Christmas Carol Essay

A Christmas Carol’ focuses on a very mean character called Ebenezer Scrooge, who unnaturally receives a chance to make amends for his actions towards his clients. Life in Britain in the 1800’s was very dark and gloomy, also its population was increasing rapidly. At this time and age, Britain’s industrial revolution was in full flow, thus making Britain’s population explode. Charles dickens had uncountable financial problems and was in in huge dept. In addition to this, in the fall of 1843 dickens and his wife were expecting their fifth child. Supporting his large family was difficult for Dickens. Requests for money from his family and a large mortgage had left Dickens seriously short of cash. In a way Dickens most cherished and most read books was created as a result of his own desperate need of money. Charles Dickens routinely walked the city streets, 10 or 20 miles at a time, observing the life. The descriptions in his writing seem like an exact replica of what he observed and experienced during these times. Evidence of this shown in the text. Descriptions such as ‘a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching,’ may show how Charles Dickens might have behaved when he had his desperate money problems. In this essay, I will be discussing the development of Ebenezer Scrooge’s character in Christmas Carol whilst going through each stave. Stave 1 clearly introduces Scrooge’s character to the reader. At the beginning of the stave, the first description we see is where it says: ‘The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker and the mourner. Scrooge signed it. ‘ From this text the reader can already comprehend that scrooge is a man who only takes credit for himself and that he despises spending money on other people. Another description presented by the text tells the reader that there is something about Scrooge’s life style that makes him very unpopular with the locals. ‘Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with gladsome looks’ ‘My dear Scrooge how are you’ This makes it crystal clear that scrooge is obviously not a nice person, thus making the locals shun his presence. Scrooge’s cold and cruel actions to people result in Marley’s Ghost appearing in Scrooges home. The ghost warns Scrooge that if he does not change his way of life, he will end up loosing everything and becoming just like Marley, who is dead and bound up in chains. In the second section or stave 2 of the novel, even though Marley’s ghost had gone, its presence was having an effect on Scrooge. ‘Marley’s ghost bothered him extremely’ Since no one has ever been close to changing Scrooge’s personality, this text shows a slight alteration in Scrooge’s character. In this stave, Scrooge is visited by another ghost who says to represent Christmas past. This ghost shows Scrooge his early life and how much he has changed. After Scrooge has witnessed his passed life and actions, Scrooge is moved with regret. ‘I wish’ Just these two words are very significant as they show a huge positive development in Scrooge’s character, which suggests that Scrooge is willing and hoping to change his cruel ways, and diminish descriptions of himself such as: ‘To see a heightened and excited face would have been a surprise’ Scrooge’s life is full of negative descriptions like this and he wished to make amends for his past actions. Scrooge then says something to the ghost that is very, very unusual: ‘There was a boy singing a Christmas Carol at my door last night, I would like to give him something. ‘ This is probably the first time that Scrooge has ever shown any affection for anyone, which shows that the presence of the ghosts are developing Scrooge’s character in a divine way. In stave 3 of the novel Scrooge is visited by yet another ghost who says to represent Christmas present. This ghost shows Scrooge how other families, such as the clerk’s and the Cratchits. Scrooge sees that even though the Cratchits are very poor, they can have a high quality of life and be happy at Christmas. Earlier on in the novel Scrooge says a cold blooded thing concerning one of the Cratchits son called Tiny Tim who looks very frail and scrawny and much too vulnerable to the hands of death: ‘If he be like to die he had better do it and decrease the surplus population. ‘ Scrooge’s cold heart was so uncaring, that he thought that the death of a person was a benefit or an advantage to people. However, when the ghost showed Scrooge this family, his reminiscence of his past sayings had a different effect on him: ‘Scrooge hung his head to hear his own words quoted by the spirit and was overcome with penitence and grief. ‘ Now that Scrooge has viewed that people can be happy without a lot of money, his former way of thinking has now disgusted him. Scrooge has now probably for the first time accepted that his way of life is detestable and needs to be changed: ‘All the things that ghost has shown him came upon his mind. He softened†¦ ‘ ‘If he would have listened he might have cultivated the kindness of life. ‘ This shows a further development of Scrooge’s character as his hard headedness had been softened and also, he now desires to have a personal quality of kindness. In stave 4 of the novel Scrooge is visited by the last of the three ghosts who represents Christmas future. In this stave scrooge is shown a group of people who are discussing a very unpopular mans death. Scrooge is puzzled by the conversation of the group until the ghost silently exposes the secret when he shows Scrooge a gravestone with his own name on it. The description of the ghost in the beginning of the stave definitely offers a hint that Scrooge’s future will be cold and dark just as his past life: ‘Shrouded in a deep black garment’ ‘It seemed to scatter gloom and mystery’ These phrases are fitting descriptions of a ghost that will bring news that is associated with death. The tone of this stave is also set with words such as; ‘Shadow’ and ‘dark room. ‘ These words give further evidence that a death orientated future awaits Scrooge. Scrooge is horrified when he sees his own gravestone, but to further upset him, he sees that his death is ‘un-watched, un-wept and un-cared for. ‘ the phrase ‘neglected grave’ shows that no one cared if Scrooge died because of the extent of the his cold-hearted actions towards people. This event made Scrooge release all of his emotions. ‘I hope to live to be another man’ His future death makes Scrooge resolve to change his way of cold way of life into a much more kind, new man. Stave 5 shows the finale of Ebenezer Scrooge’s development of character. In this stave Scrooge is shown to be a completely different man. For example, instead of sacking one of his employees for being late, he raises his salary another example is that the story says that Scrooge became like a second father to Tiny Tim. In this stave there is also evidence that points to the outcome of the story as the mood of the novel suddenly changes from a dark and gloomy mood to a more happy mood. Words such as ‘Bright’ and ‘Golden sunlight’ show that something marvellous and positive is going to happen to Scrooge and his character. These hints are fulfilled when the text says: ‘Glowing with good intentions’ Obviously from this, the reader can see that Scrooge is a changed man, and is exploding with good deeds and emotions, and instead of planning to do evil he is planning to do something obliging. Language devises such as similes are also used to show Scrooge’s development in character: ‘As happy as an angel’ This simile is used to further emphasize the alteration in Scrooge’s personality. Since Angels are portrayed to be perfect heavenly creatures it is obvious to the reader that Scrooge has made some miraculous changes from being a cold hearted, uncaring and evil man into a loving, kind and angelic new man. In my personal opinion, I believe that the presence of the ghosts were like stepping stones to the development of Scrooges character. It seemed to me that the lessons taught by the ghosts became more and more severe as Scrooge’s mind gradually softens.