Ebenezer Scrooge Flashcards
How is Scrooge represented in the beginning of the play
‘squeezing, wrenching, grasping’, miserable and mean not giving Bob a fair wage, seeing money as an ‘Idol’ - worships money and his love for it is greater than anything, bitter, cynical, isolated, he has a fear of poverty as he knows it is awful but his fear has made him selfish
How is Scrooge shown as cold-hearted
he is unsympathetic towards other and has no interest in helping the poor, refuses to donate to charity, doesn’t care about how poor people feel and it is not his business to care about them, he is described by Dickens with cold and icy language the associated with cold emphasises his cold-hearted nature
Why is seeing Scrooge’s past important
it is easier to understand why he is cold and bitter as the past is responsible for his personality, sympathetically shown as a ‘lonely boy’ and has been left at school, Scrooge is distressed at the vision of Belle leaving him which is made worse when they see Belle having a happy family, ‘show me no more’ - heartbreak of Scrooge may have contributed to his closed-off ways, redemption - he wasn’t born bad
Why is it important when Scrooge sees how others see him
during the visions Scrooge is forced to see how others talk about him (‘hard, unfeeling man’ ‘not so pleasant’), at the beginning of the novel Scrooge is selfish an doesn’t car show his attitude to life affects other, being forced to see how others talk about him makes him realise his faults and convinces him to change his attitudes
How does Tiny Tim affect Scrooge
it helps him feel empathy, Scrooge asks the spirit if he will due which shows that Tim’s situation makes Scrooge start to care about other people, GOC present uses Tim to show Scrooge how wrong his beliefs about the ‘surplus population’ are and force him to think that poor people are individuals, he starts to accept helping people is his responsibility, Scrooge i saddened by how cruel his opinions were
How has Scrooge changed
his character completely changes by the end - ‘merry as a schoolboy’, he also learns to be charitable by buying the Cratchits a turkey and donating, Scrooge mind is changed about Christmas, he is taught the values of family and companionship so he embraces his nephew’s family and becomes a father figure to Tiny Tim, he is generous, happy and sociable
Scrooge overall
changes - beginning to end, cold-hearted, past is important, sees how others see him, Tiny Tim
