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How does Scrooge’s recollection of his childhood bring about his reform? - Essay

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How does Scrooge’s recollection of his childhood bring about his reform? - Essay
How does Scrooge’s recollection of his childhood bring about his reform?

In ‘A Christmas Carol’, Dickens uses memories from Scrooges childhood to assist him in his transformation throughout the novella. As the Ghost’s take Scrooge on adventures back into his childhood, thoughts charge into his mind that causes abundant feelings of regret and disappointment towards the person he has become today. He is reminded that it’s not too late to revolutionize his ways to improve himself, and comes to the realization that he isn’t content and does wish to persist along a positive path in life rather than the pessimistic course he’s currently resting on.

The way we look at people and compare them to ourselves, are sometimes the leading factors for changes within our lives and the way we perceive the world. When the Ghost of Christmas Past takes Scrooge to revisit his youthful days in Fezziwig's world, Scrooges attitude towards life is soon shifted and he is reminded how his own values have diverged greatly from those of someone he once admired. Mr. Fezziwig is a character put in place to provide contrast with Scrooge's attitudes towards business ethics. Scrooge tells the Ghost that Fezziwig's “gift of happiness to his friends far outweighs the money he spent on the party.” Fezziwig is the paragon of friendship, and his scene makes Scrooge reflect on his own “callous treatment” of his employees. Dickens shows the audience that Scrooge is starting to realise and take in what kind of “cold hearted, solitary old sinner” he is portrayed as, much different to the man he is remembering as his first employer. He also starts to explain to the Ghost how he “wants to talk to [his] clerk” about the conditions that he has heartlessly being forcing him to labour in. From travelling back into his childhood and witnessing such a kind and generous man like Fezziwig, Scrooge starts to question his morals in life and how he should change his ways and transform himself into a likeable,

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