The first impressions we get of Ebenezer Scrooge is that he is a dreadful, atrocious, stingy old man. This is proved as he previously had a business partner called Marley. Unfortunately, Marley was subject to death but the problem here is Marley is exactly the same as Scrooge, meaning that everybody (apart from Scrooge) detested him, leaving Scrooge as his one and only mourner, however, this did not stop Scrooge from being his usual self nor did it change his ways, as it quotes in the story, “funeral, and solemnised it with an undoubted bargain” meaning that Scrooge was still his stingy old self even on the day of the funeral by actually buying a cheap funeral for the man who was his closest companion at the time. This links on to what I had stated about Scrooges first impression at the beginning of this paragraph. In contrast to Marley’s death, I think that writer is also trying to say that Scrooge may as well be dead already, because by the looks of things he seems spiritually and morally dead at the moment anyway.
Scrooge was also not willing enough to pay for a new sign above his warehouse, which stated ‘Scrooge and Marley’. Scrooge was so compact with his money that he wouldn’t change the sign even though years had passed after Marley’s death. People would come in and call Scrooge, Scrooge but they would also call for the name Marley, but he answered to both names. This however was all the same to him. The death of Marley is repeated several times, this is so that the rest of the book gives sense.
The true description of Scrooge first appears about a quarter of a way through the book, before then there are only a few minor