Laura Gajdičiarová Mgr. Simona Bajáková British Literature for Children and Young adults 5 December 2021 EBENEZER SCROOGE A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens is a morality tale about an egoistical and unpleasant Ebenezer Scrooge and his visits from three spirits representing his past, present and future, resulting in a complete change of character accompanied with forgiveness for his wrongs. The plot is centred in a bleak, socially divided 19th century London. Defining key terms, possessing an enormous amount of money and fortune has become one of many individuals’ primary objectives and purposes in life. People are persuaded for the length of their lives that happiness can be bought. But does possessing a large fortune really bring joy to one’s life? The author of the book writes about Ebenezer Scrooge as a character whose main obstacle in the way of accomplishing personal fulfillment is monetary greediness. At the beginning of the book, Ebenezer Scrooge is portrayed as a miserly, unpleasant, unfeeling person with a grumpy attitude and a bad temper as well. "No warmth could warm, no wintry weather chill him" (Stave 1) shows how cold-hearted he was and that nothing could change him to be different from this. Mr. Scrooge achieved a point in his life where he was a well-off businessman. But despite his wealthy background, he was unappreciated by numerous people because of the fact that he behaved so severely and awfully towards everybody. He also held a wave of anger and hate inside him against his own family, not only to other people. Charles Dickens addresses Mr. Scrooge's character to the Victorian rich class, who disregarded and neglected the poor people and thought only about their own prosperity and well-being. There is a piece of evidence of how cruel he was, when two workers visited him in a matter of charity. He refused to give them anything and assumed that they would at least decrease the over-population whether the poor would die. At the same time, we can demonstrate that Scrooge would not allow a solitary penny to fall through his hand, without any regard of how wealthy he was. The things he desired and the things he was concerned about included the enlargement of his fortune and saving money. Generally speaking, many can tell that money buys satisfaction, but clearly, this has not occurred in Scrooge’s case. It appears to be that the more money he had, the more hopeless and wretched he became. One should, nevertheless, consider the problem from another angle and look at the aspects considered relevant by Charles Dickens. Undoubtedly, Cratchits, for instance, illustrates a great example of how big the gap in life purpose was between the rich and poor. One cannot deny that they had a very modest financial income. Even though Bob Cratchit worked over his scheduled working hours, they lacked money. Here we can demonstrate how greedy and reluctant employer Scrooge was, blindly ignoring the need to raise Bob's salary. But despite this fact, the Cratchits are portrayed as a united, strong family. On the one hand, the satisfaction they had only from their own joy and celebration confronted the harsh disgrace of neediness, which overwhelmed Victorian London. Even their youngest child, disabled Tiny Tim, whose "limbs were supported by an iron frame," exclaimed, "God bless us all!" (Stave 3) demonstrates, that the Cratchits actually stayed cheerful, paying little attention to their lamentable situation. The reason they are mirrored in this manner is to contrast the Cratchit family's characteristics with those of Scrooge. Whereas the Cratchits are content and appreciative of what they have got and willing to help people, relatives and each other indeed, even if they do not have a lot, Scrooge is counting all of his money, one by one, conscious of his monetary wealth, but not capable of giving money anywhere or to anybody, unless he himself would have the benefit from it. Consequently, the powerful and rich Scrooge ignores the cries for help from the poor, whilst the Cratchits reveal generosity through their kindness and modesty. It would also be interesting to see the contradiction of attributes between Scrooge’s cool, despairing nature and his nephew, Fred. From their first gathering in the book, their personal contrasts are self-evident. Fred has always had a positive attitude, throughout the whole book. In the beginning, he welcomed and invited Scrooge with, "A happy holidays, Uncle! God save you!" Scrooge's answer was: "Bah! Sham! Humbug!“. His answer demonstrates that he is closed towards happy things and it additionally implies that he does not want to celebrate Christmas. It is reasonable to believe that Fred maintains his positive attitude despite his uncle's reaction and thinks about even the coldest creatures in the form of Scrooge. In spite of the fact that he was declined and refused with such a firmly fixed and harsh answer, he actually keeps his glad attitude. There was also a conversation when they paid attention to contrary visions of the definition of "merry and good". "What right have you to be merry? What reason have you to be merry? You're poor enough. " said Scrooge. Followed by his nephew´s answer: "What reason have you to be morose? You're rich enough. "(Stave 1), indicates, that definition of good and merry for Mr. Scrooge is entirely based on money and fortune. While on the other side, Fred understands, what is truly important and that it does not include money. Through these characteristic inverses, Charles Dickens wished to emphasize that wealth can provide security, but it cannot make you a good person. Fred can portrait the personification of a certain good, along with Cratchits. Even though they are impoverished, they render personally fulfilled, which results from their kindness, forgiveness, charity, and happiness. It would be unfair not to mention the fact that Scrooge was not like this his whole life. He faced unpleasant memories and images, wrongs in his life that evoked both good and bad feelings and he appeared to be uncomfortable in his own life. He realized how he treated others. Because of the influence of events, he understood the effect of money, which was by all accounts, not the only thing that was carrying on existence. He helped the Cratchits and even visited his nephew. He realized what happiness, joy and thankfulness really are. It is clear from this observation that being happy is not only about giving out the money but in Scrooge´s case, it was a good beginning of a sequence of deep feelings he later felt. The most profound truth in this book is that as long as there is life, it is possible to change and it’s never too late. (see Ted Klontz, Rich Kahler) Taking everything into consideration, the author Charles Dickens depicted Scrooge as a person whose only intention and purpose in life was to get and save money. The arguments we have presented suggest that the author clearly criticizes the acquirement of financial wealth and the blindness caused by selfishness and greediness and puts it in contrast with even poor, but helpful and satisfied characters full of love. As Jacob Needleman once said: "It is impossible to achieve ultimate meaning, from that which cannot give ultimate meaning." Scrooge found out the real principles in his life, which moved him from denial to awareness, from destructive behavior to productive behavior, from emptiness to fulfillment, and last but not least, from misery to joy. Citations: Dickens, C. (2021). A Christmas Carol (Original 1843 Edition): Annotated 2021, 06 Dec. Klontz, T., & Kahler, R. (2005). The financial wisdom of Ebenezer Scrooge: 5 principles to transform your relationship with money. Health Communications, Inc..2005: Annotated 2021, 16 Dec. Bartleby. Characteristics Of The Rich In The Victorian Era : Annotated 2021, December 15 StudyMoose. Money In “A Christmas Carol” : Annotated . 2021, 16 Dec.
