Ebenezer Scrooge Explained

Series:A Christmas Carol
Ebenezer Scrooge
Creator:Charles Dickens
Gender:Male
Occupation:Businessman
Significant Other:Belle (fiancée of Scrooge)
Noinfo:yes
Nationality:English (original)
Based On:Possibly John Elwes, Daniel Dancer, Jemmy Wood
Portrayer:See below

Ebenezer Scrooge is a fictional character and the protagonist of Charles Dickens's 1843 short novel, A Christmas Carol. Initially a cold-hearted miser who despises Christmas, his redemption by three spirits (the Ghost of Christmas Past, the Ghost of Christmas Present, and the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come) has become a defining tale of the Christmas holiday in the English-speaking world.

Dickens describes Scrooge thus early in the story: "The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice." Towards the end of the novella, the three spirits show Scrooge the errors of his ways, and he becomes a better, more generous man.

Scrooge's last name has entered the English language as a byword for greed and misanthropy, while his catchphrase, "Bah! Humbug!" is often used to express disgust with many modern Christmas traditions.

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Description

Charles Dickens describes Scrooge as "a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint... secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster." He does business from a Cornhill warehouse and is known among the merchants of the Royal Exchange as a man of good credit. Despite having considerable personal wealth, he underpays his clerk Bob Cratchit and hounds his debtors relentlessly while living cheaply and joylessly in the chambers of his deceased business partner, Jacob Marley. Most of all, he detests Christmas, which he associates with reckless spending. When two men approach him on Christmas Eve for a donation to charity, he sneers that the poor should avail themselves of the treadmill or the workhouses, or else die to reduce the surplus population. He also refuses his nephew Fred's invitation to Christmas dinner and denounces him as a fool for celebrating Christmas. He even frightens a young carol singer by gripping a ruler with a fit of energy. Scrooge reluctantly gives Cratchit Christmas Day off, as there will be no business for Scrooge during the day.

That night, Scrooge is visited by Marley's ghost, who is condemned to walk the world forever bound in chains as punishment for his greed and inhumanity in life. Marley tells Scrooge that he will be visited by three spirits, in the hope that he will mend his ways; if he does not, Marley warns, Scrooge will wear even heavier chains than his in the afterlife.

The first spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Past, shows Scrooge visions of his early life. These visions establish Scrooge's unloving childhood in a boarding school, where at Christmas he remained alone while his schoolmates returned home to their families. One of Scrooge's happy memories was when his sister Fan — later Fred's mother — came to take him home one Christmas, saying that their hard-hearted father had changed. Scrooge then apprenticed at the warehouse of a jovial and generous master, Mr. Fezziwig. He was engaged to a young woman named Belle, but gradually his love for Belle was overwhelmed by his love for money. Belle realised this and, saddened by his greed, left him, eventually having children with another man. The present-day Scrooge reacts to his memories with nostalgia and deep regret.

The Ghost of Christmas Present arrives and shows Scrooge that his greed and selfishness have hurt others as well, particularly Cratchit, who cannot afford to provide his desperately ill son Tiny Tim with medical treatment because of Scrooge's miserliness. The Spirit tells an ashamed Scrooge that Tiny Tim will die unless something changes, and throws back at Scrooge his own heartless words about the poor and destitute. Scrooge and the ghost also visit Fred's Christmas party, where Fred defends his uncle from his guests' snide remarks. Finally, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come shows Scrooge where his greed and selfishness will lead: a lonely death and a neglected grave, unpaid servants stealing his belongings, debtors relieved at his death, and the Cratchit family devastated by the loss of Tiny Tim. Scrooge asks this Spirit if this future can still be changed, and begs the Spirit for another chance, promising to change his ways – and finds himself in his bed on Christmas Day.

An overjoyed Scrooge commits to being more generous and compassionate; he accepts his nephew's invitation to Christmas dinner, provides for Cratchit and his family, and donates to the charity fund. From then, he is said to have become the embodiment of the Christmas spirit and became a "second father" to Tiny Tim.

Origins

Several theories have been put forward as to where Dickens got the inspiration for the character.

Ebenezer Lennox was supposedly a merchant from Edinburgh who won a catering contract for King George IV's visit to Scotland. He was buried in Canongate Kirkyard, with a gravestone that is now lost. The theory is that Dickens noticed the gravestone that described Scroggie as being a "meal man" (grain merchant) but misread it as "mean man."[1] [2] This theory has been described as "a probable Dickens hoax" for which "[n]o one could find any corroborating evidence".[3] There is no record of anyone named Scroggie in the Edinburgh census returns of the period.[4] 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 model for Scrooge.[5] The man whom Dickens eventually mentions in his letters[6] and who strongly resembles the character portrayed by Dickens' illustrator, John Leech, was a noted British eccentric and miser named John Elwes (1714–1789). Another suggested inspiration for the character of Scrooge is Daniel Dancer, who Dickens mentions, along with Elwes, in Our Mutual Friend.

It has been suggested that he chose the name Ebenezer ("stone (of) help") to reflect the help given to Scrooge to change his life.[7] [8] Commentators have suggested that the surname was partly inspired by the word "scrouge", meaning "crowd" or "squeeze".[9] [10] The word was in use from 1820.[11]

Kelly writes that Scrooge may have been influenced by Dickens' conflicting feelings for his father, whom he loved and demonised. This psychological conflict may be responsible for the two radically different Scrooges in the tale—one a cold, stingy recluse, the other a benevolent, loving man. Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, a professor of English literature, considers that in the opening part of the book portraying young Scrooge's lonely and unhappy childhood, and his aspiration to rise from poverty to riches "is something of a self-parody of Dickens's fears about himself"; the post-transformation parts of the book are how Dickens optimistically sees himself.

One school of thought is that Dickens based Scrooge's views of the poor on those of political economist and demographer Thomas Malthus, as evidenced by his callous attitude towards the "surplus population".[12] [13] "And the Union workhouses? ... The treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?" are a reflection of a sarcastic question raised by the reactionary philosopher Thomas Carlyle: "Are there not treadmills, gibbets; even hospitals, poor-rates, New Poor-Law?"

There are literary precursors for Scrooge in Dickens's own works. Peter Ackroyd, Dickens's biographer, sees similarities between Scrooge and the title character of Martin Chuzzlewit, although the latter is "a more fantastic image" than the former; Ackroyd observes that Chuzzlewit's transformation to a charitable man is parallel to that of Scrooge. Douglas-Fairhurst sees that the minor character Gabriel Grub from The Pickwick Papers was also an influence when creating Scrooge.

Analysis

Scrooge's character, particularly how it changes throughout A Christmas Carol, has been the subject of several analyses.[14] [15] [16]

The psychological phenomenon of increased generosity and altruism following encounters with mortality or existential dread is called the Scrooge effect.[17]

In other media

Portrayals

See also

Citations

Notes and References

  1. News: Revealed: the Scot who inspired Dickens' Scrooge. 24 December 2004. The Scotsman. 2020-01-14. Details of Scroggie’s life are sparse, but he was a vintner as well as a corn merchant..
  2. Web site: BBC Arts – That Ebenezer geezer... who was the real Scrooge?. BBC. 2016-04-30.
  3. News: Rowan. Pelling. Mr Punch is still knocking them dead after 350 years. https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/charles-dickens/9066840/Mr-Punch-is-still-knocking-them-dead-after-350-years.html . 11 January 2022 . subscription . live. The Telegraph. February 7, 2014. June 16, 2017. en.
  4. Book: Melvin . Eric . A walk through Edinburgh's New Town . 2014 . Scotland . 9781500122010 . 63.
  5. Book: Silence. Rebecca. Gloucester History Tour. 2015. Amberley Publishing Limited. 40.
  6. Book: Dickens, Charles. The Letters of Charles Dickens. 1999. Oxford University Press. House. Madeline. Oxford, England. 7. Letter to George Holsworth, 18 January 1865. Charles Dickens. Storey. Graham. Brown. Margaret. Tillotson. Kathleen.
  7. Book: Kincaid. Cheryl Anne. Hearing the Gospel through Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol". Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Cambridge, England. 2009. 7–8. 2. 978-1443817981. 24 December 2014. 4 June 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170604233836/http://www.cambridgescholars.com/download/sample/59020. dead.
  8. News: Richard. Pearson. Why did Charles Dickens invent Scrooge?. December 9, 2014. November 30, 2020. The Independent. en. Scrooge is also a real word. Spelled slightly differently, 'scrouge' 'scrowge' or 'scroodge' is an old word meaning to squeeze someone, to encroach on their space, making them feel uncomfortable....
  9. Web site: Cereno. Benito. December 14, 2018. The real man who inspired Ebenezer Scrooge. November 30, 2020. Grunge.com. en-US.
  10. Web site: Definition of SCROUGE. 2020-11-30. www.merriam-webster.com. en.
  11. Web site: Why did Charles Dickens choose the name Ebenezer Scrooge?. November 30, 2020. www.londonguidedwalks.co.uk. The word is also a blend of ‘scrouge’ the verb to squeeze or to press, used 1820–1830 (itself being a blend of crew and bruise) and gouge....
  12. Web site: Elwell. Frank W.. Reclaiming Malthus. Rogers State University. 13 January 2017. 2 November 2001. https://web.archive.org/web/20170324221035/http://www.faculty.rsu.edu/users/f/felwell/www/Theorists/Malthus/reclaim.htm. 24 March 2017.
  13. Book: Nasar. Sylvia. Grand pursuit : the story of economic genius. 2011. Simon & Schuster. New York City. 978-0-684-87298-8. 3–10. 1st Simon & Schuster hardcover. registration.
  14. Clarke. Joseph (Jody) H.. December 2009. The Metapsychology of Character Change: A Case Study of Ebenezer Scrooge. Journal of Spirituality in Mental Health. en. 11. 4. 248–263. 10.1080/19349630903310039. 145082385. 1934-9637.
  15. McReynolds. Joseph Clayton. 2020. From Humbug to Humility: Learning How to Know with Ebenezer Scrooge. Dickens Studies Annual: Essays on Victorian Fiction. 51. 1. 20–39. 10.5325/dickstudannu.51.1.0020. 216343006. 2167-8510.
  16. Smith. Joanmarie. Summer 1983. The Religious Conversion of Ebenezer Scrooge. Religious Education. 78. 3. 355–361. 10.1080/0034408300780307.
  17. Jonas . Eva . Schimel . Jeff . Greenberg . Jeff . Pyszczynski . Tom . October 2002 . The Scrooge Effect: Evidence that Mortality Salience Increases Prosocial Attitudes and Behavior . Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin . en . 28 . 10 . 1342–1353 . 10.1177/014616702236834 . 0146-1672.
  18. Web site: THE DREAM OF THREE LIFETIMES: TRANSLATION AND TRANSNATIONALITY IN DONALD DUCK COMICS . 9 September 2023 . etda.libraries.psu.edu.
  19. News: For These Lads, 'Carol' Seems Like Play. 30 November 1987. Hugh. Boulware. Chicago Tribune.
  20. Fleming, Michael. "Jim Carrey set for 'Christmas Carol': Zemeckis directing Dickens adaptation", Variety, 2007-07-06. Retrieved on 2007-09-11.
  21. Web site: Doctor Who Christmas Special – A Christmas Carol. 22 November 2010.
  22. Christmas Day. Radio Times. 347. 4520. 174. December 2010.
  23. Web site: BBC Radio 4 – Saturday Drama, A Christmas Carol. BBC.
  24. News: Rule Britannia!. 29 January 2016. 30 September 2016. George. Heymont. Huffington Post.
  25. Web site: From Charles Dickens to Michael Caine, here are the five best Scrooges. December 19, 2018. The Independent.
  26. Cremona, Patrick. Mark Gatiss's A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story is coming to cinemas, Radio Times, October 2022

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