Ebenezer Scrooge ( ) is the protagonist of the Charles Dickens 1843 novel, A Christmas Carol . At the beginning of the novel, Scrooge is a cold-hearted person who hates Christmas. Dickens describes it as follows: "The cold within him froze his old face, biting his pointy nose, shrunken his cheek, straining his way, making his eyes red, his thin lips blue, and speaking shrewdly in a lattice voice."
Her last name has entered English as a harsh word for annoyance and misguidance. The story of redemption by three Christmas Ghosts (Ghost of Christmas Past, Ghost of Christmas Present, and Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come) has been the defining story of the Christmas holidays in the English-speaking world. Ebenezer Scrooge is arguably one of the most famous characters made by Dickens and one of Britain's most famous literature.
The Scrooge slogan, "Bah! Humbug!" often used to express disgust with many modern Christmas traditions.
Video Ebenezer Scrooge
Origins
Several theories have been put forward about where Dickens got his inspiration for the character.
- Ebenezer Scroggie, a banker from Edinburgh who won a catering contract for King George IV's visit to Scotland. He is buried in Canongate Kirkyard, with a headstone now lost. The theory is that Dickens notices the tombstone that describes Scroggie as "eating man" (merchant corn) but misinterprets it as "bad guy". This theory has been described as a "possible Dickens trick" that "[n] o people can find corroborating evidence".
- It is proposed that he choose the name Ebenezer ("aid stone") to reflect the help given to Scrooge to change his life.
- The surname may be derived from the now obscure English verb scrouge , which means "blackmail" or "press".
- One school of thought is Dickens's Scrooge view of the poor on demography and political economist Thomas Malthus.
- The other is that Gabriel Grub's minor character from The Pickwick Papers is cultivated into a more mature characterization (his name comes from a famous Dutch author, Gabriel de Graaf).
- Jemmy Wood, owner of Gloucester Old Bank and perhaps Britain's first millionaire, is nationally famous for his stinginess, and possibly others.
- The man Dickens finally mentioned in his letters and who is very similar to the character illustrated by Dickens illustrator John Leech is a famous British eccentric and miserly named John Elwes (1714-1789).
Kelly writes that Scrooge may have been influenced by Dickens' feelings that were contrary to his father, whom he loved and the devil. This psychological conflict may be responsible for two very different Scrooges in this story - cold, stingy and greedy ants, others are friendly and sociable. Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, professor of English literature, thinks that in this section of the book includes the lonely and unhappy youth of Scrooge, and his aspirations for money to escape poverty "is something of a self-parody of Dickens's fear of himself"; the post-transformation part of this book is how Dickens optimistically sees himself.
Scrooge can also be based on two friends: John Elwes, MP, or eccentric Jemmy Wood, owner of Old Bank Gloucester also known as "The Gloucester Miser". According to sociologist Frank W. Elwell, Scrooge's view of the poor is a reflection of demographics and political economist Thomas Malthus, while the questions of the miserly "Are there no prisons?... And Union unions... Treadmill and Poor Law in full force, then? "is a reflection of the sarcastic question raised by the Chartis philosopher Thomas Carlyle," Is there no treadmill, gibbet, even hospital, low fare, New Poor-Law? "
There is a literary precursor to Scrooge in Dickens's own works. Peter Ackroyd, Dickens biographer, sees the similarity between Scrooge and the older character, Martin Chuzzlewit, though the miser is a "more fantastic picture" than the Chuzzlewit patriarch; Ackroyd observes that the transformation of Chuzzlewit into a charity figure is parallel to that in a miser. Douglas-Fairhurst noticed that the minor character Gabriel Grub of The Pickwick Papers was also an influence when creating Scrooge.
Maps Ebenezer Scrooge
Appearance in novel
The story of A Christmas Carol began on Christmas Eve 1843 with Scrooge in the lending business of his money. She hates Christmas as a "humbug" and directs the employee, Bob Cratchit, to an exhausting hour and low payments of only 15 shillings on a normal week (giving her Christmas Day off on a salary, reluctantly and dismissing her as being stolen, solely for social customs). He shows his sincerity towards others by refusing to contribute money to the good of the poor, claiming that prisons and workplace are sufficient, and if not they are better off dead, thus "lowering surplus population."
As he prepares to go to sleep, he is visited by the ghost of his business partner, Jacob Marley, who had died seven years earlier (1836) on Christmas Eve. Like Scrooge, Marley has spent his life hoarding his wealth and exploiting the poor, and, as a result, is condemned to walk on earth forever tied up in his own chain of greed. Marley warned Scrooge that he risked the same fate and that as a last chance at redemption, he would be visited by three Christmas spirits: The Past, Now, and Will Come.
The Ghost of Christmas Past took Scrooge to see his time as a schoolboy and youth, at the end of the 18th century and early 19th century. This vision reveals that Scrooge is a lonely child whose father did not love sending him to boarding school. His sole solace was his beloved sister, Fan, who repeatedly pleaded with their father to allow Scrooge back home, and finally he relented. Fan then died after giving birth to a child, a son named Fred, Scrooge's niece. Roh then took him to see another Christmas a few years later where he enjoyed a Christmas party hosted by his friendly and lively boss, Mr. Fezziwig. That's where he meets his love and then his fiancée, Belle. Then the spirits show him the Christmas where Belle left him, when he realizes his love for money has replaced his love for him. Eventually, the spirits showed him Christmas Eve several years later, where Belle happily married another man.
Scrooge was later visited by Ghost of Christmas Present, which showed him throughout London celebrating Christmas, including Fred and the impoverished Cratchit family. Scrooge is both confused and touched by the loving and pure nature of Cratchit's youngest son, Tiny Tim. When Scrooge showed concern for the ill health of the sick boy, the spirits told him that the boy would die unless something changed, a very disturbing revelation of Scrooge. The Spirit then used Scrooge's earlier words about "lowering the surplus population" against him. The spirit took him to a creepy grave. There, the spirit produces two severely disabled children named Ignorance and Want. When Scrooge asks if they have anyone to care for them, the spirit throws more of Scrooge's own words into his face: "Is there no prison, no place of work?"
Finally, the Ghost of Christmas Yet-to-Come/Future showed Scrooge Christmas Day a year later (1844). As the spirits predicted earlier, Tiny Tim had died; his father was unable to give him proper care of his small salary and no social health care. The Spirit then shows Scrooge scenes related to the death of a "wretched man": his business associates rant about how likely to be a cheap cemetery and one partner will leave only if lunch is provided; His possessions were stolen and sold by his housekeeper, caretaker and launderer, and a young couple who were indebted to the man was relieved that he was dead, because they had more time to pay off their debts. The Spirit then shows Scrooge an unkempt tombstone, which bears the name Scrooge.
Scrooge cries on his own grave, begging for the opportunity to change his way of life, before waking up to find it is Christmas morning. He immediately repented and became a model of generosity and kindness: he visited Fred and received his previous invitation for Christmas dinner, anonymously sent Bob Cratchit a giant turkey and then gave him a raise, and became like a "second father" to Tiny Tim (giving him medical treatment he needs to live). As the last narrative states, "Some people laugh to see changes in him, but he lets them laugh, and little attention to them, because he is wise enough to know that nothing ever happens in this world, for ever, where some people do not had their laughter at the beginning, and knowing that like this would be blind anyway, he thought it was good enough that they had to pursed their eyes in a smile, like having a disease in less attractive form.Her own heart laughed: and that was enough for him... always he said that he knows how to keep Christmas well if there is a living person who has knowledge. "
Depictions
Scrooge has been described by:
In popular culture
The name "Scrooge" is used in English as a word for people who behave wrongly and miserly despite the fact Ebenezer Scrooge is reformed later.
The most frequently recorded characters to exclaim "Bah! Humbug!" despite saying this sentence only twice throughout the story. He used the word "Humbug" himself on seven occasions, though in the seventh we are told he "stops at the first syllable" after realizing that the ghost of Marley is real. The word was never used again after that in the book.
Snail species named Ba humbugi after Scrooge's slogan.
See also
- Grinch
- Scrooge McDuck
Note
References
External links
- Works by or about Ebenezer Scrooge in the library (WorldCat catalog)
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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