Ebenezer Scrooge

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." Throughout the novella, visits from the four ghosts show Scrooge the errors of his ways, and he transforms into 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.

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 resents giving Cratchit Christmas Day off, as there will be no business for Scrooge during the day.

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

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 (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 realized that he would resent her poverty and left him, eventually marrying 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 appears to Scrooge as a dark, ominous, and silent phantom of the night. The ghost shows Scrooge an eerie vision of the future being created by his own greed and selfishness: a lonely death welcomed by his debtors, a neglected grave, thieves stealing his belongings, and the Cratchit family devastated by the loss of Tiny Tim. Terrified at the premonition, Scrooge asks the Spirit if his future can still be altered and begs for another chance, promising to change his ways and honor Christmas in his heart. While Scrooge pleads for mercy, the ghost transforms into a bedpost. Suddenly, Scrooge wakes up and finds himself in his own bed on Christmas morning.

Overjoyed at having his wish granted, 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 charity. From then on, he is said to have become the embodiment of the Christmas spirit and a "second father" to Tiny Tim.