Ebenezer Scrooge: Relationships and Redemption in A Christmas Carol

Introduction: The Universality of A Christmas Carol

Few stories have been retold or achieved such great cultural familiarity as Charles Dickens' 1843 novella A Christmas Carol. Perhaps the reason for its enduring success is its thematic universality. In its central character, readers encounter a figure with a dramatically stunted way of relating to other human beings — and yet one who is destined for redemption. This is the narrative thrust that drives A Christmas Carol, with the evolution of Ebenezer Scrooge from wealthy, miserly hermit to enlightened giver centering entirely on the way he perceived other people and the way other people perceived him. More than any other matter, the Dickens novel seems to center on the relationships that persist between human beings and how our approach to these relationships can bring great fullness or emptiness. As Scrooge's experience shows, this outcome depends entirely on what one dedicates to those relationships.

Scrooge's Hostility and Isolation

There is little positive that can be said of Scrooge's attitude toward his fellow man at the outset of the story. Dickens presents a man who is not only bitter toward the world and all the experiences it has to offer, but who also cannot comprehend why anyone else would feel differently. This is perfectly captured in the opening exchange with his nephew, whom Scrooge regards with hostility for what he perceives as an inexplicably cheerful demeanor. Scrooge is nothing less than hateful toward those around him, remarking that the poor people in his family and his employ should have no reason for joy given their struggles. Ironically, as his nephew points out, Scrooge himself seems entirely bereft of joy despite being quite wealthy.

To Scrooge's mind, joy in the face of so much suffering deserves ridicule and even punishment. He laments: "What else can I be, when I live in such a world of fools as this? Merry Christmas! Out upon merry Christmas! What's Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills without money; a time for finding yourself a year older, but not an hour richer; a time for balancing your books and having every item in 'em through a round dozen of months presented dead against you? If I could work my will, every idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. He should!" (Dickens, p. 1)

It is notable here that Scrooge does not simply speak with hostility toward others — he suggests that others are somehow responsible for his own misery. In this way, Scrooge defines himself through his relationships, but in a decidedly negative way. His conception of the world and its inhabitants as foolish and deserving of ridicule serves to isolate him in a way he cannot fully perceive, but that he nonetheless experiences. He is, in effect, living out a self-fulfilling prophecy. He views himself as separate and different from all those around him, and in turn, he is defined by that difference. That this difference manifests as a deeply unpleasant, sneering, and even villainous character tells the reader a great deal about how Dickens regards selective disengagement from the world.

Wealth, Class, and the Distance Between People

As the critique by Moncrieff (2007) notes, this disengagement is not merely a story about one man's withdrawal from society. On the contrary, Dickens channeled much of his personal experience and the economic struggles endured by his family into a highly allegorical narrative. Scrooge's wealth is equally as important and defining as his misery, and this connection is not accidental. According to Moncrieff, Dickens wrote with the intent to bring the element of human relationships into a discussion of the vast distance between rich and poor. What reads as selective isolation for Scrooge is, in fact, a yawning canyon separating two social classes in Victorian England.

Moncrieff also notes that Dickens financed the book himself following a falling out with his publishers, and chose to price the text at an extremely affordable rate while packaging it in an eye-catching binding (Moncrieff, p. 1). This decision resulted in strong sales across many different populations and suggests that Dickens was deliberately trying to reach readers on both sides of the class divide.

Works Cited

Dickens, C. (1843). The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Christmas Carol. Project Gutenberg.

Moncrieff, A. (2007). Literary Analysis: Scrooge's Redemption in A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens. Helium.com.

Novel Guide. (2010). A Christmas Carol: Theme Analysis. Novelguide.com.