Several theories have been put forward as to where Dickens got the inspiration for the character.Įbenezer Lennox Scroggie (1792-1836) was a merchant from Edinburgh who won a catering contract for King George IV's visit to Scotland. In the end, he becomes known as the embodiment of the Christmas spirit and as a “second father” to Tiny Tim. 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. Scrooge begs the spirit for another chance, promising to change his ways – and wakes up in his bed on Christmas Day. Scrooge asks the spirit if this future can still be changed, but the spirit does not reply. The Spirit tells a horrified Scrooge that Tiny Tim will die within a year, and throws Scrooge's own heartless words about the poor and destitute back in his face.įinally, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come shows Scrooge where his greed and selfishness will lead: a lonely death, unpaid servants stealing his belongings, debtors relieved at his passing, and the Cratchit family devastated by the loss of Tiny Tim. It 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 Ghost of Christmas Present arrives next. Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come The present-day Scrooge reacts to these memories with a mixture of nostalgia and deep regret. Belle realised this and, saddened by his greed, left him one Christmas, eventually marrying another man. He fell in love with a young woman named Belle and proposed marriage, but gradually his love for Belle was overwhelmed by his love for money. Scrooge then apprenticed at the warehouse of a jovial and generous master, Mr. She later died after giving birth to Fred. When his beloved sister Fan came to take him home one Christmas, this became Scrooge's one happy childhood memory. These visions establish that Scrooge's unloving father placed him in a boarding school, where at Christmas-time, he remained alone while his schoolmates returned home to their families. The Ghost of Christmas Past shows Scrooge visions of his early life. Marley tells Scrooge that he will be visited by three spirits hoping that he will mend his ways if he does not, Marley warns, Scrooge will wear even heavier chains than his in the afterlife. 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. He also refuses his nephew Fred's invitation to Christmas dinner and denounces him as a fool for celebrating Christmas. 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. Most of all, he detests Christmas, which he associates with reckless spending. 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. 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.
Scrooge's last name has come into the English language as a byword for stinginess and misanthropy, while his catchphrase, " Bah! Humbug!" is often used to express disgust with many modern Christmas traditions.Ĭharles Dickens describes Scrooge as "a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint. The tale of 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.ĭickens 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 error of his ways, and he becomes a better, more generous man. At the beginning of the novella, Scrooge is a cold-hearted miser who despises Christmas. Ebenezer Scrooge ( / ˌ ɛ b ɪ ˈ n iː z ər ˈ s k r uː dʒ/) is the protagonist of Charles Dickens' 1843 novella A Christmas Carol.