Scrooge in A Christmas Carol by Charles DickensThe novel, ‘A Christmas Carol’, is more than just a mere story insteadit tries to expose the negative side of Victorian society and thereason behind this horror, the greed of the wealthy, through thedevelopment of the character Scrooge. All this while attempting toprompt readers with Scrooge’s similar wealth to make a change. Asmentioned earlier, the development of Scrooge’s character is vital tothis and I will explain how his character develops as the storyproceeds and how it is used to accomplish the aim as mentioned above.
In the first stave, Dickens tries to point out that Scrooge is acharacter that society considers negative. In the introduction,Dickens points out Scrooge’s wealth to immediately aim any point aboutsociety not only to average people but in particular to people ofScrooge’s similar wealth, he does this by describing Scrooge as ‘anexcellent man of business on the very day of the funeral’, this notonly proves Scrooge’s wealth but also that Scrooge is a coldcharacter, the first hint of the truly negative character of Scroogeto be revealed later in this stave, since he has the heart to dobusiness on the day of the funeral of his long time business partner.What makes this worse is that Marley was Scrooge’s equal in terms ofcharacter as far as the story goes since Dickens chose to describewhat Scrooge meant to Marley as ‘his sole executor, his soleadministrator, his sole friend and his sole mourner’, therefore sinceScrooge showed little sympathy in the death of ‘his equal’ it givesthe readers a sense of cannibalism since Scrooge is practicallyturning his back on Marley in his death. Even in the introduction,Dickens …
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…as changed as Scrooge is not usually earnest at all. Not onlywhich, Scrooge seems to be a lot happier after this change as provenby the quote “Oh, glorious.” This is Scrooge describing theenvironment, in his description he describes it positively showing asign that he is happier. This is important as it is a signal toreaders in Scrooge’s financial situation that they will be happierafter the change.
My conclusion is that Scrooge’s character is used by Dickens torepresent an exgaratted stereotypical version of the Victorian wealthybusinessman who is greedy. The story is not only an attempt by Dickensto tell these businessmen what they are missing out on by beinggreedy(as proven by Scrooge’s happiness after the change) but alsomeant to expose the unfairness in Society where the rich who can dothe most to improve lives do not even try to do so.
