Scrooge
The protagonist of the novella, Scrooge is an old debt collector, whose redemption to kindness and selflessness forms the story of A Christmas Carol. Scrooge represents the Victorian rich who neglect the poor and think only of their own interest.
Dickens explores the attitude of the rich and how money changes people’s actions. As Scrooge was neglected by his peers as a young boy, it appears the young Scrooge seemed determined to live only for himself as he aged, therefore influenced by his unhappy upbringing and childhood.
Quotes
‘Tell me if Tiny Tim will live’ – Scrooge realises he has done wrong and is changing, Stave 3
‘Overcome with penitence and grief’ – Scrooge realises he has done wrong, Stave 3
‘Solitary as an oyster’ – Mean, Isolated and Stubborn (antisocial) Makes reader dislike scrooge
‘Scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner’ -Greedy- obsessed with money . Adjectives, listing, negative
‘He carried his own low temperature always about with him’ – Demonstrates his cold heart ,Pathetic fallacy
‘every idiot who goes about with Merry Christmas on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart’
‘Are there now workhouses, are there no prisons?’
‘They’d better die and decrease the surplus population’
‘Was always peeping slyly down at Scrooge’ Church bell looks down on him -Suggesting he’s watched by god and spirits with hatred -Rejecting god, horrible, evil and negative -Supposed to “love thy neighbour”
‘The Founder of the Feast!’ -Bob Cratchit describing Scrooge, Stave 3
‘Stingey, hard, unfeeling man as Mr Scrooge’ -Mrs Cratchit describing Scrooge, Stave 3