The Metamorphosis of Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol

A Christmas Carol, a tale that revolves around a man’s fate in the

past, the present, and the future. Its story speaks of a man, a man

called Ebenezer Scrooge, and the changes in which he goes through.

‘’Oh! But he was tight-fisted man at the grindstone, Scrooge! a

squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, covetous old sinner! Hard

and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous

fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. The cold

within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled

his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue;

and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. A frosty rime was on his

head, and on his eyebrows, and his wiry chin. He carried his own low

temperature always about with him; he iced his office in the dog-days,

and didn’t thaw it one degree at Christmas.’’

This description describes Scrooge’s character brilliantly, it is on

the second page of the novel and immediately hits you. I feel that

Charles Dickens could not have described his character any better. In

my opinion the last sentence has great relevance to the story and his

attitude towards all things merry, especially Christmas: ‘’…his own

low temperature…and didn’t thaw it one degree at Christmas.’’ Scrooge

is a very cold-hearted, spiteful man, he is never cheerful or in any

way nice to anyone. The only people who he at the very least endures

or respects are men of great importance or wealth, but also his fellow

businessmen. It would be easier to get blood out of a stone than to

get Ebeneezer Scrooge to be merry; ‘’Hard and sharp as flint, from

which no steel had ever struck out generous fire…’’ Scrooge has no

wish to spend his time with anyone o...

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the resulting change in Scrooge: ‘’He became as good a friend, as good

a master, and as good a man as the good old City knew…Some people

laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh,’’ So we

see that Scrooge was indeed saved from the terrible fate that would

have otherwise inevitably destroyed him. And also became a model

citizen, who mended the error of his ways, strived for good and became

a man with no burdens. Except, the burdens of his loved ones and the

less fortunate.

Works Cited Dickens, Charles. A Christmas Carol. Classics of Children's

Literature. Ed. John W. Griffith and Charles H. Frey.

3rd ed. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1992.