Editing Ebenezer Scrooge (section)

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

Ebenezer Lennox {{Not a typo|Scroggie}} was supposedly a merchant from [[Edinburgh]] who won a catering contract for [[King George IV]]'s [[Visit of King George IV to Scotland|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 "[[Flour|meal]] man" ([[grain trade|grain merchant]]) but misread it as "mean man."<ref>{{cite news|title=Revealed: the Scot who inspired Dickens' Scrooge|date=24 December 2004|work=The Scotsman|url=https://www.scotsman.com/news-2-15012/revealed-the-scot-who-inspired-dickens-scrooge-1-571985|access-date=2020-01-14|quote=Details of Scroggie’s life are sparse, but he was a vintner as well as a corn merchant.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/4y78YB9vVMG1xYrW8CmzjPw/that-ebenezer-geezer-who-was-the-real-scrooge|title=BBC Arts – That Ebenezer geezer... who was the real Scrooge?|website=BBC|access-date=2016-04-30}}</ref> This theory has been described as "a probable Dickens hoax" for which "[n]o one could find any corroborating evidence".<ref>{{Cite news|first=Rowan|last=Pelling|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/charles-dickens/9066840/Mr-Punch-is-still-knocking-them-dead-after-350-years.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/charles-dickens/9066840/Mr-Punch-is-still-knocking-them-dead-after-350-years.html |archive-date=11 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Mr Punch is still knocking them dead after 350 years|work=[[The Daily Telegraph|The Telegraph]]|date=February 7, 2014|access-date=June 16, 2017|language=en}}{{cbignore}}</ref> There is no record of anyone named Scroggie in the Edinburgh census returns of the period.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Melvin |first1=Eric |title=A Walk Through Edinburgh's New Town |date=2014 |location=Scotland |publisher=[Not credited] |isbn=9781500122010 |page=63}}</ref> [[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 model for Scrooge.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Silence|first1=Rebecca|title=Gloucester History Tour|date=2015|publisher=Amberley Publishing Limited|page=40}}</ref> The man whom Dickens eventually mentions in [[Letters of Charles Dickens|his letters]]<ref>{{cite book|last=Dickens|first=Charles|title=The Letters of Charles Dickens|date=1999|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|editor1-last=House|editor1-first=Madeline|location=Oxford, England|page=7|chapter=Letter to George Holsworth, 18 January 1865|author-link=Charles Dickens|editor2-last=Storey|editor2-first=Graham|editor3-last=Brown|editor3-first=Margaret|editor4-last=Tillotson|editor4-first=Kathleen}}</ref> and who strongly resembles the character portrayed by Dickens' illustrator, [[John Leech (caricaturist)|John Leech]], was a noted [[British people|British]] eccentric and [[miser]] named [[John Elwes (politician)|John Elwes]] (1714–1789).{{Citation needed|date=December 2021}} Another suggested inspiration for the character of Scrooge is [[Daniel Dancer]], who Dickens mentions, along with Elwes, in ''[[Our Mutual Friend]]''.

It has been suggested that he chose the name [[Ebenezer (given name)|Ebenezer]] ("stone (of) help") to reflect the help given to Scrooge to change his life.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Kincaid|first1=Cheryl Anne|title=Hearing the Gospel through Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol"|publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing|location=Cambridge, England|date=2009|pages=7–8|edition=2|isbn=978-1443817981|url=http://www.cambridgescholars.com/download/sample/59020|access-date=24 December 2014|archive-date=4 June 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170604233836/http://www.cambridgescholars.com/download/sample/59020|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite news|first=Richard|last=Pearson|title=Why did Charles Dickens invent Scrooge?|url=https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/education/why-did-charles-dickens-invent-scrooge-30815235.html|date=December 9, 2014|access-date=November 30, 2020|newspaper=[[The Independent]]|language=en|quote=Scrooge is also a real word. Spelled slightly differently, 'scrouge' 'scrowge' or 'scroodge' is an old word meaning to squeeze someone, to encroach on their space, making them feel uncomfortable...}}</ref> Commentators have suggested that the surname was partly inspired by the word "scrouge", meaning "crowd" or "squeeze", which was in use in the early 1800s.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web|last=Cereno|first=Benito|date=December 14, 2018|title=The real man who inspired Ebenezer Scrooge|url=https://www.grunge.com/140628/the-real-man-who-inspired-ebenezer-scrooge/|access-date=November 30, 2020|website=Grunge.com|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Definition of SCROUGE|url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/scrouge|access-date=2020-11-30|website=www.merriam-webster.com|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Why did Charles Dickens choose the name Ebenezer Scrooge?|url=https://www.londonguidedwalks.co.uk/blog/why-did-charles-dickens-choose-the-name-ebenezer-scrooge-|access-date=November 30, 2020|website=www.londonguidedwalks.co.uk|quote=The word is also a blend of ‘scrouge’ the verb to squeeze or to press, used 1820–1830 (itself being a blend of crew and bruise) and gouge...}}</ref>

Kelly writes that Scrooge may have been influenced by Dickens' conflicting feelings for his father, whom he loved and demonised. This psychological conflict may be responsible for the two radically different Scrooges in the tale—one a cold, stingy recluse, the other a benevolent, loving man.{{sfn|Kelly|2003|p=14}} Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, a professor of [[English literature]], considers that in the opening part of the book portraying young Scrooge's lonely and unhappy childhood, and his aspiration to rise from poverty to riches "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.{{sfn|Douglas-Fairhurst|2006|p=xix}}

One school of thought is that Dickens based Scrooge's views of the poor on those of [[political economist]] and demographer [[Thomas Malthus]], as evidenced by his callous attitude towards the "surplus population".<ref name="ELWREF">{{cite web|last1=Elwell|first1=Frank W.|title=Reclaiming Malthus|url=http://www.faculty.rsu.edu/users/f/felwell/www/Theorists/Malthus/reclaim.htm|publisher=Rogers State University|access-date=13 January 2017|date=2 November 2001|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170324221035/http://www.faculty.rsu.edu/users/f/felwell/www/Theorists/Malthus/reclaim.htm|archive-date=24 March 2017}}</ref><ref name="Simon & Schuster">{{cite book|last1=Nasar|first1=Sylvia|title=Grand pursuit : the story of economic genius|date=2011|publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]]|location=New York City|isbn=978-0-684-87298-8|pages=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780684872988/page/3 3–10]|edition=1st Simon & Schuster hardcover|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780684872988/page/3}}</ref> "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?"{{sfn|Douglas-Fairhurst|2006|p=xiii}}{{efn|Carlyle's original question was written in his 1840 work ''Chartism''.{{sfn|Carlyle|1840|p=32}} }}

There are literary precursors for Scrooge in Dickens's own works. [[Peter Ackroyd]], Dickens's biographer, sees similarities between Scrooge and the title character of ''[[Martin Chuzzlewit]]'', although the latter is "a more fantastic image" than the former; Ackroyd observes that Chuzzlewit's transformation to a charitable man is parallel to that of Scrooge.{{sfn|Ackroyd|1990|p=409}} Douglas-Fairhurst sees that the minor character Gabriel Grub from ''The Pickwick Papers'' was also an influence when creating Scrooge.{{sfnm|1a1=Douglas-Fairhurst|1y=2006|1p=xviii|2a1=Alleyne|2y=2007}}{{efn|Grub's name came from a 19th&nbsp;century Dutch miser, Gabriel de Graaf, a morose gravedigger.{{sfn|Alleyne|2007}} }}