By the end of ‘A Christmas Carol ‘Scrooge has undergone great changes; with close reference to – and quotation from – several very different sections of the text, discuss the variety if ways in which Dickens presents the story. Throughout the whole story in the Christmas Carol, it shows the writer Charles Dickens had deeply described his story in words by words and he enjoys using a variety of changes and vocabularies. It also gives us an expression of him being an entertainer and joker. The beginning of the story starts with a dead person call Marley.
This style of starting a story is very ex-ordinary, this gives a clueless chance for us to know and understand the story. Not much writers nowadays would introduce the story like what Dickens does in his series of books. The second person was mentioned in the story was an old man called Scrooge, he firstly starts off the story and shown as a dull, old, unattractive and unlovable man. The first quotation I’m using is on page. 10 and 11, “Oh! but he was a tight fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner!
This quotation especially with the last few words had really brought out the expression of how Dickens is going describe the character of Scrooge. On page11, “He carried his won low temperature always about with him; he iced his office in the dog days. ” The use of languages in the few quotation and pages had described the behavior of Scrooge in the story. “Dogs appeared to know him; and when they saw him coming on, would tug their owners into doorways and up courts” It had showed me that Scrooge is highly respected and has a strong effect over the animals and humans.
They seemed to be very friendly together. “Bah! Humbug! ” Scrooge has used this word in lots of occasions throughout the story. The meaning of this word could show Scrooge was either annoyed, mad or making such noises when he is not bothered to talk to other people. In page 16, the page had showed and described how frivolous he is, this had the effect from the sentence when he said, “Good afternoon”. This Good morning sentence had been used and repeated a lot on the next following pages.
The story had just started in the first ten pages, and it had already showed Scrooge is a character whom is straight, talks to the point and very straight forward, and says whatever he had in mind without having a second thought. The story had then changes when the first ghost comes to the passage. Scrooge’s character had a small change when he encounters with the first ghost “Marley’s Ghost”. The effect of the ghost had changed Scrooge’s life and attitude when the story follows on. This huge impact on Scrooge has happened in pages between pages 25 to 27. On P. 27, “I know him! Marley’s ghost!
” and fainted again. This explains that Scrooge had a flash back memory of this person named Marley. He seems to know him and probably something unpleasant happens before so that’s way he got fainted afterwards. He might had a short flash back memory of this person and felt scared about it, his mind is either playing tricks on him. After this incident of the ghost, he believes more into himself. As this ghost goes on to the next page, Scrooge had become more confused, shy, embarrass, and scared of the ghost. Scrooge had become even more scared towards the ghost as the story expands to page 30.
Firstly, he becomes more obedient and he slowly appears into horror with it. “He fell upon his knees” This move of Scrooge had showed he is begging the ghost to leave him alone and pleased and begged for mercy. This kneeing move had completely twisted Scrooge’s character attitude around. Firstly from a straight forward, hard person to a soft coward who is kneeing for mercy from a ghost. He was in tears as the conservation goes on and on, they were in a state of talking a topic on business. “Business” was used in those pages quite a lot of times. On page 35, Scrooge was threatened and warned by Marley, he was acting to be scared and afraid.
“You will be haunted by the three spirits”, Scrooge had got really scared after the ghost said he will be haunted by the three spirits. “Scrooge’s countenance fell almost as low as they Ghost had done” This describes Scrooge was really scared and afraid, he had lost his feelings and had completely lost his nerves, he couldn’t control of himself. As the story moves on to Stave two , Scrooge’s character had become even more confuse and was in a state that he doesn’t know what to do. He couldn’t concentrate at thing and just had the illusion of Marley’s ghost inside his head.
“The more he thought, the more he gets perplexed. ” This quotation clearly shows that Scrooge couldn’t believe what had just happen to him. “Marley’s ghost bothered him exceedingly” The last few quotes had showed Scrooge is really sacred and becoming more thoughtful. He develops to a person who is trying to think what had just happened. Not like the personality he just shown in the first stave and the beginning of the story. He then became very obedient and very obsessive. He just have Marley’s ghost in his mind, he just thinks of this ghost all the time and nothing else.
He is getting more worried and scared as he thinks and imagines more. This few pages of Stave two have shown another character change of Scrooge. “Ding Dong, a quarter past… half past… a quarter to it… ” This is showing Scrooge is just thinking of Marley’ ghost all day long. He just sits there next to the window and listening to the bell ringing to midday and thinks of Marley’s ghost in his mind. On page 42, Scrooge had faced another ghost spirit which he had expected him to come because Marley told him, he will be haunted by the three spirits.
As he interferes with this ghost, his attitude had dramatically changed. This ghost was a tall long man with visible white light over him, Scrooge had become very curious as he sees this man. He had a flash-back to his childhood, it had showed him the cheerfulness and playfulness On page 48, Scrooge shouts “Ali Baba! “, “Its clear old honest Ali Baba! Yes Yes, I know. ” As Scrooge had a moment of flash back, it shows he is very caring and happy. But there was a huge drop of contrast because at one point he was really happy and then he became very sad. “What is the matter? ” asked the spirit.
This spirit was shown as more friendly and caring than the first one, he seems to be very nice to Scrooge and cares about him and wants to ask why he feels sad. “Nothing there was a boy singing a Christmas carol at my door last night, I should have given him something. ” Unlike Scrooge’s character before, when he starts the story, he seems to be more caring now. He shows he is not just giving care to himself, also to other people. The quote shows he regrets that he didn’t give anything or invite the boy into his house as the boy just stands in the cold night of Christmas. Now he is feeling very sad and sorrow.
