Throughout ‘A Christmas Carol’, a novella by Charles Dickens, it is apparent that there is an on going development and alteration of the character of Ebenezer Scrooge, whom the story is based around.
Charles dickens, in the opening paragraphs of the first Stave, presents Scrooge as an uncharitable, scathing and parsimonious person, feared by the people he passes. Dickens does this through the words he selects to describe Scrooges demeanour, for example ‘he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone’, emphasising Scrooges miserly and narcissistic nature. This is also shown as ‘no beggars implored him to bestow a trifle’ and ‘no children asked what it was o’clock’, this fear of Scrooge by the public gives the reader a sense of unsociability and that Scrooge is generally not a person one would associate themselves with. An unconcerning nature of Scrooge is also shown. He is aware of the fact that people avoid him, ’But what did Scrooge care?’ this informs the reader that Scrooge doesn’t actually care for what people think of him and is unfazed by something most other people would feel conscious about. Scrooge is also shown to find that ‘warning all human empathy to keep its distance’ was ‘nuts’, meaning he found it pleasurable.
Further on in stave one of ‘A Christmas Carol’ Charles Dickens uses list to give the audience a deeper picture of Scrooge and his character, he is described as ‘solitary as an oyster’, suggesting that Scrooge is a lonely figure, making the audience feel, somewhat, sorry for him. However, Dickens goes on to describe him as a ‘covetous old sinner’, again emphasising Scrooges scathing manner. Scrooge is shown to have a negative attitude, especially demonstrated through his relationship with his employee, Bob Cratchit. Bob Cratchit is not even given a name until the 24th page of the novella, perhaps showing that Scrooge has not developed a relationship with