Ebenezer Scrooge Character Analysis

Question 1

Personality of Scrooge

Answer 1

Scrooge is the archetypal rich Victorian - he prioritises wealth over and above everything else. He shows utter disdain for the lower classes, and believes poor people are lazy.

Question 2

How does Dickens use scrooge to present the importance of christian values?

Answer 2

Dickens utilises Scrooge to issue a warning to his God-fearing, Victorian readership: failure to love thy neighbour’ in this life will result in eternal damnation. Dickens illustrates the dangers of failing to show unconditional love, and of failure to renunciate worldly goods. The importance of forgiveness is also symbolised through Scrooge and his relationship with others.

Question 3

Scrooge Conversion/Transformation

Answer 3

Dickens dramatises Scrooge’s conversion through a cycle of acceptance. The reader watches him transform from being a man in denial of his fate, to pleading with the spirits for an alternative future, to his full transformation into a generous benefactor.

Question 4

Quotations to present Scrooge as cold, cruel and heartless

Answer 4

A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner!
Hard and sharp as flint. (S1)
No warmth could warm, no wintry weather chill him. (S1)
The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?’ (S1)

Question 5

Quotations to present Scrooge as unsociable and Lonely

Answer 5

Secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. (S1)
Scrooge took his melancholy dinner in his usual melancholy tavern. (S1)
He was conscious of a thousand odours floating in the air, each one connected with a thousand thoughts, and hopes, and joys, and cares, long, long forgotten. (S2)

Question 6

Quotations that show Scrooge’s avarice(greed)

Answer 6

There was an eager, greedy, restless motion in the eye. (S2)
I [Belle] have seen your nobler aspirations fall off one by one, until the master-passion, Gain, engrosses you.’ (Belle, S2)
‘Another idol has displaced me [Belle].’ (Belle, S2)

Question 7

Quotations that present Scrooge’s acceptance for Wrongdoing

Answer 7

No more. I do not wish to see it. Show me no more.’ (S2)
Scrooge hung his head to hear his own words quoted by the Spirit. (S3)

Question 8

Quotation that present scrooge’s redemption

Answer 8

He resolved to treasure up every word he heard and everything he saw. (S4)
He was so fluttered and so glowing with his good intentions. (S5)
His own heart laughed and that was quite enough for him. (S5)