Scrooge

• .Dickens creates Scrooge as an archetypal villain in the context of an impoverished society. He aims to critique from the offset, that social injustice is synonymous with avariciousness.
• The asyndetic listing of “Squeezing, wrenching,grasping,scraping,clutching covetous old sinner”. Highlights his frugality, the use of seven negative adjectives mirrors how there are seven deadly sins.These are called cardinal sins and were seen as the root of all evil.As the foundation of victorian morality was religion.The parallels between scrooge and the sins are used by dickens to highlight how the rich, symbolised by scrooge were more sinful than the poor.
• • The conceit of the relentless cold holds parallel to scrooge's distant and cold attitude.
• He willingly takes strolls in “easterly winds”, he yearns for isolation and misery as he favours going out in bitter cold, rather than interact with community.
• • The weather is a motif throughout novella typically changing alongside scrooge.
• • Dickens uses pathetic fallacy by describing the setting as having “fog and darkness thickened” to resemble the blackness of protagonist.
• • Dickens personifies the weather as it is “piercing, searching,biting cold”, the power of nature may be an allusion to the forthcoming supernatural powers to come.
• In stave one,dickens introduces fred as a foil to scrooge to exemplify his undesirable nature.
• Freds positive ambience is reinforced by a semantic field of light, as fred is “all in glow” and had “sparkling” eyes.
• Stave 2 is the first insight the reader gets to a compassionate and benevolent scrooge.
• Dickens empathy for child exploitation is a typical trope within his work
• • The description of scrooge in his childhood holds parallel language to his description in stave one, he is described as a “solitary child neglected by his friends”. The repeatedly use of “solitary” highlights how scrooges neglected and solitary state as a child had directly caused his lonesome adult existence.
• Dickens uses both scrooges innocence as a child, paired with his sisters tragic death to evoke pathos.
• But also amplifies the injustices that pervaded victorian society particularly the victimisation of children
• “Still very foggy and extremely cold”, the pathetic fallacy foreshadows how scrooge will remain oblivious and ignorant as ‘fog’ prevents clear vision. This is akin to how scrooge prevents himself from embarking on a path of redemption.
• Dickens frequently uses the weather to be symbolic of the change within scrooge. The diminishing “darkness and the mist had vanished with it” symbolises how with each ghost, scrooge is gaining clarity, diminishing his own mental darkness on how to be the moral individual. He is unlocking the hopeful projection the reader initially encounters with him being an “oyster”.
• Dickens uses each stave to further scrooges development. In stave 1 he is presented as a misanthropic mise. However in stave 2 the reader gets an insight to why scrooge willingly ostracises himself.
• Scrooge for the first time shows respect and is receptive to the ghost teaching he says “forgive me if i am not justified in what i ask”. This has biblical undertones of asking for salvation and forgiveness from god. Scrooge appears to be understanding his need to be cleansed. He uses the spirit- perhaps an incarnation of god to be aided with this.
• Dickens' anti-malthusian tale is clear within scrooges' exchange with the ghost.The ghost emulated scrooges malthusian view “if he be like to die,he had better do it and decrease the surplus population”. This resulting in scrooge being “overcome with penitence and grief”.
• Scrooge feels intense remorse as he has seen the physical effect of his blissful ignorance the plight of the poor
• Tiny tim is microcosmic of victimisation of poor children because of individuals like scrooge.
• This stage is a clear turning point for scrooge as he is displaying genuine emotions of remorse, compassion and empathy.His emotion change is clear with his use of imperatives “tell me if tiny tim will live”. Scrooge use of imperatives highlights his catharsis as he is so overcome with guilt due to his blatant disregard and ignorance to the plight of the poor. This is juxtaposing his earlier use of impolite imperatives.
• Dickens ensures his readership is reflective on their contribution to social ills and if their ignorance allows mistreatment of others to commence.
• Scrooge's most poignant change is his transformation in his regret for holding such ignorant malthusian views.
• • Dickens was critical of these views,coming from poverty himself.
• The ghost reveals a “Bair uncurtained bed” on a “ragged sheet”. This image of neglect, paired with the image of death and decay highlights how scrooge in death has been devalued and forgotten.
• The idea of eternal damnation was one of the most fearful ideas of society, as scrooge gets justly punished it would reinforce warning of not being full of covetousness.
• Scrooge understands that his dire and bleak future is imminent as well as the bleak future the cratchits will be subject to if he doesn't transform.
• He is despaired at the idea that he is “past all hope” so commands “hear me i am not the man i was”. THe imperative phrase “hear me” shows scrooge's desperation to be allowed a chance at redemption and salvation.
• • Scrooge's realisation marks climax of the novella as he says “i will live in the past, the present and the future.the spirits of all three shall strive within me”. The personal pronoun “I” shows him taking personal responsibility for his unjust actions.
• The concept of “three” could be a biblical allusion to the holy trinity. This could emphasise how the three ghosts almost acted as incarnations of god himself relaying a moral and religious message.
• Scrooges infantile language in stave 5, indicates his rebirth he states “quite a baby” and “as merry as a schoolboy”
• • As both “baby” and “schoolboy” connote innocence and youth scrooge is showcasing how through him repenting for his sins, he has regained his youthful innocence and ability to see the world as untainted light.
• As being a “baby” is start of life it signifies that scrooge had been reborn as he gone from a misanthropic mise to the most innocent form of human life.
• The idea of rebirth is salient in christianity as jesus christ was reborn to provide salvation for mankind. This could suggest that scrooges rebirth will provide salvation and relief for others.
• “I am light as a feather” is the antithesis to his similar in stave one of him being “as hard and sharp as flint”. The juxtaposing similes highlights how scrooge feels he has been liberated now feeling “light” from the burdens of once carrying his “own low temperature”
• • Scrooge embarks on a pathway of redemption and salvation. As he adapts a new liberating outlook on life.His elation with being provided a second chance highlights his transmogrification s he shows no resemblance to the misanthropic miser depicted in stave 1.