Personality On Charles Dickens

The following sample essay on “Personality On Charles Dickens”: discussing Scrooge’s personality in Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.

The description of Scrooges chambers are dark, gloomy, cold, lonely and empty. These are a pathetic fallacies of Scrooge’s personality. His personality is described by Dickens as “solitary” and his rooms are described as lonely “Nobody, all as they should be. ” This is how Dickens uses negative language to create a depressing atmosphere. Charles Dickens slowly introduces elements of the supernatural “There was nothing particularly unusual about the knocker” which meant that there was something unusual and moves onto “Not a knocker but Marley’s face.

” Scrooge, shocked, hurries inside and starts to check his rooms.

Then locks himself into his room. “He closed his door, and locked him self in, double locked himself in. ” Dickens uses this to show how scared Scrooge was. All the chambers are dark, gloomy and cheap, this is used to create an eerie atmosphere. Dickens then brings the reader at ease and then starts using short dramatic sentences and slowly introduces elements of the supernatural “A disused bell, hung in the room, and communicated, inexplicable dread, that, as he looked, it began to swing” Dickens also uses this to keep the reader interested.

Jacob Marley was Scrooge’s former business partner but died seven years earlier.

He led a miserably greedy life just as Scrooge does now. “I bear the chain I forged in life. ” This chain is meant to represent his sins, and then he asks “Is its pattern strange to you? ” Here Marley is trying to warn Scrooge that he will get just the same punishment, if not worse, if he keeps behaving the same as Marley prior to his death.

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Hence why Marley has come back to haunt him, to warn him of what pain and anguish he is going through, but what is worse is the punishments that await Scrooge if he does not change “Or would you know, the weight and length of the strong coil you bear yourself, it is a ponderous chain!

” This is used by Dickens to make people think twice about their actions as Scrooge is being forced to here Marley is also preparing him for the shock of meeting the three Ghosts of Christmas. Scrooge is clearly in turmoil after Marley’s visit, even more so when Marley warns Scrooge that three spirits will haunt him. Hoping to frighten him into changing his ways and give him the opportunity of dodging the same punishment as himself.

I think in this novel Marley is not only warning Scrooge of his disregard for the poor, his stinginess and his lack of love towards other human beings but more importantly the rich “upper classes” of the Victorian society who were selfish, arrogant and worst of all ignorant to most of the hardships of life. In the real world. This message is constantly echoed throughout the whole novel. Scrooge is next taken on a journey by the Ghost of Christmas past who shows him his past and how he has changed from the way he was. Here Scrooge is first taken back to his childhood when he was abandoned by his father at a boarding school.

His father had lost the will to love him after the death of Scrooge’s mother, he may have blamed Ebenezer for her death. Every Christmas Scrooge was left there all alone by his friends who returned to their homes whereas he did not “The school was not quite deserted, a solitary child, neglected by his friends, is left there still. ” This is the first sign that suggests why Scrooge has such hatred for Christmas and no need for human company as he is used to the solitarity. Scrooge begins to weep as he sees his former self alone “And he sobbed.

” This shows him as a humanbeing with real feelings, not just a cold-hearted reptile in a suite. Then we meet his sister who is perhaps the only person who showed him true affection and proper unconditional love, “I have come to bring you home dear brother, brimful of glee, stood on tiptoe to embrace him. ” This emphasizes how much she loves her brother. Scrooge shows that he is learning when he looks upon his former self with sadness then says. “There was a boy singing a Christmas carol at my door last night, i should like to have given him something. ”

Scrooge also loves his sister back with just as much, if not more, affection “Always a delicate creature, but she had a large heart, so she had, and he cried. ” Dickens uses this opportunity to explore Scrooge’s character and adds a different side to his personality. This is the first time where he displays the ability to love and be moved by something other than the gain of money, the ability to love another humanbeing. This is a complete contrast to the heartless creature he has become.

Scrooge is then taken to when he was a young man working for a larger than life character called Mr.Mr Fezziwig has just arranged a fantastically joyous Christmas party for all his workers. Here Scrooge sees the contrast between the harsh way he treats Bob Cratchitt and the kind way Mr. Fezziwig treated him while he was his employee. And begins to see the error of his ways. Next on this worldwind tour, Scrooge is taken to when his fiancee leaves him. “A golden idol has replaced me. ” This means that she feels as though money has replaced her. This tells me that as he gets older, money becomes more and more dominant over his life without him even realising it.

Scrooge is very moved by this because he wanted to go after her but was too stubborn to do so. He then sees her several years later, married with a family. He regrets this as a missed opportunity something that could have completely reformed his life. He could have had a family who he could love and be loved by forever. I believe that perhaps this is may be the reason why he is resentful of his nephew “Why did you marry. ” Because Fred had the guts to choose true love and happiness over mere money and physical commodities.

Next The Ghost of Christmas present is the second ghost that comes to visit Scrooge. This ghost is described as having a ‘genial face’ with its ‘dark brown curls were long and free, sparkling eyes’ and was wearing ‘a simple deep green robe, bordered with white fur’ and wore a ‘Holly wreath’ on his head. First the ghost takes him to see the abundance in the rich people’s shops at the fayre. ‘Great, round potbellied baskets of of chest nuts’, as if they were rich obese men ‘Tumbling out into the streets in their apoplectic opulence’.

Dickens describes different varieties of foods using similes and metaphors such as the latter to appeal to the readers senses by accentuating the plum luscious descriptions. Here dickens is showing how much luxury the rich have in abundance. Charles Dickens then goes on to describe the vastly contrasting way the poor get their food. He describes them going to the baker’s shop to have their food cooked because they can’t even afford an oven let alone a chef to cook their food, unlike the obscenely rich ‘Upper crust’ of society. This is again a repetition by Dickens to show the plight and struggle the poor face everyday just to survive.

This society is a harsh paradox where the rich have everything and the poor have nothing, yet strangely neither could ever survive without leaching off the other as the rich need the poor as cheap labour to get richer and the poor need the rich to provide a measly income just to survive. Second, the ghost takes Scrooge to the Cratchitt family home where they are having their Christmas feast. Scrooge notices that Bob cratchitt has a crippled son called ‘Tiny Tim’. As the dinner unfolds the family’s modesty shines through similar to that of a rose that grew from concrete.

Even though there is hardly any food, the humble and poor family are ever so grateful, so humble are they that they are embarrassed to utter any complaints in fact they say that it was ‘The best meal they ever had’ this shows the mentality of the poor, they were grateful just to survive where as the the rich drown themselves in their obscenely opulent short-lived luxury which are merely trivial in contrast to the love, friendship, camaraderie and companionship the poor have. Which they have had to engrave with in the very fabric of every poor mans life just to survive the daily grind of life.