Ebenezer Scrooge

Ebenezer Scrooge
Ebenezer Scrooge encounters "Jacob Marley's ghost" in Dickens's novella, A Christmas Carol
Created by	Charles Dickens
Portrayed by	See below
Information
Nickname(s)	Scrooge
Gender	Male
Occupation	Money-lender Business man
Title	A Christmas Carol
Family	Fanny or Fan (late younger sister) Fred (nephew)

Ebenezer Scrooge (/ˌɛbᵻˈniːzər ˈskruːdʒ/) is the focal character of Charles Dickens' 1843 novella, A Christmas Carol. At the beginning of the novella, Scrooge is a cold-hearted miser who despises Christmas. Dickens describes him thus: "The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, made his eyes red, his thin lips blue, and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice, bah humbug."

His last name has come into the English language as a byword for miserliness and misanthropy. The tale of his redemption by the three Ghosts of Christmas (Ghost of Christmas Past, Ghost of Christmas Present, and Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come) has become a defining tale of the Christmas holiday in the English-speaking world. Ebenezer Scrooge is arguably both one of the most famous characters created by Dickens and one of the most famous in English literature.

Scrooge's catchphrase, "Bah! Humbug!" is often used to express disgust with many of the modern Christmas traditions.

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

The story of A Christmas Carol starts on Christmas Eve 1843 with Scrooge at his money-lending business. He despises Christmas as a "humbug" and subjects his clerk, Bob Cratchit, to grueling hours and low pay (giving him Christmas Day off with pay, begrudgingly and considering it like being pickpocketed, solely due to social custom). He shows his cold-heartedness toward others by refusing to make a monetary donation for the good of the poor, claiming they are better off dead, thereby "decreasing the surplus population." While he is preparing to go to bed, he is visited by the ghost of his business partner, Jacob Marley, who had died seven years earlier (1836) on Christmas Eve. Like Scrooge, Marley had spent his life hoarding his wealth and exploiting the poor, and, as a result, is damned to walk the Earth for eternity bound in the chains of his own greed. Marley warns Scrooge that he risks meeting the same fate and that as a final chance at redemption he will be visited by three spirits of Christmas: Past, Present and Yet-to-Come.