Ebenezer Scrooge – What A Character! Scrooge is the writer’s ideal holiday gift. He comes with the kind of bountiful writing that unwraps straight into your creative heart. That is why Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is one of the best known and most popular stories in the world. Ebenezer teaches us how to get a dusting of that magic on our own storytelling shoes.
Ebenezer Scrooge has a Universal Theme. He is a holiday sparkling example of “How the Mighty Have Fallen.” Many of us create such characters ourselves. Dickens – the master storyteller – shows us how and why to move even deeper. Past a character’s downfall and on to “How the Mighty Have Fallen then Been Dragged Back Up Again.”
Ebenezer Scrooge is All About Redemption. In fact his story is one of Dramatic redemption because of the depth of the depravity pit into which he has plunged himself. His personal brand of human depravity has to do with compassion. He doesn’t seem to have any.
Ebenezer Scrooge Appears to Be Irredeemable. His perpetually scowling face. His heartless behavior. How scornfully he regards the caring world as a humbug. All are keys to his reader appeal. The more seemingly impossible the character’s redemption – the more dramatic the story. And drama – plus power and intensity – is the wellspring of storytelling success.
Ebenezer Scrooge is the Poster Boy for the Character We Love to Hate. Deep-down mean. Unrepentant. He betrays his beloved sister by disowning her son. He abandons his devoted fiance. He all but freezes his hardworking clerk out of their threadbare counting house. Nonetheless Dickens creates a believable protagonist – not a cartoon. Ebenezer Scrooge – What A Character!
Ebenezer Scrooge is Old Buddies with a Ghost. Not a happy and harmless Casper type ghost. A chain-clanking – shrieking – terrifying horror named Jacob Marley. Dead set – pun intended – on rattling Ebenezer out of his complacency into awareness of the doom he inevitably faces.
Ebenezer Scrooge Must Change. This is his story goal. It is also his problem – his inner conflict. He does not want to change. He is absolutely committed to his bad old ways. Dickens must dredge up some mega-dramatic story twist to reach Ebenezer’s darkly damaged soul and tell a powerful tale.
Ebenezer Scrooge is Haunted. A Christmas Carol is a redemption story but it is also a ghost story. Our heartless hero is forced by phantasms to witness himself. His past retreat from human feeling. His present coldness. How he affects other people and his world. The dire consequences ahead for him. Meanwhile the ghosts guide Ebenezer through fear to remorse and his own humanity.
Ebenezer Scrooge Rackets Us Relentlessly Forward. We tumble through tumultuous adventures at a whirlwind pace. We barrel toward a foreboding future – the vision of an untended grave. We race to keep up. All the way to the redemption of our formerly fallen hero. The perfect storytelling payoff.
Ebenezer Scrooge Does Not Disappoint. He gives us story satisfaction to the max. Joy so unrepressed it transforms his stony face into laughing eyes and a glorious grin. Generous deeds. Goodness and light. Life celebrated in every direction for everyone – including us. To which I say. Ebenezer Scrooge – What A Character! Thank you Mr. Dickens and “God Bless Us Every One.”
“Success is not final. Failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts.” Winston Churchill. “You possess storytelling magic. Keep on writing whatever may occur.” Alice Orr https://www.aliceorrbooks.com
Ask Alice Your Crucial Questions. What are you most eager to know about how to discover the strongest story characters you have in you? Ask your questions in the Comments section at the end of this post. Alice will answer.
Alice Orr. Teacher. Storyteller. Former Editor and Literary Agent. Author of 14 novels, 2 novellas, a memoir, and No More Rejections: 50 Secrets to Writing a Manuscript that Sells. She blogs for Writers at https://www.aliceorrbooks.com.
Celebrate the Season with Alice’s holiday novel A Vacancy at the Inn – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 3. Available HERE.
Praise for A Vacancy at the Inn. “Grabbed me right away and swept me up in the lives of Bethany and Luke.” “Undercurrents of suspense move the story along at an irresistible pace.” “The Miller family is rife with personality quirks, an authentic touch that demonstrates Alice Orr’s skill as a writer.” “I never want an Alice Orr book to end.”
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Love this. I have some dastardly deed doers in my story universe, and they are fun to redeem. 🙂 Happy holidays!
I’m so glad you focused on the redemption aspect of ‘A Christmas Carol’ because I’m working in a play that features a hateful, vindictive character who eventually comes to see all the grief he’s caused. I was having doubts about his transformation, thinking it might not be believable, but realize now that if change a villain like Scrooge is accepted, think my audience can accept my character’s change toward the light. So, thank you.
Hey Bob. It’s good to hear from you again. I always enjoy your comments very much. They are so insightful. As for redeeming characters. Those stories are immensely and even profoundly popular and evokative. Maybe because they reassure us that there is hope for us and everyone. We have all slipped up. Some of us have taken those slips straight over a cliff. We need to be redeemed. In fact I believe we long for it. So that is my philosophical/psychological/possibly even spiritual explanation of the popularity of the redemption story. My evidence is the bestseller lists and the lines at the box office as. We love a fallen hero who fights his or her way back. Scrambling/crawling/grasping the scenery. Intense suspense is created by the desperation of the struggle. Will it succeed or fail? You have a potential big winner on your hands with this project. Give it your all and I wish you the best of luck. Most of all – enjoy every second of. Blessings. Alice
Dear Bob. You have commented on my blog posts in the past. I invite you to explore my most recent series. It is titled “Oh No I’m a Caregiver – Dementia – Our Cautionary Story.” These posts are of special significance to me. Dementia appears to be a reality destined to assault all of our lives in one way or another eventually. I believe that the story I have to tell – through my initial post and others yet to come at https://www.aliceorrbooks.com – has valuable insights to offer. For this reason, I hope you will read it and pass it on to others so that they might benefit from what I am learning and from those insights.
For example… My husband Jonathan, who has recently been diagnosed with dementia, is actually quite fine at this early stage. He is engaged in lots of cognitively powerful activities. He writes original memoir pieces that are very good and says this is the result of sitting in on so many of my writing workshops over the past forty-five years. He now finds more joy in writing than the drawing and music that were his usual creative pursuits in the past. This is good because, as you know, portraying characters and composing scenes require a deep level of focus and detail concentration which is very beneficial for him. He also loves jigsaw puzzling – the 1500-piece variety. Again much concentration is required plus he has fond memory associations of doing puzzles with his mom when he was a boy. He also reads a lot – challenging books, as well as his favorite New York Times articles. He does regular physical exercise and has also begun gardening at our church which has a large planted space in sore need of attention. Medically, he is taking a basic drug that has disappeared his brain fog for the timebeing. We also have excellent medical professionals on our team and on our side.
Dementia is not like the tv commercials portray it to be. Their purpose is to ramp up fear and sell very expensive, very dangerous drugs. There is a long, gradual period before extreme changes begin, and the aggressiveness these ads emphasize can often be mitigated with simple mood medications that are harmless and affordable.
Meanwhile, there is a real-life story to be told here of real-life experience. I hope you will read and share it. Dementia is a reality for many of us and, unfortunately, promises to be a reality for many more. Truth is our best armor against being cast into despair by the prospect. I hope to add a little to that sustaining truth. Dementia is one of the many ways all of us will evolve from this life into whatever may lay beyond. Passing on is our universal destiny. Some of those passages involve discomfort and unpleasantness. We can perhaps be a bit better prepared if we understand realistically what to expect.
That is what our story – Jonathan’s and mine – is meant to do. Help others – in an honest and caring fashion – to be prepared. Love and Blessings. Alice