english

• Scrooge's redemption


  For Scrooge to achieve redemption, he needs to give up his mean and miserly ways, and make up for the bad things he has done
• At first it seems impossible that Scrooge will change
• Scrooge in Chapter 1

  • Negatively portrayed as a misanthropic miser who dislikes people, shown by his attitude to charity
• By the time the last ghost visits

  Scrooge's attitude softens, he wants to change his ways but is afraid he's all "past all hope"
• Despite his fear, Scrooge keeps his promise to change for the better and starts to set things right in the last chapter
• Dickens' argument


  Even the very worst people should have a chance at redemption, by changing their ways
• Marley admits the chains he wears were forged by his own "free will" because he chose not to change his miserly ways when he was alive
• Scrooge's transformation is partly motivated by selfishness, as the visions of the spirits show him his own death and he begs to "sponge away the writing on this stone"
• The spirits that initiate Scrooge's redemption


  • They don't force him to change or tell him what to do, they show him visions and Scrooge himself learns from these visions and changes
• Scrooge is able to redeem himself because he chooses to learn from what he has seen and is determined not to "shut out the lessons that they teach"
• The lessons lead to the realisation that the time before him was his own, to make amends in


  Scrooge can use the rest of his life to make up for his previous behaviour
• The fact that Scrooge's transformation is done from his own free will makes his redemption seem more powerful
• Visions Scrooge sees


  • Show he wasn't always mean, his sad ending relationships with Belle show he is capable of love and kindness, and the change in his father foreshadows Scrooge's own redemption
• Scrooge learning the value of empathy

  He is used to "warning all human sympathy to keep its distance" but the spirits teach him how to empathise with others
• Scrooge's empathy towards Tiny Tim is the key to his redemption and saving his life
• Scrooge's changed behaviour leading to redemption

  • Redemption doesn't rely on religious beliefs, instead it is redeemed by his behaviour towards others, which Dickens thought Christianity should be about
• By the end, Scrooge changes his fate and "sponges away" his name from the neglected gravestone, showing he is "quite a baby" - reborn
• Marley is portrayed to be similar to Scrooge, and his "chance at hope" that Scrooge will save himself shows Scrooge can now help himself change, just like Marley
• Scrooge


  Transformed character in A Christmas Carol
• Scrooge's initial view


  "I can't afford to make idle people merry"
• Scrooge's initial view


  "If he be like to die, he had better do it, and decrease the surplus population"
• The Ghost of Christmas Present: '"I see a vacant seat," replied the Ghost, "in the poor chimney corner, and a crutch without an owner, carefully preserved. If these shadows remain unaltered by the Future, the child will die."'
• Scrooge's reaction to the Ghost's words

  Scrooge hung his head, overcome with penitence and grief
• Tiny Tim


  • Bob Cratchit's son, who is ill
  • Scrooge is concerned about whether Tiny Tim will live
• Scrooge's transformation


  Develops an interest and concern for Tiny Tim that he did not have before
• Dickens presents Scrooge's transformation in this extract and in the novel as a whole