Tight fisted hand at the grindstone

• "Tight-fisted"

  • Hand imagery
  • he squeezes all the labour he can out of his employees for his own personal gain with a disregard for how it affects them
  • establishes his need for control
• "hand"

  • his affluence allows him total control over those who have less money than him
  • he abuses this but is still never satisfied with his wealth due to his avaricious nature
  • also shows his need for control, fulfilling his selfish desire while inflicting pain on others
• "grindstone"

  • biblical imagery - foreshadows his biblical conversion to Jesus who promotes self sacrifice and is the antithesis of Scrooge's egotistical cruelty
  • cyclical imagery - shows how scrooge forces those around him into a cycle of poverty by paying Bob a meagre wage
  • He is in a pursuit of wealth but is simultaneously desperately miserly which allows him no joy from his affluence
  • His misanthropic nature comes from an endless need for material gain that negatively effects everybody, including himself
• Context

  Scrooge's presentation as thus is salient as he is microcosmic for the misanthropic upper class whose nescience force the poor into workhouses. As alluded to by the mention of "grindstone", these workhouses often contained a treadmill which was incredibly tough labour and increased the already immense plight of the poor.