From reading ‘A Christmas Carol’ I have discovered many things about Victorian London, Dickens and the dramatic personality change in Scrooge over the two-day period. I am going to write about the interesting ideas I have depicted from the story involving Scrooge, Victorian London and Dickens. How does Scrooge change over the 2 days? Scrooge begins the story as a cold, heartless mean with no compassion or sentiment; “External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. No warmth could warm, no wintry weather chill him.

” We adapt a negative opinion of Scrooge from the start. He is a typical miser and a cynic, and constantly refrains by saying “Humbug. ” Scrooge sees everything to do with Christmas as a trick; this is why he is constantly replying with “Humbug. ” He sees the world as a “World of Fools. ” This was bought about by St. Paul; he said ‘it is necessary to be fool in order to be wise. ‘ He hates Christmas and refuses to give any portion of his wealth to the needy and less fortunate.

He is a capitalist and a businessman who is anti-life; when asked if he would give some money to the poor for Christmas, and is told if they did not receive the money they might die, he replies “if they would rather die they had better do it and, decrease the surplus population” Scrooge turns everything that is good on its head. He is a cheap man, who does not trust banks, so he heats both his home and office with one small fire, keeps his money in a safe and counts it regularly. It is only pleasure he allows himself.

It is strange that his miser ness not only keeps others cold but himself too; “Scrooge had a very small fire, but the clerk’s fire was so very much smaller that it looked like one coal. ” He is also a lonely man; his business partner, the closest thing he had to a friend, died seven years ago and he has disowned his one remaining relative. However, after the visit of the first ghost, Marley, there is a slight change is Scrooge. At first he challenges the ghost by saying that it is indigestion, ” a slight disorder of the stomach makes them cheats.

You may be an undigested bit of beef” that is making him see things. Dickens describes him as being ‘sturdily’, but then we notice an alteration in Scrooge’s personality is unable to say “Humbug” and falls to his knees asking Marley not to be to harsh and asks for mercy. This is followed by a visit from the ghost of Christmas past, where Scrooge is reduced to tears, this is a very different man to the one we heard of the beginning of the story. The ghost is dressed in white, he is almost a pagan symbol and it is paradoxical in the way in which he talks about the summer and winter.

The ghost takes Scrooge back to his childhood where he was lonely once again. Scrooge sees himself at his old school, “a solitary child neglected by his friends, is left there still. ” Scrooge’s conscious has taken over and guilt sets in and he wishes he had given money to the carol singer, “There was a boy singing a Christmas Carol at my door last night. I should like to have given him something: that’s all. ” He sees his sister and then his apprentice Fezziwig who taught him to party. This when Scrooge realises how easy and cheap it is to make people happy and he wishes he to could be like Fezziwig i.

e. a much better person and employer. He then sees his old girlfriend, whom he had broken up with, talking about him and how nice it was of him to choose a “dowerless” girl like her. She ends the speech with “May you be happy with the life you have chosen! ” This finally makes Scrooge realise all the people he his hurt and the promises he has broken. The ghost then shows Scrooge two children called Ignorance and Want and his own response was thrown back at him “Are there no prisons and workhouses,” a line that the “Old” Scrooge once used.

Scrooge then has a visit from the Grim Reaper where he sees himself alone at his death and then his body being robbed. The only people who show any emotion whatsoever towards Scrooge are the people that borrowed money from him. The ghost then shows Tiny Tim death and how bleak and unhappy everyone is. After the visit of the three ghosts, Scrooge turns into a redeemed man and vows to amend the wrongs he has done. Dickens describes him as “fluttered and glowing with good intentions. ” He gives a huge turkey to the Cratchits and wishes everyone a Merry Christmas, the reverse to what he was like before.