Ebenezer Scrooges Character Transformation in A Christmas Carol Essay Example

In the novella ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens, Ebenezer Scrooge is portrayed as a hard-hearted, cold, unsocial able man. Scrooges character transforms from a hard-hearted man to a warm-hearted, generous man. This essay will analyse Ebenezer Scrooges character transformation throughout the novella. 

In the beginning of the novella, stave one, Scrooge is portrayed as a bitter, hard-hearted person and unsocial able person. “He was solitary as an oyster” this shows that Scrooge preferred to be alone rather than in the company of others. Scrooge is also very selfish and very miserly, “Scrooge had a very small fire, but the clerk’s fire was so very much smaller that it looked like one coal” this shows that Scrooge is so selfish that he would not even buy coal to keep himself and his clerk warm. 

When Scrooge is visited by two gentlemen asking for donation for the poor, he tells them that there are prisons and workhouses. They tell Scrooge that most of them would prefer to die then go there and Scrooge says that they better go die and decrease the population of the poor. “If they would rather die … they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.” When Scrooge is visited by the three spirits, The ghost of Christmas past, The ghost of Christmas Present and the ghost of Christmas yet to come, his character completely changes. The first ghost, the ghost of Christmas past brings back the memories of his depressing past. He remembers himself as a child sitting alone at school trying to escape himself through books by creating imaginary characters, “Why, it’s Ali Baba!” Scrooge exclaimed in ecstasy. “It’s dear old honest Ali Baba! Yes, yes, I know! 

One Christmas time, when yonder solitary child was left here all alone, he did come, for the first time, just like that. Poor boy! And Valentine,” said Scrooge, “and his wild brother, Orson; there they go! And what’s his name, who was put down in his drawers, asleep, at the Gate of Damascus”