Editing Ebenezer Scrooge (section)

== Description ==
[[File:Ghost Christmas Past Eytinge 1868.jpg|thumb|left|Scrooge and the [[Ghost of Christmas Past]]{{Efn| Illustration by [[Sol Eytinge Jr.]] (1868)}}]]

Charles 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 [[Cornhill, London|Cornhill]] warehouse and is known among the merchants of the [[Royal Exchange, London|Royal Exchange]] as a man of good credit. Despite having considerable personal wealth, he underpays his clerk [[Bob Cratchit]] and hounds his debtors relentlessly while living cheaply and joylessly in the [[Apartment|chambers]] 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 [[Penal treadmill|treadmill]] or the [[workhouse]]s, or else die to reduce the [[An Essay on the Principle of Population|surplus population]]. He also refuses his nephew Fred's invitation to Christmas dinner and denounces him as a fool for celebrating Christmas. He even frightens a young carol singer by gripping a ruler with a fit of energy. Scrooge resents giving Cratchit Christmas Day off, as there will be no business for Scrooge during the day. 

That night, Scrooge is visited by Marley's ghost, who is condemned to walk the world forever bound in chains as punishment for his greed and inhumanity in life. Marley tells Scrooge that he will be visited by three spirits, in the hope that he will mend his ways; if he does not, Marley warns, Scrooge will wear even heavier chains than his in the afterlife.

The first spirit, the [[Ghost of Christmas Past]], shows Scrooge visions of his early life. These visions establish Scrooge's unloving childhood in a [[boarding school]], where at Christmas he remained alone while his schoolmates returned home to their families. One of Scrooge's happy memories was when his sister Fan—later Fred's mother—came to take him home one Christmas, saying that their hard-hearted father had changed. Scrooge then apprenticed at the warehouse of a jovial and generous master, [[Mr. Fezziwig]]. He was engaged to a young woman named Belle, but gradually his love for Belle was overwhelmed by his love for money. Belle realised that he would resent her poverty and left him, eventually marrying another man. The present-day Scrooge reacts to his memories with nostalgia and deep regret.

[[File:Scrooges third visitor-John Leech,1843.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Scrooge and the [[Ghost of Christmas Present]]{{efn|Illustration by [[John Leech (caricaturist)|John Leech]] (1843)}}]]
[[File:The Last of the Spirits-John Leech, 1843.jpg|thumb|upright|Scrooge and the [[Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come]]{{Efn|original illustration by [[John Leech (caricaturist)|John Leech]] (1843)}}]]
[[File:Christmascarol1843 -- 184.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=Black and white drawing of Scrooge and Bob Cratchit having a drink in front of a large fire|Scrooge and Bob Cratchit celebrate Christmas with smoking bishop.]]

The [[Ghost of Christmas Present]] arrives and shows Scrooge that his greed and selfishness have hurt others as well, particularly Cratchit, who cannot afford to provide his desperately ill son [[Tiny Tim (A Christmas Carol)|Tiny Tim]] with medical treatment because of Scrooge's miserliness. The Spirit tells an ashamed Scrooge that Tiny Tim will die unless something changes, and throws back at Scrooge his own heartless words about the poor and destitute. Scrooge and the ghost also visit Fred's Christmas party, where Fred defends his uncle from his guests' snide remarks. 

Finally, the [[Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come]] shows Scrooge where his greed and selfishness will lead: a lonely death and a neglected grave, unpaid servants stealing his belongings, debtors relieved at his passing, and the Cratchit family devastated by the loss of Tiny Tim. Scrooge asks the Spirit if this future can still be changed, and begs for another chance, promising to change his ways – and finds himself in his bed on Christmas Day. 

An overjoyed Scrooge commits to being more generous and compassionate; he accepts his nephew's invitation to Christmas dinner, provides for Cratchit and his family, and donates to the charity fund. From then, he is said to have become the embodiment of the Christmas spirit and became a "second father" to Tiny Tim.