A Christmas Carol by Charles Dikens - Essay Example

A Christmas Carol: Scrooge’s Character Development Ebenezer Scrooge is the lead character of the wildly famous short story, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. He was portrayed as selfish, cold-hearted and one who does not like Christmas. It was not clear what kind of job Scrooge has; only that it is something to with money which involves the exploitation of the poor and the disdain that came with it. The development of Scrooge’s character was illustrated by the three ghosts: Past, Present and Future, who each took turns in narrating his background, psychological profile as well as his experiences in the timeline represented by each.

The Past Ghost talked about Scrooge’s boyhood, love life as well as important events in his life which shaped his current negativist personality. For instance, it was told the Scrooge was lonely in his childhood with a dysfunctional family. He was abandoned to study at a boarding school where he eventually developed his antisocial tendencies. Here, we are given a reason why Scrooge could not offer any empathy because in his early developmental years, he had none. He was left to himself, with no affectionate encounters with his parents or his siblings.

We highlight the young Ebenezer’s experiences of past Christmases because, it turned out, most unfortunate events happened during this time explaining for Scrooge almost neurotic hatred for the holiday. The story went to describe how Scrooge became obsessed with work and money that eventually drove Belle, his fiancée to leave him. Apparently, business is the only avenue where Scrooge could excel and, perhaps, in his opinion, be appreciated, that is why he became a workaholic. The visit from the three ghosts has given Scrooge a new perspective.

Presently, he was his old self – greedy, selfish, bitter and miserly with a particular disgust against Christmas. The ghosts have also shown how his nephew and his poor family, who merely lives on his pittance, were currently happy despite the fact that there was a lame son. When his future was shown to him along with the suggestion that he is being given an opportunity to change, Scrooge finally came around. There was the realization that upon his death, many people will celebrate due to the consequences of his actions.

The past experiences seemed to be the major reason why Scrooge could not find it on his own to see how his character has degenerated almost beyond redemption.One of the distinct characteristics that mark Scrooge is his tendency to stifle his past. There seems to be a lot of pain in it for him, not only in what he has suffered but in his decision not to suffer through his penchant for great expectations. We can surmise that the substance of his character is his denial of the value of his past experiences.

And so, it took the three ghosts for him to redeem himself. It is widely believed that Ebenezer Scrooge is Dickens’s exaggerated description of himself. Nevertheless, the Scrooge character was his way of admonishing the readers that only by recalling the past – both happy and unhappy – can one disarm it and gain freedom, so to speak. We have Scrooge words, who for his part became a model of kindness and generosity from then on, to live by:I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.

I will live in the Past, the Present and, the Future.