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- Selfish - 'a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner' repetition of action verbs in a asyndetic list emphasizes how much he takes and wants to take from others; he will not give money to the charity men, saying 'it's not [his] business'. The harsh vocabulary Dickens uses could evoke the difficulty the three spirits will encounter while trying to reform Ebeneezer Scrooge. this introduction to Scrooge also show a cynical side to him, a side that mos likely made and still makes a lot of readers uncomfortable to imagine.
- Ignorant - 'Are there no prisons?[...]And the Union workhouses?' - cannot see the problems with these facilities for the 'idle' poor and does not understand why he was to help them. This shows Scrooge as an opposite to Dickens as he stood up for equality and education. Dickens can get away with paying Bob Cratchit so little as there were no jobs after the industrial revolution, which left Scrooge with the upper hand to control and oppress his staff
- Angry - 'a tight-fisted hand' - always ready to attack, volatile; 'his eyes red' - red is colour symbolism, showing Scrooge is infuriated
- Cold - 'his thin lips blue' - blue lips often associated with being freezing, therefore everything he says is bitter; was not emotionally affected by Marley's funeral, instead 'he was an excellent man of business on the very day of the funeral, and solemnized it with an undoubted bargain', money has taken over his ability to love and care for other people
- Scrooge has a lack of understanding as to why so many people invest in Christmas every year as he is so economically driven and isolated from family. Dickens describes him as a "lonely boy", which shows us that Scrooge's past has shaped him and therefore the reader may feel some sympathy towards him as Dickens delves into Scrooge's lonesome childhood
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- Represents wealthy citizen's attitudes in Victorian times - Thinks the poor are 'idle' (like many rich people); thinks that the poor should die to 'decrease the surplus population', a view pioneered by Thomas Malthus (an English scholar) and supported by many rich people; only care about making money
- Represents all the values opposed to idea of Christmas - Greed, selfishness and lack of goodwill toward's one's fellow man - shows importance of Christmas, and more importantly the family time and friendship, that comes with it
- Scrooge is used by Dickens to juxtapose his nephew Fred, who acts as the Christmas spirit in human form. This therefore allows Dickens to present Scrooge as an unlikable character who the reader feels a lack of sympathy towards. The emphasis of an unlikable protagonist enables Dickens to enforce his moral message onto his readers as they can then see extremely clearly the political stance Dickens adopted and what he wanted to change.
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- Starts to enjoy Christmas - 'I will honour Christmas in my heart and try to keep it all the year' - sees importance of Christmas and the benefits it has on society, modal verb 'will' shows determination to participate in Christmas; repetition of 'merry Christmas' shows he now wants to spread Christmas cheer, instead of trying to destroy it; joins in family Christmas celebrations
- Becomes more generous - 'There was a boy singing a Christmas Carol at my door last night. I should like to have given him something', gives a vast amount of money to charity workers - able to see further than himself, sees money as a means of helping people, sees purpose of helping others
- Becomes more emotional - When the Ghost of Christmas Past showed Scrooge himself as 'a solitary child, neglected by his friends', 'he sobbed' - immediate change from someone whom 'external heat and cold had little influence on' , could show his evil ways are due to anger surrounding childhood, reader feels sympathy towards him; by the end of the play he is as 'happy as an angel, [he is] as merry as a schoolboy. [He is] as giddy as a drunken-man' and found 'everything could yield him pleasure' - 'external heat' (the warmth and happiness of Christmas and joy of others is yielding him pleasure
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