Do You Know Ebenezer Scrooge

II. Ebenezer Scrooge

The movie “A Christmas Carol” starts off with a glimpse of how Ebenezer is in the present day, a very cold and calculating man. He cares about only two things, making and saving money. Although it is freezing outside, he will only allow Bob Cratchet to place one lump of coal on the fire at a time. There were very few people that he cared anything about (on the surface) after his sister died and he went out of his way to let everyone know that he was too busy to be troubled by “their” issues. Let me tell you what happened to Ebenezer so we will be able to make the comparison to ourselves. Keep asking yourself, “Do I know Ebenezer Scrooge?”

• Introduction: On Christmas Eve when he arrives home to his cold, empty house, he prepares his meal to eat alone beside the fire. He is alone because he cares about no one and only one person (his nephew) cares about him. He is a very unhappy man who actually prefers to be alone. Our first impression of this man is that he is just a mean old man. However, what we see later is that he is just like each of us, a man who had been hurt and through the years built up several walls to protect himself.

• Visit From Mr. Marley: While he is eating, he receives a visitor from his old business partner, Mr. Marley. His business partner had been dead for several years and was being punished because of the way he had lived his life, not caring about anything but money. His purpose for visiting Ebenezer was to try and save him from the same fate that he himself had received. He told Ebenezer that he would be visited by three other spirits, Christmas Past, Present and Future. These spirits would help him find his way.

• Spirit of Christmas Past: The spirit of Christmas Past took him back through time when he was a little boy and through early adult hood. He began to remember happier times, those days before he became who he was at the present time. He also got the opportunity to see and revisit some of the things that had hurt him. He saw his father who had rejected him because his mother died giving birth to him. That rejection led him to a life of trying to prove his worth to his father with money becoming the way. He saw the time that he was in love and how he had chosen money over the true love of a woman. As he viewed all of these scenes, the walls that he had built up around him started to shake, yet he was not ready to bring the walls down. He did a good job of holding it together, but it was not as strong as it was before.

• Spirit of Christmas Present: This spirit gave him the opportunity to see what his life was truly like in the present. The spirit showed him that the fact that he cared about no one else and that he was losing sight of what was really important. He saw how people talked about him and what they really thought of him. He was able to see the life that his employee was trying to provide for his family with the little wages that he was making. When he saw his employee’s son, Tiny Tim, who was sick and he knew nothing about it, it struck him. He was reminded of how callous he had been toward those who had been sick and less fortunate than him, requesting that the sick go ahead and die and the poor go to what was known at the time as the poor house. By the end of the visit, he was starting to show concern for his employee’s son, Tiny Tim. He had seen his past and what he used to be. He had seen how he had started down the road to where he was at the present time. Now he was seeing where that road had taken him and what it all meant, nothing. Yes he tried to justify his actions by the money that he had earned and how successful he was, but in the things that counted, he had nothing. He was starting to realize his mistake. His walls were crumbling at their foundation. Cracks were starting to appear faster than he could patch them up. Then came the Spirit of Christmas future.