For example, “his thin lips blue”. Scrooge’s personality attitude towards the poor is horrible, for example, when the charity guys come into the room and asked Scrooge if he wishes to make a donation he replies no, this makes the readers dislike Scrooge and disagree with the points that he has to make like, “it is a good thing that the Union work houses are still in operation”. Scrooge is a cold-hearted...
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...J Hansen Mrs. Burnham Language Arts, Period 4 13 December 2016 A Christmas Carol: Literary Analysis Essay Have you ever thought about the Victorian Era and how different life is today? This is significant because there was so much tragedy and Charles Dickens wrote about it in A Christmas Carol. Truly the only way people survived was by caring. Charles Dickens grew up in the Victorian Era being very poor. He wanted people to realize how life was in the low social class in Victorian England, so he wrote A Christmas Carol. The story is about how Scrooge changes throughout the book, childhood innocence, and social justice. Scrooge’s personality and attitude from the beginning of the book to the end changed dramatically. Dickens also indirectly...
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...“Bah, Humbug!” The classical story of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens drew us in and gave us many of the character types and themes that we have today. In this classical story, the reader follows the life of Ebenezer Scrooge and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future as the ghosts try to cure Scrooge’s greedy nature. The modern story that uses the elements in A Christmas Carol is How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss. In this modern work, the reader follows The Grinch, a crabby old creature who tries to steal the Who’s christmas spirit and happiness. A Christmas Carol has become such an influential work that modern authors still draw upon the character types, conflicts, and themes found in Dickens’ traditional story. Firstly, there are the character types that are shared between A Christmas Carol and The Grinch. Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas Present are at Fred’s Christmas party. Fred and his guests are talking about Scrooge. “‘I am sorry for him; I couldn’t be angry with him if I tried. Who suffers by his ill...
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...A Christmas Carol, written by Charles Dickens, is not only a highly regarded form of literature in telling a story, but also in teaching moral values. Dickens used detailed adjectives and a rhythmic style of writing in many of his stories to make his readers feel a full range of intense emotions; this including A Christmas Carol. The story begins with Ebenezer Scrooge sitting in his workplace on Christmas Eve. Scrooge receives a visit from the ghost of his old work partner, Jacob Marley. Marley explains that Scrooge will receive a ghost for the next three nights in order to help change his miserable life. From this point, the reader ignites a journey following Scrooge and the ghosts of Christmas. A common denominator found in all of Scrooge’s...
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...“He who is greedy is always in want”. (Horace). That was a characteristic of a man named Ebenezer Scrooge. The script and movie of “A Christmas Carol” tells the story about him. On Christmas Eve Scrooge is visited by three spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Future. Over the three visits, Scrooge sees how he will die alone if he doesn’t stop caring about money and himself. “A Christmas Carol” script and movie have their differences, but they do have the same moral. In the play when Past visits Scrooge, Past renews memories of Scrooge’s childhood, which contained of only preparing to have financial success when he grew up. Past also shows when Scrooge is a middle-aged man and his girlfriend breaks up with him because he spends all his...
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...don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.” Many people believe that this is a great way to live life. This perfectly resembles Ebenezer Scrooge, from A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens. In the story, Scrooge realizes he does not like the outcome of his life, so he changes his attitude. For example, he learns to love and appreciate his family instead of treating them with disgust and shame. Sadly, for most of the play, Scrooge is a greedy, rude, self-centered man. Slowly, he realizes that to change his future he needs to change his attitude. Sooner or later, the lessons of the three spirits who visit him kick in, and he learns that he needs to...
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...compassion in both A Christmas Carol and Wuthering Heights. Ebenezer Scrooge and Jacob Marley are characters in A Christmas Carol that showcase the harm of greedy living without compassion. The rest of the characters, such as the Cratchits or Fred, contrast the miserly moneylenders. Heathcliff and Hindley Earnshaw are characters in Wuthering Heights who cause so much pain to others and themselves due to their obsession of ownership and revenge. Cathy serves as foil characters, showing how loyalty and compassion can lead to a happier existence. Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol has two main types of characters: the compassionate and the greedy. Ebenezer Scrooge has a lot of contrast between the people who are willing to feel pity towards him (his ex-fiancé, his nephew, his clerk) and those who coldly dismiss him as he does them (fellow business people, his servants, the pawn shop owner). The entire supernatural ordeal that Scrooge goes through is meant to show him the error of his greedy ways and teach him the importance of compassion. Scrooge starts in the story with a personality so cold, it freezes his features. His dispassionate nature forbids any kindness, whether it be giving it, like towards his clerk, or receiving it, such as his nephew’s invitation. Yet, Scrooge’s compassion almost suddenly appears when he sees his past (27). It is not like he never knew such things growing up; he was taught through his books and by Fezziwig. His greed drowned out Scrooge’s compassion and...
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...At the beginning of A Christmas Carol, Scrooge is mean, ill tempered, truculent. He’s mean because in the story Cratchit burst into applause. Scrooge’s response to this is “Another sound out of you, and you’ll keep your Christmas by losing your position.”(4) He’s ill tempered because in the story there are few kids singing God Rest Ye merry gentlemen. Scrooge’s response will seizing a ruler to this is “ get away from here , you! I didn’t ask to be bothered with that.”(6) He’s truculent because Fred his nephew said i fell in love. After that Scrooge repeated said “good afternoon.”(4) Scrooge changes from these traits through experience with the ghosts of the Past, Present, and Future. First the ghost of Christmas Past visits Scrooge...
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...“ Scrooge and Marley A Christmas Carol.” Change is a new feeling or behavior that a character or person doesn’t normally have, any person or character has the ability to change. In the text “ Scrooge and Marley a Christmas Carol,” the character Scrooge proved to people and ghosts that anyone one can change. Scrooge’s character transform in the text by becoming thankful, understanding, and cautious. To start off, the ghost known as “ The Ghost of Christmas Past” begins to show Scrooge more of his past that Scrooge has never thought back about. In the text the Ghost of Christmas past started off by showing Scrooge his past about his sister. Scrooge’s sisters name was Fan, now Fan was described a pure spirit due to all her kindness spreaded toward...
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...“Men's courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which if persevered in, they must lead . . . But if the courses be departed from, then ends will change”. Discuss. Set against the backdrop of nineteenth century London, Charles Dickens' timeless novella “A Christmas Carol” illustrates the transformation of the protagonist Ebenezer Scrooge from a cruel and and greedy miser to a kind and benevolent human being. Throughout this “ghostly” tale, Scrooge is placed on a psychological continuum that allows readers to observe his gradual progress from a recluse to a man of compassion to highlight the abundance of life's riches when material gain does not become one's “golden idol”. Through characters such as Jacob Marley, Dickens not only emphasises on the inevitable doom of those who act selfishly as they will lead a life full of regret and isolation from those they love but also highlights how selfish actions can lead to devastating consequences that not only affect one's life but also the lives of those less fortunate. However, Dickens also conveys the moral message to his readers that through guidance and the willingness to be enlightened by others, we all have the capacity to change ourselves, and in the process better our lives and the lives of others. Fixated with materials goods at the expense of human connection, Scrooge's lack of morality is evident in the novella through his Malthusian mindset regarding the poor, as he claims that “if they be like to die, then they had...
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...Cesar Granda E.G 121 When reading A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens you realize that Scrooge’s childhood has a huge impact on his adult life, his adult self is a mirror image of his child self, both in his emotions and relationships. This becomes apparent when the ghost of Christmas past appears and takes Scrooge on a journey back into his childhood days. His childhood really molds Scrooge into the person he becomes later in life. Scrooge was a lonely and withdrawn child because he lost connection with the only parent he had left after the death of his mother at childbirth. His father sends him away to boarding school and refuses to allow the young Scrooge to return home. This disconnection from the only parent he has left leads young Scrooge to become introverted and lonely. Having been deprived of a father figure he probably could not have sustained a relationship with other boys, in fact, it probably was the opposite of that. Boys at the school could easily have picked on him for the situation he was in. At Christmas time this becomes more apparent when all the boys return home with Scrooge being the only one remaining in school. All of these events take a tremendous toll on the young Scrooge’s psychological state that culminates on Christmas day when he is alone in the deserted school reading a book next to a fireplace: “Suddenly a man, in foreign garments: wonderfully real and distinct to look at: stood outside the window, with an axe stuck in his...
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...Scrooge and Marley, a short novel, is the adapted version of a Christmas Carol by Israel Horovitz. The author expresses that greed and indifference come at a cost, so the readers can interpret the consequences of being greedy. Over the course of the story, the author shows dramatic changes in Scrooge’s personality. Before the first spirit arrives, an example of scrooge's personality towards the poor and everyone else is, “If I could work my will every idiot who goes about ‘Merry Christmas’ on his lips should be boiled in his own pudding…” (603). In this piece of text Scrooge shows that he does not care about anyone but himself. In the middle of the story, Scrooge starts to change his act about how he feels about how he treated his wife. For...
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