Plot Summary

• A Christmas Carol tells the story of how Ebenezer Scrooge, a miserly businessman, learns the value of caring for others
• Visit by Jacob Marley's spirit


  • In the tale, Scrooge is visited by the spirit of Jacob Marley, his former business partner who warns him about the error of his ways.
• Visit by spirits


  • Scrooge is visited by further spirits who show him scenes from the past, present and future. 
  • These visions help Scrooge to realise that he needs to change his ways. He wakes up on Christmas morning as a better man.
• Scrooge’s character


  • At the start of Stave 1, we learn a lot about Scrooge’s character and how he has treated people in the past.
  • This introduction to Scrooge helps the reader to really understand his character and his selfish attitude before the story starts – this helps to build an image of the man and emphasise his horrible nature before we see him change later on.
• Jacob Marley


  • We learn that Jacob Marley (Scrooge’s old business partner) is “dead to begin with”.
  • The author also reveals that Scrooge had been Marley’s only friend, his “sole mourner”. Dickens uses the start of the novella to emphasise that Jacob Marley died before the story began. 
  • The adjective “sole” shows that Scrooge and Marley were each other's only friends. Dickens immediately establishes Scrooge as a man with no living friends and hints that Jacob Marley will play an important role later on.
• Scrooge and the cold


  • Scrooge is described as being cold and sharp, with physical features as “hard and sharp as flint”. His appearance represents his personality – he is unfriendly (hard) and dismissive (sharp).
  • Scrooge’s office is always cold – he doesn’t even put the heat on in the winter. 
  • “No warmth could warm, nor wintry weather chill him.” The author suggests that heating the office would be useless anyway, as Scrooge is so unfeeling and cold-hearted that he would not even be able to feel the heat from the fire.
• Reactions to Scrooge


  • We learn that everybody who ever meets Scrooge avoids any contact or discussion with him. Even beggars do not dare to approach him – they know that he will refuse to help them.
  • However, before the reader can feel too much sympathy for this lonesome character, the narrator informs us that this fear and dislike of Scrooge “was the very thing he liked” – he enjoys the fact that people dislike him and that they are too scared of him to ask him for help.
• Stave 1 - Attitude to Fred


  • Scrooge’s nephew, Fred, enters, wishing his uncle a merry Christmas.
  • Scrooge responds with “Bah! Humbug!” and exclaims that he does not know how Fred can be so happy when he is so poor.
• Stave 1, Scrooge’s attitude to marriage


  • Fred invites Scrooge to dinner with him and his wife on Christmas Day.
  • Scrooge asks Fred why he got married – when Fred tells him it was because he fell in love, Scrooge growls at him, as if he thinks the whole idea is “ridiculous”.
  • Fed up with his cheery nephew, Scrooge continually attempts to ignore him and tries to dismiss him by repeating “good afternoon!”
• Stave 1, Attitude to the poor


  • Two gentlemen enter the counting house and tell Scrooge that they are collecting money for the “poor and destitute, who suffer greatly”. 
  • Scrooge responds by asking the men “are there no prisons?” He asks if the workhouses are still being used and if the Poor Law is still in effect.
  • Scrooge does not feel that anyone needs to worry about poor people because they have options – he does not care about what these options would mean for people (i.e. leaving their families to enter workhouses and to live and work in horrific conditions for very little pay).