In His Biography of Charles Dickens, Edgar Johnson Writes...

A Christmas Carol’ is a novella written by Charles Dickens which illustrates a somewhat happy Christmas story that highlights the importance of being a kind hearted person. Throughout his novella, Dickens’s shows the reader his intended moral of the story, that Scrooge’s transformation at the end of the novella is what Dickens’s hopes that our world will too surely change. This is evident throughout the novella as he depicts Scrooge (before the conversion), the main character; to stand for all that Dickens is against. He also puts the idea of Utilitarianism into the way Scrooge acts at the start of the novella, which Dickens also seems to dislike. Dickens then goes on to describe Scrooge, after his conversion, in a different way to at the†¦show more content†¦Ã¢â‚¬ËœHe iced his office in the dog-days; and didn’t thaw it one degree at Christmas’. This quote, along with ‘†every idiot who goes about with ‘Merry Christm as,’ on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding†Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ are great examples from the book that show that Scrooge is an unloving and uncaring person, even around the time of Christmas. These ways that Dickens portrays Scrooge, as they are bad ways, make it clear that he is putting into Scrooge the traits and attitudes that Dickens does not like in a person, and when comparing them to Fred, show that people like Fred are much more liked. Dickens also plays with Scrooges character to depict the idea and consequences of Utilitarianism. Before the conversion of Scrooge, he is made out to be a man who only cares about money and nothing or nobody else. This is clear, as in Stave Two of the novella, the Ghost of Christmas Past takes Scrooge to where he used to work, and shows Scrooge how, Fezziwig his old boss, was easily able to bring happiness to many people, without spending a lot of money or having a lot of money at all. This helps Scrooge to realise that money may not really always bring happiness, and someone cannot live on loving money and hoping from happiness off their wealth. This is clear in the novella when Scrooge reflects on what he saw at Fezziwig’s, by saying ‘The happiness he gives, is quite as great as if it cost a fortune’. The Ghost of