Christmas past Essay

Ebenezer Scrooge is a tightfisted miser who has only one purpose in life, to extort as much money and profit he can from anything and everything. As with all things, too much of one thing is bad for you; Scrooge’s miserly ways are catching up with him. His cheap ways have not brought him any friends, quite the contrary; they have brought him derision and scorn. He was thought of as â€Å"a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone! † A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, selfish, covetous old sinner! As we can see, he wasn’t a very pleasant person, but that is to be expected of people who work around money all their lives. Money became more than a possession to Scrooge, all his coins were his little children. He kept them safe in their strongboxes. To give away but one petty coin, would have been asking Scrooge to give away part of his soul. He was greedy and crooked to the bone. He was a cold heartless man â€Å"No warmth could warm†¦ No wind that blew was bitter than he. † Scrooge hated the idea that on Christmas day his workers were allowed the day off and Scrooge still had to pay their wages. â€Å"A poor excuse for picking a mans pocket every twenty-fifth of December. † Scrooge dislikes people who try and raise money to help the poor, when the charity workers tell Scrooge some poor people would rather die than work in a workhouse Scrooge replies. â€Å"If they would rather die†¦ They had better do it, and decrease the surplus population. † This quote shows that Scrooge doesn’t care about other people apart from himself. He doesn’t care that other people are worse off than he is and he doesn’t care if they die. â€Å"If I could work my will†¦ Every idiot who goes about with merry Christmas should be boiled with his own pudding. † This is a quote from Scrooge before the ghosts visit him. It shows that Scrooge doesn’t like Christmas and doesn’t like other people enjoying themselves at Christmas. Scrooge wasn’t just miserable and bad tempered at Christmas; he was like that all year round. These famous lines were uttered by Scrooge on Christmas Eve, 7 years to the day, of his old partner, Jacob Marley’s death. Then as Scrooge was about to enter his marvelously slum-like mansion, he looked at his doorknocker, and nearly fainted dead away with fright. â€Å"Scrooge†¦ saw in the knocker†¦ not a knocker, but Marley’s face. † Bad omens breed ill times to come, and this was most definitely a bad omen. â€Å"As Scrooge looked fixedly at this phenomenon, it was a knocker again. † Scrooge just thought it was the dark playing with his mind. â€Å"Darkness was cheap and Scrooge liked it. † When Scrooge sat down by the small fire the cellar floor blew open with a booming sound, still Scrooge wouldn’t believe anything strange was happening. â€Å"Its still humbug†¦ I wont believe it. † When the ghost of Marley appears before Scrooge he still doesn’t accept what he’s seeing. The ghost asks Scrooge â€Å"Why do you doubt your senses? † Scrooge replies, â€Å"Because a little thing effects them†¦ there’s more of gravy than of grave about you. † Marleys ghost explains to Scrooge that he is forced to travel around the world; he sees people suffering and cant do anything to help them. Marley’s ghost explains to Scrooge that he is forced to do this in death because of the way he was in life. Marley tells Scrooge that his punishment after life will be even greater because Scrooge was just as bad as Marley and has had an extra seven years of life to do bad things. Marley told Scrooge that unless he changes his ways he will be punished. He tells Scrooge that three spirits will visit him. â€Å"Expect the first tomorrow when the bell tolls one. † The ghost of Christmas past was a strange figure. Its hair hung about its neck and was white as if with age. Its arms were very long and muscular. It had a lustrous belt around its waist and was holding a branch of fresh green holy in its hand. â€Å"You are one of those who’s passion made this cap, and force me through whole trains of years. † The ghost said to Scrooge. Meaning because of people like Scrooge the ghost has to visit them. The ghost of Christmas past took Scrooge to the place where he grew up. They saw travelers; Scrooge knew and named every one of them. â€Å"Why did his cold eye glisten†¦ Why did his heart leap as they went past. † The ghost then took Scrooge to his old school; he was the only child left there. All the other children had gone back home to their families for Christmas. The ghost then took Scrooge to a house were a young Scrooge was reading a book by a weak fire. Some actors visited young Scrooge and performed a play for him. Scrooge remembered how lonely he was and how happy the actors made him feel. â€Å"There was a boy singing a Christmas Carol at my door last night.