The Transformation Of Scrooge In A Christmas Carol

In the book A Christmas Carol, readers immediately see an inhumane and bitter old man who was changed drastically due to the appearance of 3 ghosts. When we first meet Scrooge, the only thought anyone has is that he is a lost cause and nothing short of an unpleasant grump. The ghost of Marley comes to warn Scrooge of his fate, by doing so, he sends 3 ghosts. Christmas past, present, and future. Scrooge experiences pain, loss, regret, joy, poverty, and even his own death in one night. Towards the end we see Scrooge, for the first time in at least a few decades, spread the Christmas spirit by giving to those he would normally be disgusted by. Scrooge's change is not realistic because he changed merely based on fear and considering the length of his bitterness, Scrooges’ change in one day is frankly impossible.

For example, “‘Am I the man who lays upon the bed?’ he cried, upon his knees.” “‘Spirit!’ he cried, tightly clenching at his robe, ‘hear me! I am not the man I was. I will not be the man I must have been but for this intercourse´” (Dickens 110). This is the first time we see Scrooge verbally promise to change and it is not a coincidence that he confesses this after he sees his brutal death. Another major fear that drove him to change for the time being is Scrooge seeing Marley, who is a lot like Scrooge, chained up for eternity. For example, “‘I wear the chain I forged in life,’ replied the ghost. ‘I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it. Is its pattern strange to you'’” (Dickens