Ebenezer Scrooge
Arc
Initially a rigid and unfeeling miser who rejects all human connection, he begins to experience 'strange, inexplicable dread' and 'horror' following the visitation of Jacob Marley, leading him to fall upon his knees in terror.
Role
The protagonist and a miserly businessman who serves as the sole surviving partner of the firm Scrooge and Marley.
Dialogue
His speech is sharp, cynical, and dismissive. He frequently uses the exclamation 'Humbug!' to express his contempt for sentimentality or the supernatural. He speaks with a grating voice and often uses business-oriented metaphors to dismiss emotional appeals.
Appearance
He is a cold-featured old man with a pointed nose, shrivelled cheeks, and a stiffened gait. His eyes are red, his thin lips blue, and he speaks in a grating voice. He has a frosty rime on his head, eyebrows, and wiry chin.
Background
He was the business partner, sole executor, administrator, and friend of Jacob Marley, who died seven years prior to the narrative. He has operated his counting-house for many years and lives in the gloomy suite of rooms formerly occupied by Marley.
Motivations
His primary focus is business, profit, and the balancing of his books. He desires to be left alone and avoids any social or charitable obligations, particularly those associated with Christmas.
Personality
He is a tight-fisted, squeezing, grasping, scraping, clutching, and covetous old sinner. He is solitary as an oyster, secretive, and self-contained, preferring to keep all human sympathy at a distance. He is highly skeptical of the supernatural, initially dismissing ghostly phenomena as 'humbug' or the result of indigestion.
Social Class
A member of the wealthy merchant class/bourgeoisie; he is a man of business whose name is 'good upon ’Change' and who looks down upon the poor and his own low-earning clerk.
Moral Alignment
Misanthropic and greedy; he refuses to provide for the poor, claiming his taxes already support the prisons and workhouses, and believes the destitute should die to 'decrease the surplus population.'
Spiritual Burden
According to Marley's Ghost, Scrooge bears an invisible, ponderous chain forged in life, which was already as heavy and long as Marley's seven years ago and has been labored upon since.
Supernatural Nature
A mortal man who becomes a witness to the invisible world, capable of seeing phantoms and spirits that are invisible to others.
Supernatural Abilities
He possesses the 'glimpse of the Invisible World,' allowing him to see the face of his dead partner in a door knocker and perceive a locomotive hearse and wandering phantoms in the air.