Ebenezer Scrooge

Ebenezer Scrooge (/ˌɛbɪˈniːzər ˈskruːdʒ/) is the protagonist of

Ebenezer Scrooge
Charles Dickens' 1843 novella, A Christmas Carol. At the
beginning of the novella, Scrooge is a cold-hearted miser who
despises Christmas. The tale of his redemption by three spirits
(the Ghost of Christmas Past, the Ghost of Christmas Present,
and the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come) has become a defining
tale of the Christmas holiday in the English-speaking world.

Dickens describes Scrooge thus early in the story: "The cold

within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose,
shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his
thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice."
Towards the end of the novella, Scrooge is transformed by the
spirits into a better person who changed his ways to become
more friendly and less miserly.

Scrooge's last name has come into the English language as a

byword for stinginess and misanthropy, while his catchphrase,
"Bah! Humbug!" is often used to express disgust with many
modern Christmas traditions.
Ebenezer Scrooge encounters
"Jacob Marley's ghost" in Dickens's
Contents novella, A Christmas Carol
Created by Charles Dickens
Description
Portrayed See below
Origins
by
Portrayals in notable adaptations
Information
See also
Gender Male
Notes
Title A Christmas Carol
Citations
Occupation Businessman[a]
References
Family Fanny or Fan (late
External links
younger sister)
Fred (nephew)

Description
Dickens describes Scrooge as "a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old
sinner! Hard and sharp as flint,… secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster." He does business
from a warehouse and is known among the merchants of the Royal Exchange as a man of good credit.
Despite having considerable personal wealth, he underpays his clerk and hounds his debtors relentlessly,
while living cheaply and joylessly in the house of his deceased business partner, Jacob Marley. Most of
all he detests Christmas, which he associates with reckless spending. When two men approach him on
Christmas Eve for a donation to charity, he sneers that the poor should avail themselves of the treadmill
or the workhouses, or else die to reduce the surplus population.
Flashbacks of Scrooge's early life show that his unkind father placed him in a boarding school, where at
Christmas-time he remained alone while his schoolmates traveled home. He then apprenticed at the
warehouse of a jovial and generous master, Fezziwig. He proposed to a woman named Belle and
dedicated himself to making enough money to rise out of poverty, but his fiancée was disgusted by his
obsession with money and left him one Christmas, eventually marrying another man. The present-day
Scrooge reacts to these memories with a mixture of nostalgia and deep regret.

After the three visiting spirits warn him that his current path brings hardship for others and shame for
himself, Scrooge commits to being more generous. He accepts his nephew's invitation to Christmas
dinner, provides for his clerk, and donates to the charity fund. In the end, he becomes known as the
embodiment of the Christmas spirit.

Origins
Several theories have been put forward as to where Dickens got inspiration for the character.

Ebenezer Scroggie, a merchant from Edinburgh who won a catering contract for King
George IV's visit to Scotland. He was buried in Canongate Kirkyard, with a gravestone that
is now lost. The theory is that Dickens noticed the gravestone that described Scroggie as
being a "meal man" (corn merchant) but misread it as "mean man".[1][2] This theory has
been described as "a probable Dickens hoax" for which "[n]o one could find any
corroborating evidence".[3]
It has been suggested that he chose the name Ebenezer ("stone (of) help") to reflect the
help given to Scrooge to change his life.[4]
One school of thought is that Dickens based Scrooge's views on the poor on those of
demographer and political economist Thomas Malthus, as evidenced by his callous attitude
towards the "surplus population".[5][6]
Another is that the minor character Gabriel Grub from The Pickwick Papers was worked up
into a more mature characterization (his name stemming from an infamous Dutch miser,
Gabriel de Graaf).[7][8]
Jemmy Wood, owner of the Gloucester Old Bank and possibly Britain's first millionaire, was
nationally renowned for his stinginess, and may have been another.[9]
The man whom Dickens eventually mentions in his letters[10] and who strongly resembles
the character portrayed by Dickens's illustrator, John Leech, was a noted British eccentric
and miser named John Elwes (1714–1789).
Kelly writes that Scrooge may have been influenced by Dickens's conflicting feelings for his father,
whom he both loved and demonised. This psychological conflict may be responsible for the two radically
different Scrooges in the tale—one a cold, stingy and greedy semi-recluse, the other a benevolent,
sociable man.[11] Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, a professor of English literature, considers that in the
opening part of the book covering young Scrooge's lonely and unhappy childhood, and his aspiration for
money to avoid poverty "is something of a self-parody of Dickens's fears about himself"; the post-
transformation parts of the book are how Dickens optimistically sees himself.[12]

Scrooge could also be based on two misers: the eccentric John Elwes, MP,[13] or Jemmy Wood, the
owner of the Gloucester Old Bank who was also known as "The Gloucester Miser".[14] According to the
sociologist Frank W. Elwell, Scrooge's views on the poor are a reflection of those of the demographer
and political economist Thomas Malthus,[15] while the miser's questions "Are there no prisons? ... And
the Union workhouses? ... The treadmill and the Poor Law are in
full vigour, then?" are a reflection of a sarcastic question raised
by the reactionary philosopher Thomas Carlyle, "Are there not
treadmills, gibbets; even hospitals, poor-rates, New Poor-
Law?"[16][b]

There are literary precursors for Scrooge in Dickens's own works.

Peter Ackroyd, Dickens's biographer, sees similarities between
Scrooge and the elder Martin Chuzzlewit character, although the
miser is "a more fantastic image" than the Chuzzlewit patriarch;
Ackroyd observes that Chuzzlewit's transformation to a
charitable figure is a parallel to that of the miser.[18] Douglas-
Fairhurst sees that the minor character Gabriel Grub from The
Pickwick Papers was also an influence when creating
Scrooge.[19][c]

Portrayals in notable adaptations Reginald Owen as Scrooge in the

1938 film adaptation
Tom Ricketts in A Christmas Carol, 1908
Marc McDermott in 1910
Seymour Hicks in Scrooge 1913, and again in Scrooge,
1935
Rupert Julian in 1916
Russell Thorndike in 1923
Bransby Williams in 1928 and 1936, 1950 on television
Lionel Barrymore on radio 1934–1935, 1937, 1939–
1953
John Barrymore in 1936 on radio, for ailing brother
Lionel
Orson Welles in 1938 on radio replacing Lionel
Barrymore for one appearance only.
Reginald Owen in 1938
Claude Rains in 1940 on radio
Ronald Colman in 1941 on radio and again in 1949
John Carradine in 1947 on radio and television
Taylor Holmes in 1949
Alastair Sim in 1951, and again in 1971 (voice)
Fredric March in 1954
Basil Rathbone in 1956 and 1958
John McIntire in 1957
Stan Freberg in Green Chri$tma$, 1958.
Jim Backus (as Quincy Magoo) in Mister Magoo's
Christmas Carol, 1962
Cyril Ritchard in 1964
Sterling Hayden as Daniel Grudge in Rod Serling's A
Carol for Another Christmas (1964)
Wilfrid Brambell in a 1966 radio musical version
(adapted from his Broadway role)
Sid James in the Carry On Christmas Specials, 1969
Ron Haddrick in the animated TV film A Christmas
Carol (1969) and again in the Australian animated film
A Christmas Carol (1982)
Albert Finney in 1970
Marcel Marceau in 1973
Michael Hordern in 1977
Rich Little as W. C. Fields playing Scrooge in Rich
Little's Christmas Carol, 1978
Walter Matthau (voice) in The Stingiest Man in Town,
1978
Henry Winkler as Benedict Slade in An American
Christmas Carol, 1979
Hoyt Axton as Cyrus Flint in Skinflint: A Country
Christmas Carol, 1979
Mel Blanc (as Yosemite Sam) in Bugs Bunny's
Christmas Carol, 1979
Henk Van Ulzen in De Wonderbaarlijke Genezing Van
(the Wonderfull Cure of) Ebenezer Scrooge, 1979
Hal Landon Jr. as Ebenezer Scrooge since 1980, more
than 1,100 performances.
Alan Young (as Scrooge McDuck) in Mickey's
Christmas Carol, 1983
George C. Scott in 1984
Mel Blanc (this time as Cosmo Spacely) in The Jetsons
episode "A Jetson Christmas Carol", 1985
Robert Guillaume as John Grin in John Grin's
Christmas, 1986
Oliver Muirhead as "Constable Scrooge" in A Christmas
Held Captive, 1986
Bill Murray as Frank Cross in Scrooged, 1988
Buddy Hackett (as himself) played Scrooge in the
film-within-a-film.
Rowan Atkinson as Ebenezer Blackadder in
Blackadder's Christmas Carol, 1988
Michael Caine in The Muppet Christmas Carol, 1992
Jeffrey Sanzel has appeared in more than 1,000 stage
performances since 1992.
James Earl Jones in Bah, Humbug, 1994
Walter Charles, Tony Randall, Terrence Mann, Hal
Linden, Roddy McDowall, F. Murray Abraham, Frank
Langella, Tony Roberts, Roger Daltrey, and Jim Dale in
the stage version of Alan Menken's musical (1994–
2003)
Henry Corden (as Fred Flintstone) in A Flintstones
Christmas Carol, 1994
Susan Lucci as Elizabeth "Ebbie" Scrooge in Ebbie,
1995
Cicely Tyson as Ebenita Scrooge in Ms. Scrooge, 1997
Tim Curry (voice) in 1997; A Christmas Carol (the
Theater at Madison Square Garden 2001 play)
Ernest Borgnine (as Carface Carruthers) in An All Dogs
Christmas Carol, 1998
Jack Palance in 1998
Patrick Stewart in 1999
Vanessa Williams as Ebony Scrooge in A Diva's
Christmas Carol, 2000
Ross Kemp as Eddie Scrooge in 2000
Adrienne Carter as Annie Redfeather as Annie Scrooge
in Adventures from the Book of Virtues: Compassion Pt.
1 & 2, 2000
Dean Jones in Scrooge and Marley, 2001
Tori Spelling as "Scroogette" Carol Cartman in A Carol
Christmas, 2003
Phil Vischer (as Mr. Nezzer) in An Easter Carol, 2004
Scrooge appears as a puppet in a minor role in the
2004 film The Polar Express, in which he confronts "the
boy", making him flee back into the seating area of the
train.
Kelsey Grammer in 2004
Joe Alaskey (as Daffy Duck) in Bah, Humduck! A
Looney Tunes Christmas, 2006
Helen Fraser as Sylvia Hollamby in Bad Girls 2006
Christmas Special
John Burnside in Hot Rod, 2007
Morwenna Banks as Eden Starling (Barbie) in Barbie in
A Christmas Carol, 2008
Jim Carrey in 2009 (Carrey also played the three spirits
haunting Scrooge).[21]
Catherine Tate as Nan in Nan's Christmas Carol, 2009
Matthew McConaughey as Connor "Dutch" Mead in
Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, 2009
Christina Milian as Sloane Spencer in Christmas Cupid,
December 2010
Eric Braeden as Victor Newman in "Victor's Christmas
Carol" on The Young and the Restless, December 2010
Michael Gambon as Kazran Sardick in "A Christmas
Carol" on Doctor Who, December 2010[22][23]
George Lopez as Grouchy Smurf in The Smurfs: A
Christmas Carol, 2011
Emmanuelle Vaugier as Carol Huffman in the 2012 TV
film It's Christmas, Carol!
Robert Powell in Neil Brand's 2014 BBC Radio 4
adaptation of A Christmas Carol.[24]
Ned Dennehy in the BBC drama Dickensian, 2015
Jason Graae in the musical Scrooge in Love!, 2016[25]
 Kelly Sheridan as Starlight Glimmer (playing Snowfall
Frost) in the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
episode "A Hearth's Warming Tail", 2016
Christopher Plummer in The Man Who Invented
Christmas, 2017
Roger L. Jackson as Mojo Jojo in The Powerpuff Girls
"You're A Good Man, Mojo Jojo!", 2017
Seth MacFarlane as Peter Griffin in Family Guy, "Don't
Be a Dickens at Christmas", 2017
Kate Micucci as Velma Dinkley in Be Cool, Scooby-
Doo! episode "Scroogey Doo", 2017

Stuart Brennan in 2018[26]

Guy Pearce in the BBC/FX miniseries, 2019

See also
Grinch
Scrooge McDuck

Notes
a. Scrooge's type of business is not stated in the original work. He is said to operate from a
warehouse, having apprenticed in another. At least part of his business consists in
exchanging money obligations and collecting debts. Several adaptations have depicted him
as a money-lender.
b. Carlyle's original question was written in his 1840 work Chartism.[17]
c. Grub's name came from a 19th century Dutch miser, Gabriel de Graaf, a morose
gravedigger.[20]

Citations
1. "Revealed: the Scot who inspired Dickens' Scrooge" (https://www.scotsman.com/news-2-15
012/revealed-the-scot-who-inspired-dickens-scrooge-1-571985). The Scotsman. 24
December 2004. Retrieved 2020-01-14. "Details of Scroggie’s life are sparse, but he was a
vintner as well as a corn merchant."
2. "BBC Arts - That Ebenezer geezer... who was the real Scrooge?" (http://www.bbc.co.uk/pro
grammes/articles/4y78YB9vVMG1xYrW8CmzjPw/that-ebenezer-geezer-who-was-the-real-s
crooge). BBC. Retrieved 2016-04-30.
3. "Mr Punch is still knocking them dead after 350 years" (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/
charles-dickens/9066840/Mr-Punch-is-still-knocking-them-dead-after-350-years.html).
Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 2017-06-16.
4. Kincaid, Cheryl Anne. Hearing the Gospel through Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol" (h
ttp://www.cambridgescholars.com/download/sample/59020) (2 ed.). Cambridge Scholars
Publishing. pp. 7–8. Retrieved 24 December 2014.
5. Frank W. Elwell, Reclaiming Malthus (http://www.faculty.rsu.edu/users/f/felwell/www/Theoris
ts/Malthus/reclaim.htm), 2 November 2001, accessed 30 August 2013.
 6. Nasar, Sylvia (2011). Grand pursuit : the story of economic genius (https://archive.org/detail
s/isbn_9780684872988/page/3) (1st Simon & Schuster hardcover ed.). New York: Simon &
Schuster. pp. 3–10 (https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780684872988/page/3). ISBN 978-0-
684-87298-8.
7. "Real-life Scrooge was Dutch gravedigger" (https://web.archive.org/web/20071227100516/h
ttp://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Quirks/2007/12/25/real-life_scrooge_was_dutch_gravedigger/
3411/), 25 December 2007, archived from the original (http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Quirk
s/2007/12/25/real-life_scrooge_was_dutch_gravedigger/3411/) 27 December 2007.
8. "Fake Scrooge 'was Dutch gravedigger'" (https://web.archive.org/web/20081206162157/htt
p://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1573589/Real-Scrooge-%27was-Dutch-gravedigge
r%27.html), 26 December 2007, archived from the original (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/new
s/main.jhtml;jsessionid=JXXWBDI5OQH4JQFIQMGCFGGAVCBQUIV0?xml=/news/2007/1
2/24/nscrooge124.xml) 6 December 2008.
9. Silence, Rebecca (2015). Gloucester History Tour. Amberley Publishing Limited. p. 40.
10. The Letters of Charles Dickens by Charles Dickens, Madeline House, Graham Storey,
Margaret Brown, Kathleen Tillotson, & The British Academy (1999) Oxford University Press
[Letter to George Holsworth, 18 January 1865] pp.7.
11. Kelly 2003, p. 14.
12. Douglas-Fairhurst 2006, p. xix.
13. Gordon 2008; DeVito 2014, 424.
14. Jordan 2015, Chapter 5; Sillence 2015, p. 40.
15. Elwell 2001; DeVito 2014, 645.
16. Douglas-Fairhurst 2006, p. xiii.
17. Carlyle 1840, p. 32.
18. Ackroyd 1990, p. 409.
19. Douglas-Fairhurst 2006, p. xviii; Alleyne 2007.
20. Alleyne 2007.
21. Fleming, Michael. "Jim Carrey set for 'Christmas Carol': Zemeckis directing Dickens
adaptation" (http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117968136.html), Variety, 2007-07-06.
Retrieved on 2007-09-11.
22. "Doctor Who Christmas Special – A Christmas Carol" (http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/prog
info/tv/2010/wk51/bbc_one.shtml#bbc_one_doctorwho). Retrieved 22 November 2010.
23. "Christmas Day". Radio Times. 347 (4520): 174. December 2010.
24. "BBC Radio 4 - Saturday Drama, A Christmas Carol" (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0
4v9n00). BBC.
25. Heymont, George (29 January 2016). "Rule Britannia!" (http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/e
ntry/rule-britannia_b_9101320). Huffington Post. Retrieved 30 September 2016.
26. "From Charles Dickens to Michael Caine, here are the five best Scrooges" (https://www.inde
pendent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/best-scrooge-a-christmas-carol-muppets-ch
arles-dickens-michael-caine-a8681446.html). The Independent. December 19, 2018.

References
Ackroyd, Peter (1990). Dickens. London: Sinclair-Stevenson. ISBN 978-1-85619-000-8.
Alleyne, Richard (24 December 2007). "Real Scrooge 'was Dutch gravedigger' " (https://ww
w.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1573589/Real-Scrooge-was-Dutch-gravedigger.html). The
Daily Telegraph.
Carlyle, Thomas (1840). Chartism (https://archive.org/details/chartism02carlgoog). London:
J. Fraser. OCLC 247585901 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/247585901).
 DeVito, Carlo (2014). Inventing Scrooge (https://books.google.com/books?id=eM9tBAAAQB
AJ&pg=PP1) (Kindle ed.). Kennebunkport, ME: Cider Mill Press. ISBN 978-1-60433-555-2.
Dickens, Charles (1843). A Christmas Carol. London: Chapman and Hall.
OCLC 181675592 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/181675592).
Douglas-Fairhurst, Robert (2006). "Introduction". In Dickens, Charles (ed.). A Christmas
Carol and other Christmas Books. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. vii–xxix. ISBN 978-
0-19-920474-8.
Elwell, Frank W. (2 November 2001). "Reclaiming Malthus" (https://web.archive.org/web/20
170324221035/http://www.faculty.rsu.edu/users/f/felwell/www/Theorists/Malthus/reclaim.ht
m). Rogers State University. Archived from the original (http://www.faculty.rsu.edu/users/f/fel
well/www/Theorists/Malthus/reclaim.htm) on 24 March 2017. Retrieved 13 January 2017.
Gordon, Alexander (2008). "Elwes, John (1714–1789)" (http://www.oxforddnb.com/index/8/1
01008776/). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/8776 (https://doi.
org/10.1093%2Fref%3Aodnb%2F8776). Retrieved 13 January 2016. (subscription or UK public
library membership (https://www.oxforddnb.com/help/subscribe#public) required)
Jordan, John O. (2001). The Cambridge Companion to Charles Dickens (https://books.goog
le.com/books?id=wPe7uCbGvPUC&pg=PP1). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
ISBN 978-0-521-66964-1.
Kelly, Richard Michael (2003). "Introduction". In Dickens, Charles (ed.). A Christmas Carol
(https://books.google.com/books?id=APL1OY2t3JgC&pg=PA9). Ontario: Broadway Press.
pp. 9–30. ISBN 978-1-55111-476-7.
Sillence, Rebecca (2015). Gloucester History Tour (https://books.google.com/books?id=bW
nGCQAAQBAJ&pg=PP1). Stroud, Glos: Amberley Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4456-4859-0.

External links
Works by or about Ebenezer Scrooge (https://worldcat.org/identities/lccn-sh89-6283) in
libraries (WorldCat catalog)

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