Scrooge in A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens Essay -- Christmas Car

Scrooge in A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens The novel, ‘A Christmas Carol’, is more than just a mere story instead it tries to expose the negative side of Victorian society and the reason behind this horror, the greed of the wealthy, through the development of the character Scrooge. All this while attempting to prompt readers with Scrooge’s similar wealth to make a change. As mentioned earlier, the development of Scrooge’s character is vital to this and I will explain how his character develops as the story proceeds and how it is used to accomplish the aim as mentioned above. In the first stave, Dickens tries to point out that Scrooge is a character that society considers negative. In the introduction, Dickens points out Scrooge’s wealth to immediately aim any point about society not only to average people but in particular to people of Scrooge’s similar wealth, he does this by describing Scrooge as ‘an excellent man of business on the very day of the funeral’, this not only proves Scrooge’s wealth but also that Scrooge is a cold character, the first hint of the truly negative character of Scrooge to be revealed later in this stave, since he has the heart to do business on the day of the funeral of his long time business partner. What makes this worse is that Marley was Scrooge’s equal in terms of character as far as the story goes since Dickens chose to describe what Scrooge meant to Marley as ‘his sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole friend and his sole mourner’, therefore since Scrooge showed little sympathy in the death of ‘his equal’ it gives the readers a sense of cannibalism since Scrooge is practically turning his back on Marley in his death. Even in the introduction, Dickens ... ...as changed as Scrooge is not usually earnest at all. Not only which, Scrooge seems to be a lot happier after this change as proven by the quote â€Å"Oh, glorious.† This is Scrooge describing the environment, in his description he describes it positively showing a sign that he is happier. This is important as it is a signal to readers in Scrooge’s financial situation that they will be happier after the change. My conclusion is that Scrooge’s character is used by Dickens to represent an exgaratted stereotypical version of the Victorian wealthy businessman who is greedy. The story is not only an attempt by Dickens to tell these businessmen what they are missing out on by being greedy(as proven by Scrooge’s happiness after the change) but also meant to expose the unfairness in Society where the rich who can do the most to improve lives do not even try to do so.