1 00:00:12,970 --> 00:00:16,370 Ebenezer Scrooge is more than just a character in a book. 2 00:00:16,930 --> 00:00:21,610 He is the reason many of us call a stingy person a real Scrooge 3 00:00:21,730 --> 00:00:26,410 without even thinking about it. His story has shaped how we talk 4 00:00:26,410 --> 00:00:30,650 about greed, generosity and the true spirit of Christmas for 5 00:00:30,650 --> 00:00:36,200 over 180 years. Welcome to the London History 6 00:00:36,200 --> 00:00:40,240 Podcast, where London's past comes alive in all its fog, 7 00:00:40,240 --> 00:00:44,560 firelight and festivity. Today we are stepping into the 8 00:00:44,560 --> 00:00:48,080 counting house shadows of the city to meet one of the most 9 00:00:48,080 --> 00:00:52,040 unforgettable figures in Victorian fiction, Ebenezer 10 00:00:52,040 --> 00:00:57,040 Scrooge, the man whose very name has become a shorthand for a 11 00:00:57,040 --> 00:01:03,560 cold heart and a closed purse. Hi, I am Hazel Baker, host of 12 00:01:03,560 --> 00:01:07,560 the London History Podcast and CEO and founder of London 13 00:01:07,560 --> 00:01:13,680 guidedwalks.co.uk. Scrooge may be fictional, but 14 00:01:13,680 --> 00:01:17,600 the world he stalks is absolutely real, rooted in the 15 00:01:17,600 --> 00:01:21,160 very streets, alleyways and offices of the Square Mile. 16 00:01:21,720 --> 00:01:24,840 Those are the same streets explored on my Christmas Carol 17 00:01:24,840 --> 00:01:28,040 walking tour, and that runs throughout December for both 18 00:01:28,040 --> 00:01:30,320 public groups and private bookings. 19 00:01:30,600 --> 00:01:33,800 And yes, there's even a walk on Christmas Eve. 20 00:01:35,120 --> 00:01:38,640 But before we begin examining the character of Ebenezer 21 00:01:38,640 --> 00:01:41,680 Scrooge, there's something absolutely brilliant about 22 00:01:41,680 --> 00:01:45,600 Charles Dickens choice of name that deserves our attention. 23 00:01:46,480 --> 00:01:51,240 You see, Dickens was a master of symbolism, and he didn't choose 24 00:01:51,240 --> 00:01:54,360 the name Ebenezer Scrooge by accident. 25 00:01:55,040 --> 00:02:00,800 Every syllable carries meaning. Let's start with Ebenezer. 26 00:02:01,440 --> 00:02:08,400 This is a Hebrew name, Eben ha Isa, which literally means stone 27 00:02:08,440 --> 00:02:12,120 of help. The word comes from 2 Hebrew 28 00:02:12,120 --> 00:02:16,920 roots, eben meaning stone and ASA meaning to help. 29 00:02:17,760 --> 00:02:22,000 In the Bible, Ebenezer refers to a memorial stone that the 30 00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:25,320 prophet Samuel set up after the Israelites defeated the 31 00:02:25,320 --> 00:02:29,000 Philistines. Samuel named it Ebenezer to 32 00:02:29,000 --> 00:02:33,200 commemorate God's help and deliverance, saying thus far the 33 00:02:33,200 --> 00:02:38,400 Lord has helped us. It's a name laden with spiritual 34 00:02:38,400 --> 00:02:43,280 significance, a stone of remembrance, a marker of divine 35 00:02:43,280 --> 00:02:49,000 aid, a symbol of salvation. And what is Dickens giving us? 36 00:02:49,600 --> 00:02:53,840 A man named for help, who refuses to help anyone. 37 00:02:54,640 --> 00:02:59,600 A man named for a memorial to God's mercy who shows no mercy 38 00:02:59,680 --> 00:03:04,400 whatsoever. It's a profoundly ironic choice. 39 00:03:04,840 --> 00:03:08,720 Dickens is suggesting that Scrooge has forgotten what his 40 00:03:08,800 --> 00:03:12,560 own name means. He has turned away from 41 00:03:12,720 --> 00:03:17,800 everything it represents. Now Scrooge. 42 00:03:18,200 --> 00:03:22,000 This is where Dickens's word play becomes even more clever. 43 00:03:22,480 --> 00:03:26,320 Scrooge is derived from the 18th century English colloquialism, 44 00:03:26,320 --> 00:03:31,640 Scrooge, which means to squeeze, to press, to screw, or to crowd. 45 00:03:32,360 --> 00:03:36,920 The word carries connotations of applying pressure, of extracting 46 00:03:36,920 --> 00:03:39,360 something from someone against their will. 47 00:03:39,920 --> 00:03:44,440 In fact, in 17th century landlord terminology, to screw 48 00:03:44,640 --> 00:03:48,760 meant to exhort rent from tenants to squeeze them for 49 00:03:48,800 --> 00:03:52,800 every penny. I wonder if we use that word 50 00:03:52,800 --> 00:03:58,040 today. Oh, this is explicit in 51 00:03:58,040 --> 00:04:01,240 Dickens's genius. A man whose surname literally 52 00:04:01,240 --> 00:04:06,840 means to squeeze into screw is a miser who squeezes every single 53 00:04:06,840 --> 00:04:09,840 penny and screws money from those beneath him. 54 00:04:10,840 --> 00:04:15,360 When Dickens chose the name Scrooge, he was making a direct 55 00:04:15,360 --> 00:04:19,200 play on the existing slang for a miser. 56 00:04:19,880 --> 00:04:24,080 In fact, the name so effective that within less than a year of 57 00:04:24,080 --> 00:04:27,840 the novellas publication, Scrooge became a generic term 58 00:04:28,120 --> 00:04:31,960 for any stingy person. It's a word that had been 59 00:04:31,960 --> 00:04:36,120 waiting in the English language for the perfect character to 60 00:04:36,120 --> 00:04:40,360 embody. And here we have Ebenezer 61 00:04:40,360 --> 00:04:46,600 Scrooge, a man named for help, who squeezes and screws those 62 00:04:46,600 --> 00:04:50,360 who need the help. His very name is a 63 00:04:50,440 --> 00:04:55,480 contradiction, and that contradiction is everything. 64 00:04:56,720 --> 00:05:01,680 Now let's talk about what Scrooge actually looks like, 65 00:05:02,040 --> 00:05:05,840 because Dickens physical description of his character is 66 00:05:05,840 --> 00:05:09,440 masterful. When we first meet Scrooge, 67 00:05:09,600 --> 00:05:13,760 Dickens doesn't just tell us he's miserly, he shows us 68 00:05:13,840 --> 00:05:18,720 through his appearance. Dickens describes him as a tight 69 00:05:18,720 --> 00:05:24,560 fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge A squeezing, wrenching, 70 00:05:24,560 --> 00:05:29,880 grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old Sinner, hard and 71 00:05:29,880 --> 00:05:34,000 sharp as Flint from which no steel has ever struck out. 72 00:05:34,000 --> 00:05:41,160 Generous fire, secret and self-contained and solitary as 73 00:05:41,360 --> 00:05:46,760 an oyster. That phrase, hard and sharp as 74 00:05:46,760 --> 00:05:50,040 Flint, is crucial. Flint is one of the hardest 75 00:05:50,040 --> 00:05:52,800 substances, impossible to shape or break. 76 00:05:53,320 --> 00:05:56,240 Flint is also the stone from which fire is struck. 77 00:05:56,240 --> 00:06:00,200 Yet Diggins tells us that no steel has ever struck generous 78 00:06:00,200 --> 00:06:04,160 fire from Scrooge. He's describing not just a man, 79 00:06:04,720 --> 00:06:10,720 but a soul from which warmth and generosity cannot be extracted. 80 00:06:12,480 --> 00:06:15,640 But the most vivid physical description comes in this 81 00:06:15,640 --> 00:06:20,760 passage. The cold within him froze his 82 00:06:20,760 --> 00:06:26,200 old features, nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek, 83 00:06:26,360 --> 00:06:32,640 stiffened his gait, made his eyes red and his thin lips blue, 84 00:06:33,080 --> 00:06:38,240 and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. 85 00:06:39,080 --> 00:06:43,400 A frosty rhyme was on his head and on his eyebrows and his wiry 86 00:06:43,400 --> 00:06:46,600 chin. He carried his own low 87 00:06:46,600 --> 00:06:49,160 temperature always about with him. 88 00:06:49,560 --> 00:06:54,480 He iced his office in the dog days and didn't thaw it once at 89 00:06:54,480 --> 00:06:59,320 Christmas. Picture this man, his face 90 00:06:59,320 --> 00:07:04,800 frozen by an internal coldness so profound that even external 91 00:07:04,800 --> 00:07:09,600 warmth cannot reach him. His nose is pointed, sharp like 92 00:07:09,600 --> 00:07:12,640 an instrument. His cheeks are shrivelled, as if 93 00:07:12,640 --> 00:07:15,120 the life has been sucked from them. 94 00:07:15,520 --> 00:07:20,920 His thin lips are blue, the colour of frostbite or one dying 95 00:07:20,920 --> 00:07:23,720 from cold. His gait is stiffened, 96 00:07:23,920 --> 00:07:29,200 suggesting rigidity and an inability to bend OR adapt. 97 00:07:29,800 --> 00:07:35,160 Even his chin is described as wiry, thin and hard as wire. 98 00:07:35,520 --> 00:07:38,840 And his voice is grating. It doesn't flow. 99 00:07:39,080 --> 00:07:47,400 It's grapes like stone on stone. What Dickens is doing here is 100 00:07:47,400 --> 00:07:51,480 extraordinary. He's externalizing Scrooge's 101 00:07:51,520 --> 00:07:55,760 internal state. That physical cold is not merely 102 00:07:55,760 --> 00:08:00,720 decoration, it's a manifestation of spiritual coldness. 103 00:08:01,000 --> 00:08:06,480 Scrooge doesn't just act coldly, He is cold from the inside out. 104 00:08:07,280 --> 00:08:12,200 Dickens tells us explicitly that no warmth could warm, no wintry 105 00:08:12,200 --> 00:08:17,160 weather chill him, no wind that blew was bitterer than he. 106 00:08:17,480 --> 00:08:23,600 No falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no pelting 107 00:08:23,600 --> 00:08:29,560 rain less open to entreaty. Scrooge has become 108 00:08:29,680 --> 00:08:32,919 indistinguishable from winter itself. 109 00:08:33,600 --> 00:08:38,320 He is ice embodied. The image of him icing his 110 00:08:38,320 --> 00:08:41,880 office in the dog days, the hottest part of the year, is 111 00:08:41,880 --> 00:08:46,880 both pathetic and powerful. Whilst everyone else is 112 00:08:46,880 --> 00:08:50,400 suffering from heat, Scrooge keeps his office frigid. 113 00:08:50,640 --> 00:08:55,200 It's if he can only be comfortable when others are 114 00:08:55,280 --> 00:09:00,840 uncomfortable, when the world is forced to match his internal 115 00:09:00,840 --> 00:09:04,560 temperature. Even the frosty rhyme in his 116 00:09:04,560 --> 00:09:08,360 head and eyebrows suggest that Scrooge is covered in frost, 117 00:09:08,960 --> 00:09:14,880 that death itself clings to him. He's not just cold, he's already 118 00:09:15,040 --> 00:09:18,080 partially frozen, already partially dead. 119 00:09:18,680 --> 00:09:24,200 This is a man who is allowed the warmth of life itself to drain 120 00:09:24,200 --> 00:09:29,360 away. When we first encounter Scrooge 121 00:09:29,360 --> 00:09:32,680 in Stave 1, Dickens doesn't hold back. 122 00:09:32,680 --> 00:09:36,720 He describes him as a tight fisted hand to the grindstone. 123 00:09:37,400 --> 00:09:41,040 The repetition are all those harsh verbs, squeezing, 124 00:09:41,040 --> 00:09:44,280 wrenching, grasping, screeching, clutching covenants. 125 00:09:45,120 --> 00:09:49,080 They create this relentless image of a man who takes and 126 00:09:49,080 --> 00:09:53,840 takes and never gives. But perhaps the most telling 127 00:09:53,840 --> 00:09:59,920 description is this. Scrooge is secret and 128 00:09:59,920 --> 00:10:04,680 self-contained and solitary as an oyster. 129 00:10:05,880 --> 00:10:09,680 Now, that oyster metaphor is fascinating when you think about 130 00:10:09,680 --> 00:10:12,120 it. An oyster has a hard shell 131 00:10:12,120 --> 00:10:14,520 protecting them, something soft inside. 132 00:10:14,880 --> 00:10:18,000 It's isolated, closed off from the world. 133 00:10:18,440 --> 00:10:21,280 And here's the irony. Oysters actually growing 134 00:10:21,280 --> 00:10:25,320 clusters not alone. Even in Dickens's description of 135 00:10:25,320 --> 00:10:29,720 Scrooge's isolation, there's a hint that this isn't natural, 136 00:10:30,200 --> 00:10:32,880 that it's not how things should be. 137 00:10:34,440 --> 00:10:38,840 Dickens tells us that external heat and cold had little 138 00:10:38,840 --> 00:10:43,560 influence on Scrooge. No warmth could warm, no wintry 139 00:10:43,560 --> 00:10:47,080 weather chill him. It's as if Scrooge has made 140 00:10:47,080 --> 00:10:50,800 himself immune to feeling not just the weather, but to human 141 00:10:50,800 --> 00:10:55,360 warmth and connection. The pathetic fallacy here is 142 00:10:55,440 --> 00:11:00,040 brilliant. Scrooge has become like winter. 143 00:11:00,280 --> 00:11:05,560 It's stealth, cold, harsh and unyielding. 144 00:11:06,600 --> 00:11:11,560 He's a walking embodiment of emotional death. 145 00:11:13,920 --> 00:11:16,560 Now let's talk about Scrooge's relationship with his deceased 146 00:11:16,600 --> 00:11:21,560 business partner, Jacob Marley. The novella opens with the 147 00:11:21,560 --> 00:11:25,960 famous line Marley was dead to begin with. 148 00:11:27,240 --> 00:11:31,880 Scrooge and Marley were partners for I don't know how many years, 149 00:11:32,200 --> 00:11:37,440 and when Marley died, Scrooge was his sole executor, his sole 150 00:11:37,440 --> 00:11:43,600 administrator, his sole aside, his sole residency legacy, his 151 00:11:43,600 --> 00:11:50,680 sole friend and sole mourner. That word soul is repeated 7 152 00:11:50,960 --> 00:11:56,000 times, emphasising just how isolated both men were. 153 00:11:56,880 --> 00:12:00,120 And here's the kicker. Dickens tells us that Scrooge 154 00:12:00,120 --> 00:12:03,960 was not so dreadfully cut up by the sad event. 155 00:12:05,200 --> 00:12:09,160 Even at his partner's funeral, Scrooge solemnised it with an 156 00:12:09,160 --> 00:12:13,320 undoubted bargain. Their relationship wasn't built 157 00:12:13,320 --> 00:12:15,400 on infection or genuine friendship. 158 00:12:15,720 --> 00:12:19,920 It was purely transactional, purely about business. 159 00:12:21,880 --> 00:12:24,920 When Marley's ghost appears up to Scrooge on Christmas Eve, 160 00:12:25,160 --> 00:12:29,480 wrapped in chains made of cash boxes, keys, padlocks, ledgers, 161 00:12:29,480 --> 00:12:34,280 deeds and heavy purses wrought in steel, Scrooge tries to 162 00:12:34,280 --> 00:12:38,600 comfort him by saying, You're always a good man of business, 163 00:12:38,600 --> 00:12:41,600 Jacob. And this is where we get one of 164 00:12:41,600 --> 00:12:44,960 the most powerful exchanges in the entire novella. 165 00:12:45,880 --> 00:12:48,000 Marley's ghost cries out. Business. 166 00:12:48,200 --> 00:12:52,640 Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my 167 00:12:52,640 --> 00:12:56,520 business. Charity, mercy, forbearance, and 168 00:12:56,520 --> 00:12:59,640 benevolence were all my business. 169 00:13:00,320 --> 00:13:04,360 The dealings of my trade were put a drop of water in the 170 00:13:04,360 --> 00:13:07,520 comprehensive ocean of my business. 171 00:13:08,680 --> 00:13:13,960 And Mrs. Dickens's central moral argument that we have a 172 00:13:13,960 --> 00:13:17,840 responsibility to humanity, not just to profit. 173 00:13:18,640 --> 00:13:22,760 Marley warns Scrooge that he too wears chains, even heavier 174 00:13:22,760 --> 00:13:25,400 chains that have grown in the seven years since Marley's 175 00:13:25,400 --> 00:13:28,080 death. But here's what's important. 176 00:13:28,640 --> 00:13:33,360 Scrooge can't see his own change yet he's still blind to the 177 00:13:33,360 --> 00:13:40,520 consequences of his choice. To understand who Scrooge 178 00:13:40,520 --> 00:13:44,120 became, we need to look at where he came from. 179 00:13:44,560 --> 00:13:48,240 And this is where the character becomes truly sympathetic. 180 00:13:49,720 --> 00:13:52,720 When the Ghost of Christmas Past takes Scrooge back to his 181 00:13:52,720 --> 00:13:57,720 childhood, we see him as a solitary child neglected by his 182 00:13:57,720 --> 00:14:00,440 friends. The boy Scrooge spent Christmas 183 00:14:00,440 --> 00:14:03,640 alone at boarding school whilst all the other children went 184 00:14:03,640 --> 00:14:07,200 home. Dickens shows us young Scrooge 185 00:14:07,200 --> 00:14:11,600 sitting alone reading books to escape his loneliness, and we 186 00:14:11,680 --> 00:14:15,520 learn from his sister Fan that their father is much kinder than 187 00:14:15,520 --> 00:14:18,920 he used to be, implying that Scrooge's father has sent him 188 00:14:18,920 --> 00:14:24,400 away, perhaps rejected him, and this is a childhood trauma, pure 189 00:14:24,560 --> 00:14:28,480 and simple. Scrooge experienced abandonment 190 00:14:28,760 --> 00:14:33,320 and rejection at a formative age, and the only person who 191 00:14:33,320 --> 00:14:36,600 showed Scrooge consistent love was his sister Fan. 192 00:14:37,680 --> 00:14:39,920 She came to the boarding school to bring him home, saying 193 00:14:39,920 --> 00:14:43,320 joyfully, we're to be together all the Christmas long and cut 194 00:14:43,440 --> 00:14:45,880 merriest time in all over the world. 195 00:14:47,280 --> 00:14:51,400 When the older Scrooge sees this memory, he's, he's deeply moved. 196 00:14:51,880 --> 00:14:57,760 The ghost tells him that Fan had a large heart, and Scrooge weeps 197 00:14:59,240 --> 00:15:02,680 tragically. Fan died young and he's Fred's 198 00:15:02,680 --> 00:15:08,000 mother, Scrooge's nephew, and this is another loss, another 199 00:15:08,040 --> 00:15:11,120 wound. Is it any wonder that Scrooge 200 00:15:11,120 --> 00:15:16,080 closed himself off? He lost the one person who truly 201 00:15:16,080 --> 00:15:19,600 loved him. You could argue that Scrooge's 202 00:15:19,600 --> 00:15:24,520 miserliness isn't about greed. It's a defence mechanism, a way 203 00:15:24,520 --> 00:15:28,080 to protect himself from ever being hurt again. 204 00:15:31,720 --> 00:15:35,320 One of the most touching scenes in Stave 2 is when Scrooge 205 00:15:35,320 --> 00:15:39,000 revisits his time, has a young apprentice working for Mr. 206 00:15:39,000 --> 00:15:43,000 Fesiwig. Fesiwig is everything Scrooge 207 00:15:43,000 --> 00:15:48,320 later becomes incapable of being generous, jolly, kind to his 208 00:15:48,320 --> 00:15:51,840 employees. On Christmas Eve, Fezziwig 209 00:15:51,840 --> 00:15:56,040 shouts No war work tonight, Christmas Eve Dick, Christmas 210 00:15:56,040 --> 00:15:59,840 Eve Ebenezer, and throws A magnificent party for all his 211 00:15:59,840 --> 00:16:02,760 workers and their families. And I think we'd like to be 212 00:16:02,760 --> 00:16:06,680 there too. The Ghost of Christmas Past asks 213 00:16:06,680 --> 00:16:11,120 Scrooge why everyone is so grateful when Fizzywig has spent 214 00:16:11,120 --> 00:16:15,640 but a few pounds of your mortal money. 3 or 4, perhaps. 215 00:16:16,280 --> 00:16:19,440 And this is where we see a crack in Scrooge's armour. 216 00:16:19,960 --> 00:16:23,480 He responds passionately. It isn't that spirit. 217 00:16:23,960 --> 00:16:28,040 He has the power to render us happy or unhappy, to make our 218 00:16:28,040 --> 00:16:32,600 service light or burdensome, a pleasure or a toil. 219 00:16:33,640 --> 00:16:37,840 The happiness he gives is quite as great as if it cost a 220 00:16:37,840 --> 00:16:41,240 fortune. In that moment, Scrooge 221 00:16:41,240 --> 00:16:44,960 remembers what it felt like to work for someone who valued his 222 00:16:44,960 --> 00:16:47,800 humanity. He begins to think about his own 223 00:16:47,800 --> 00:16:51,960 clerk, Bob Cratchit, shivering in a dismal little cell with a 224 00:16:51,960 --> 00:16:55,520 fire so small it looked like 1 coal. 225 00:16:56,880 --> 00:16:59,840 The contrast is stark and deliberate. 226 00:17:00,720 --> 00:17:05,960 Beziwig represents what Scrooge could have been, businessman who 227 00:17:05,960 --> 00:17:10,720 understood that true wealth lies in human connection, not gold. 228 00:17:12,560 --> 00:17:16,200 This is a crucial moment in understanding Scrooge's tragedy. 229 00:17:16,880 --> 00:17:21,160 He once knew what kindness felt like, what generosity looked 230 00:17:21,160 --> 00:17:24,040 like. Yep, somewhere along the way he 231 00:17:24,040 --> 00:17:27,359 chose a different path. The memory of Fezziwig's 232 00:17:27,359 --> 00:17:31,480 generosity then becomes almost unbearable for Scrooge to 233 00:17:31,480 --> 00:17:35,520 witness because it reminds him of the man he abandoned. 234 00:17:38,560 --> 00:17:41,840 Perhaps the most devastating relationship in Scrooge's life 235 00:17:42,160 --> 00:17:46,440 is his broken engagement to bow. When we meet her in Scrooge's 236 00:17:46,440 --> 00:17:51,360 memories, she's ending their engagement and her words cut to 237 00:17:51,360 --> 00:17:53,720 the heart of who Scrooge has become. 238 00:17:54,640 --> 00:18:00,560 Bell tells him Another idol has displaced me, a golden one. 239 00:18:01,440 --> 00:18:05,360 She explains that when they were first in love, we were both poor 240 00:18:05,360 --> 00:18:09,960 and content to be so, but that Scrooge has changed. 241 00:18:10,240 --> 00:18:15,000 His nobler aspirations have fallen away 1 by 1 until the 242 00:18:15,000 --> 00:18:20,720 master passion gain engrosses you and Dickens has capitalised 243 00:18:20,720 --> 00:18:22,920 the word gain, and that's significant. 244 00:18:23,160 --> 00:18:26,200 It's as if greed has become a rival God. 245 00:18:27,960 --> 00:18:30,880 Scrooge protests. What then? 246 00:18:31,320 --> 00:18:34,360 Even if I had grown so much wiser, what then? 247 00:18:34,760 --> 00:18:38,920 I'm not changed towards you. But Belle knows better. 248 00:18:39,400 --> 00:18:42,160 She says suddenly. You are changed. 249 00:18:43,000 --> 00:18:47,840 Our contract is an old one. I release you with a full heart 250 00:18:47,840 --> 00:18:50,080 for the love of him you once were. 251 00:18:51,120 --> 00:18:56,400 This is heartbreaking because Belle isn't leaving out of 252 00:18:56,400 --> 00:19:00,880 anger, she's leaving out of love, out of grief for the man 253 00:19:00,880 --> 00:19:05,000 Scrooge used to be. The ghost then shows Scrooge a 254 00:19:05,000 --> 00:19:07,840 later scene where Belle is happily married with children 255 00:19:08,080 --> 00:19:13,280 and her husband mentioned Scrooge quite alone in the world 256 00:19:13,280 --> 00:19:18,120 I do believe, and that is what Scrooge sacrificed for wealth, a 257 00:19:18,120 --> 00:19:23,840 family love connection, and he knows it. 258 00:19:24,200 --> 00:19:29,880 Watching this scene, Scrooge cries out, Remove me, I cannot 259 00:19:29,880 --> 00:19:33,880 bear it. And Belle represents that road 260 00:19:33,880 --> 00:19:36,520 not taken. The life Scrooge might have led. 261 00:19:37,280 --> 00:19:39,520 She wasn't a woman who required wealth. 262 00:19:39,880 --> 00:19:43,520 She asked for nothing but his love and his presence. 263 00:19:44,040 --> 00:19:48,920 And in choosing money over love, Scrooge made a choice that would 264 00:19:48,920 --> 00:19:57,040 haunt him for decades. Fred, Scrooge's nephew, is Fan's 265 00:19:57,040 --> 00:20:00,960 son and therefore Scrooge's only living relative. 266 00:20:01,800 --> 00:20:05,640 Every Christmas, Fred comes to invite Scrooge to dinner, and 267 00:20:05,640 --> 00:20:10,280 every year Scrooge refuses. At the beginning of the story, 268 00:20:10,280 --> 00:20:14,040 when Fred wishes him a Merry Christmas, Uncle God save you, 269 00:20:14,400 --> 00:20:17,960 Scrooge responds with his famous bar humbug. 270 00:20:18,680 --> 00:20:23,280 When Fred asks why Scrooge is so opposed to Christmas, Scrooge 271 00:20:23,280 --> 00:20:27,760 launches into a tirade. Christmas time to you, but a 272 00:20:27,760 --> 00:20:31,560 time for paying bills without money, A time for finding 273 00:20:31,560 --> 00:20:34,800 yourself a year older but not an hour richer. 274 00:20:35,280 --> 00:20:39,040 He even says that every idiot who goes about with many 275 00:20:39,040 --> 00:20:42,200 Christmas on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding, 276 00:20:42,200 --> 00:20:45,320 buried with a stake of holic through his heart. 277 00:20:46,440 --> 00:20:51,440 It's violent irritory, turning symbols of celebration into 278 00:20:51,440 --> 00:20:56,320 weapons of content. But Fred doesn't give up. 279 00:20:56,800 --> 00:21:00,600 He explains his philosophy. I've always thought of Christmas 280 00:21:00,600 --> 00:21:05,040 time as a a good time, a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant 281 00:21:05,040 --> 00:21:09,120 time when men and women seem to be well content to open their 282 00:21:09,120 --> 00:21:12,560 shutter parts freely and to think of people below them as 283 00:21:12,800 --> 00:21:15,760 they really were. Fellow passengers to the grave. 284 00:21:16,480 --> 00:21:20,160 That phrase fellow passengers to the grave is beautiful. 285 00:21:20,760 --> 00:21:25,280 It suggests that we're all in this together, all heading to 286 00:21:25,280 --> 00:21:28,960 the same destination. It's a profoundly democratic 287 00:21:28,960 --> 00:21:32,360 sentiment in an era of rigid class hierarchy. 288 00:21:33,280 --> 00:21:37,960 Fred even asks Scrooge, I want nothing from you, I ask nothing 289 00:21:37,960 --> 00:21:40,320 of you, why cannot we be friends? 290 00:21:40,920 --> 00:21:45,480 But Scrooge keeps saying good afternoon until Fred leaves, his 291 00:21:45,480 --> 00:21:49,600 warmth and generosity rejected by his uncle's coldness. 292 00:21:51,360 --> 00:21:54,560 Why does Scrooge reject Fred so completely? 293 00:21:55,480 --> 00:21:58,720 Some scholars suggest that Fred reminds Scrooge of his beloved 294 00:21:58,720 --> 00:22:01,720 sister Fan, who's death still pains him. 295 00:22:02,480 --> 00:22:05,320 Rather than embrace the last connection to the person he 296 00:22:05,320 --> 00:22:07,760 loved most, Scrooge pushes Fred away. 297 00:22:07,760 --> 00:22:11,600 And another act of self protection, another wall built 298 00:22:11,600 --> 00:22:15,360 to keep the world at a distance. And that might be true in the 299 00:22:15,360 --> 00:22:19,360 beginning, in the first years of the invites, but I think by now 300 00:22:19,360 --> 00:22:22,760 he has painted himself into a corner and he just doesn't know 301 00:22:22,760 --> 00:22:27,440 how to get out. Now let's tackle 1 of Scrooge's 302 00:22:27,440 --> 00:22:31,600 most notorious statements. When 2 charity collectors come 303 00:22:31,600 --> 00:22:34,520 to his office asking for donations to help the poor at 304 00:22:34,520 --> 00:22:41,320 Christmas, Scrooge asks coldly. Are there new prisons and the 305 00:22:41,320 --> 00:22:45,920 union workhouses? Are they still in operation? 306 00:22:47,280 --> 00:22:50,440 When the gentleman explained that many can't go there and 307 00:22:50,600 --> 00:22:56,520 many would rather die, Scrooge delivers this chilling response. 308 00:22:57,280 --> 00:23:01,120 If they would rather die, they had better do it and decrease 309 00:23:01,120 --> 00:23:06,840 the surplus population. The phrase surplus population 310 00:23:06,840 --> 00:23:10,680 comes from Thomas Maltus, an economist who argued that 311 00:23:10,680 --> 00:23:15,800 population growth would outstrip food supply and that poverty and 312 00:23:15,800 --> 00:23:19,000 death were natural checks in overpopulation. 313 00:23:20,160 --> 00:23:23,040 Dickens despised this philosophy. 314 00:23:23,520 --> 00:23:27,880 By putting these words in Scrooge's mouth, he's critiquing 315 00:23:27,880 --> 00:23:31,160 the heartless economic theories of his time. 316 00:23:32,600 --> 00:23:37,080 What's crucial to understand is that in Victorian England, 317 00:23:37,360 --> 00:23:41,400 workhouses were generally horrific places, and I do cover 318 00:23:41,400 --> 00:23:48,600 this more in my previous episode 143 of the Twists London in 319 00:23:48,600 --> 00:23:52,280 1861. Bearing in mind A Christmas 320 00:23:52,280 --> 00:23:56,640 Carol is written in 1843. But this gives you an idea. 321 00:23:57,080 --> 00:24:02,480 In 186135 thousand children under 12 lived and worked in 322 00:24:02,480 --> 00:24:05,880 workhouses in Britain, and these are under brutal conditions, 323 00:24:05,880 --> 00:24:08,720 poor food, harsh discipline, hard labour. 324 00:24:09,800 --> 00:24:13,360 When Scrooge suggests that the poor should go to prisons or 325 00:24:13,360 --> 00:24:16,560 workhouses, he's essentially saying that they should be 326 00:24:16,560 --> 00:24:20,960 punished for their poverty. It's a grotesque moral 327 00:24:20,960 --> 00:24:23,840 inversion. The poor are not the problem, 328 00:24:24,480 --> 00:24:28,280 the system is. But here's what's important. 329 00:24:28,960 --> 00:24:32,200 Dickens isn't letting us simply hate Scrooge for this. 330 00:24:32,680 --> 00:24:35,200 Later, when the ghost of Christmas Present shows Scrooge 331 00:24:35,200 --> 00:24:39,840 the dying Tiny Tim, the ghost throws Scrooge's words back at 332 00:24:39,840 --> 00:24:43,120 him. If he'd be like to die, he'd 333 00:24:43,120 --> 00:24:46,080 better do it and decrease the surplus population. 334 00:24:46,680 --> 00:24:50,120 And Scrooge is overcome with penitence and grief. 335 00:24:50,560 --> 00:24:54,200 He finally understands that the surplus population he spoke of 336 00:24:54,200 --> 00:24:56,760 so dismissively represents real people. 337 00:24:57,360 --> 00:25:02,240 People like Tiny Tim, innocent children who deserve compassion, 338 00:25:02,400 --> 00:25:07,200 not contempt. And that leads us to Bob 339 00:25:07,200 --> 00:25:11,520 Cratchit, who works in Scrooge's office in what's described as a 340 00:25:11,520 --> 00:25:16,120 dismal little cell, the metaphor of a cell suggesting 341 00:25:16,120 --> 00:25:19,200 imprisonment. And Bob is trapped in this job 342 00:25:19,720 --> 00:25:23,440 because he needs it to survive, even though Scrooge treats him 343 00:25:23,440 --> 00:25:27,640 terribly on Christmas Eve. When Bob asks for the day off, 344 00:25:27,960 --> 00:25:32,720 Scrooge grudgingly agrees, but says you'll want all day 345 00:25:32,720 --> 00:25:35,320 tomorrow. I suppose if if quite 346 00:25:35,320 --> 00:25:38,840 convenient, Sir. It's not convenient and it's not 347 00:25:38,840 --> 00:25:42,760 fair. He calls it a poor excuse for 348 00:25:42,760 --> 00:25:45,640 picking a man's pocket every 25th of December. 349 00:25:47,000 --> 00:25:50,760 The calculation is cruel. He's suggesting that giving Bob 350 00:25:50,760 --> 00:25:56,520 Christmas Day off is somehow A to him, a deprivation of his 351 00:25:56,520 --> 00:26:01,680 earnings. Scrooge keeps Bob's far so small 352 00:26:01,720 --> 00:26:07,040 that it looked like one call, and when Bob tries to add more 353 00:26:07,040 --> 00:26:10,320 coal, Scrooge threatens him with dismissal. 354 00:26:11,600 --> 00:26:16,160 Bob earns 15 shillings a week and has a wife and family barely 355 00:26:16,160 --> 00:26:19,400 enough to survive. He's trapped in an economic 356 00:26:19,400 --> 00:26:23,200 system where his employer holds all the power, and he has no 357 00:26:23,200 --> 00:26:25,880 choice but to endure Scrooge's abuse. 358 00:26:26,560 --> 00:26:29,360 Yep. Despite this treatment, Bob 359 00:26:29,360 --> 00:26:33,840 remains loyal and humble. On Christmas Day, when his 360 00:26:33,840 --> 00:26:37,560 family is enjoying their meagre feast, Bob proposes a toast. 361 00:26:38,120 --> 00:26:42,080 I'll give you Mr. Scrooge, the founder of the Beast. 362 00:26:42,440 --> 00:26:44,480 His wife objects under the feast. 363 00:26:44,480 --> 00:26:47,840 Indeed, I wish I had him here. I'll give him a piece of my mind 364 00:26:47,840 --> 00:26:50,840 to feast upon. But Bob insists on being 365 00:26:50,840 --> 00:26:54,240 generous, even to the man who exploits him, showing his 366 00:26:54,240 --> 00:26:58,120 gentle, forgiving nature. When Scrooge visits the 367 00:26:58,120 --> 00:27:02,000 Crutchet's home with the Ghost of Christmas Present, he sees 368 00:27:02,000 --> 00:27:07,760 what his miserliness has cost. Tiny Tim, Bob's disabled son, is 369 00:27:07,760 --> 00:27:12,040 dying because the family can't afford proper medical care. 370 00:27:12,640 --> 00:27:14,920 Bob carries Tiny Tim on his shoulder. 371 00:27:15,320 --> 00:27:18,880 The boy is too weak to walk. After the three spirits show 372 00:27:18,880 --> 00:27:23,520 Scrooge his past, present, and future, he undergoes a complete 373 00:27:23,520 --> 00:27:26,800 transformation. When he wakes on Christmas 374 00:27:26,800 --> 00:27:28,920 morning, he's literally a different person. 375 00:27:28,920 --> 00:27:31,760 He cries out. I am light as a further I am as 376 00:27:31,760 --> 00:27:35,400 happy as an Angel. I am as merry as a schoolboy. 377 00:27:36,280 --> 00:27:39,240 The repetition of similes emphasises his joy. 378 00:27:39,240 --> 00:27:42,480 He feels reborn, as if the weight of decades has been 379 00:27:42,480 --> 00:27:47,080 lifted from his shoulders. And crucially, Scrooge doesn't 380 00:27:47,080 --> 00:27:49,560 feel different. He acts different. 381 00:27:49,760 --> 00:27:53,240 He immediately buys the biggest Turkey he can find and sends it 382 00:27:53,240 --> 00:27:56,680 anonymously to the Cratchit. He gives a generous donation to 383 00:27:56,680 --> 00:27:59,200 the charity collectors he'd spurned the day before. 384 00:27:59,360 --> 00:28:02,080 He goes to Fred's Christmas dinner, where he's welcomed 385 00:28:02,080 --> 00:28:04,520 warmly despite his previous rejection. 386 00:28:05,160 --> 00:28:10,160 For the first time in years, Scrooge belongs somewhere, is 387 00:28:10,200 --> 00:28:14,360 part of a family. The next day, when Bob arrives 388 00:28:14,360 --> 00:28:18,480 late to work, terrified of losing his job, Scrooge pretends 389 00:28:18,480 --> 00:28:21,800 to be angry, then breaks into laughter and says, Oh Merry 390 00:28:21,800 --> 00:28:24,400 Christmas Bob, a merry a Christmas. 391 00:28:24,400 --> 00:28:28,280 Bob, my good fellow that I'd given you for many a year, I'll 392 00:28:28,280 --> 00:28:31,360 raise your summary and endeavour to insist your struggling 393 00:28:31,360 --> 00:28:34,560 family. He becomes like a second father 394 00:28:34,560 --> 00:28:38,400 to Tiny Tim, ensuring the boy receives the medical care he 395 00:28:38,400 --> 00:28:42,920 needs. Dickens ends by telling us that 396 00:28:42,920 --> 00:28:47,200 Scrooge was better than his word, meaning he exceeded even 397 00:28:47,200 --> 00:28:51,400 his own promises of generosity. And the final words of the 398 00:28:51,400 --> 00:28:53,480 novella? A Tiny Tim's blessing. 399 00:28:54,200 --> 00:28:59,160 God bless us everyone. A message of universal love and 400 00:28:59,160 --> 00:29:03,400 inclusion that represents everything Scrooge has learnt. 401 00:29:05,120 --> 00:29:08,600 Now here's the thing. When when we look at Scrooge's 402 00:29:08,600 --> 00:29:12,720 full character arc, he's simply not a villain. 403 00:29:13,040 --> 00:29:17,520 He is a traumatised child who grew up into a wounded adult. 404 00:29:17,960 --> 00:29:21,400 He's experienced abandonment, loss, rejection and grief. 405 00:29:21,920 --> 00:29:24,560 His obsession with money wasn't about greed. 406 00:29:24,880 --> 00:29:29,520 It was about control, about building walls so thick that no 407 00:29:29,520 --> 00:29:34,560 one could ever hurt him again. His very name, Ebenezer, Heart 408 00:29:34,560 --> 00:29:38,200 of help Scrooge to squeeze, captures the paradox. 409 00:29:38,680 --> 00:29:42,320 He could be a helper, a stone upon which others might lean, 410 00:29:42,880 --> 00:29:46,760 but instead he chooses to squeeze and screw everyone 411 00:29:46,760 --> 00:29:50,000 around him. Belle understood this. 412 00:29:51,160 --> 00:29:54,680 She didn't say Scrooge was evil. She said that he had changed, 413 00:29:54,680 --> 00:29:57,160 that he feared the world too much. 414 00:29:57,640 --> 00:30:01,680 That fear drove him to seek security in gold rather than 415 00:30:01,680 --> 00:30:05,280 human connection. When she released him, she did 416 00:30:05,280 --> 00:30:08,520 so with a full heart. For the love of him, you once 417 00:30:08,520 --> 00:30:12,840 were acknowledging that somewhere inside there was a man 418 00:30:12,840 --> 00:30:16,640 capable of love. Jacob Marley's ghost tells 419 00:30:16,640 --> 00:30:18,520 Scrooge that he still has a chance. 420 00:30:18,800 --> 00:30:21,600 And like Marley, who only realised his mistakes after 421 00:30:21,600 --> 00:30:24,960 death, the three spirits don't punish Scrooge. 422 00:30:25,280 --> 00:30:28,360 They educate him. They show him the truth of this 423 00:30:28,360 --> 00:30:32,000 life, where he came from, what he's become and where he's 424 00:30:32,000 --> 00:30:35,360 heading. And here's what makes the story 425 00:30:35,360 --> 00:30:39,600 so powerful. Scrooge changes not because he's 426 00:30:39,600 --> 00:30:42,000 forced to, but because he chooses to. 427 00:30:42,600 --> 00:30:45,840 When he sees that his choices have real consequences, that 428 00:30:45,840 --> 00:30:50,440 Tiny Tim will die, that he himself will be forgotten and 429 00:30:50,440 --> 00:30:53,640 unmourned, he's generally overcome with penitence and 430 00:30:53,640 --> 00:30:56,240 grief. He wants to be better. 431 00:30:57,400 --> 00:31:00,680 The transformation is complete and sincere. 432 00:31:01,200 --> 00:31:04,520 Scrooge doesn't just through the motions, he's generally opens 433 00:31:04,520 --> 00:31:06,360 his heart. He reconnects with his family, 434 00:31:06,360 --> 00:31:09,320 shows compassion to his employee, helps the poor, and 435 00:31:09,320 --> 00:31:12,800 becomes a beloved figure in his community. 436 00:31:13,400 --> 00:31:18,280 The oyster shelf finally cracks open, revealing the Pearl inside 437 00:31:18,720 --> 00:31:22,320 the good person Scrooge could have been all along. 438 00:31:25,480 --> 00:31:29,320 Charles Dickens published A Christmas Carol in 1843, at the 439 00:31:29,320 --> 00:31:31,680 height of England's Industrial Revolution. 440 00:31:32,760 --> 00:31:36,680 It was a time when economic theories valued profit over 441 00:31:36,680 --> 00:31:41,760 people, when workhouses imprison the poor and when inequality was 442 00:31:41,760 --> 00:31:45,320 vast. Dickens wrote this story as a 443 00:31:45,360 --> 00:31:49,640 social commentary, a critique of a system that saw human beings 444 00:31:49,840 --> 00:31:54,480 as surplus population rather than fellow passengers to the 445 00:31:54,480 --> 00:31:58,160 grave. But the story endures because 446 00:31:58,160 --> 00:32:02,600 it's ultimately about hope. It tells us that no one is 447 00:32:02,600 --> 00:32:05,520 beyond redemption, that it's never too late to change. 448 00:32:06,280 --> 00:32:08,600 Scrooge isn't damned for his past. 449 00:32:08,600 --> 00:32:11,280 He's given a chance to rewrite his future. 450 00:32:12,240 --> 00:32:16,440 This is a radical message, especially for a society that 451 00:32:16,440 --> 00:32:20,120 believed in strict moral hierarchies and permanent class 452 00:32:20,120 --> 00:32:24,160 divisions. The character of Scrooge reminds 453 00:32:24,160 --> 00:32:28,280 us that cruelty and coldness often come from pain. 454 00:32:28,800 --> 00:32:31,400 That doesn't excuse his behaviour. 455 00:32:31,800 --> 00:32:36,040 Dickens is clear that Scrooge's treatment of others is wrong, 456 00:32:36,480 --> 00:32:40,360 but it helps us understand it. And understanding creates 457 00:32:40,360 --> 00:32:44,480 compassion, which is precisely what Scrooge learns to feel. 458 00:32:46,400 --> 00:32:50,800 Who was Ebenezer Scrooge? He's a man that had been hurt, 459 00:32:51,200 --> 00:32:54,400 who built walls to protect himself, who forgot how to 460 00:32:54,400 --> 00:32:57,800 connect with others. He was a man whose name meant 461 00:32:57,800 --> 00:33:02,640 stone of help, but became a tool for extraction and pain. 462 00:33:03,200 --> 00:33:07,200 His physical appearance was the outward expression of inward 463 00:33:07,200 --> 00:33:10,880 spiritual death. But he was also a man of 464 00:33:10,880 --> 00:33:14,800 profound change. He's proof that our past doesn't 465 00:33:14,800 --> 00:33:18,320 have to define our futures, and we can always choose 466 00:33:18,320 --> 00:33:23,120 differently. And his frozen heart, his hard, 467 00:33:23,120 --> 00:33:28,400 sharpest front soul, could thaw again and learn to feel with 468 00:33:28,400 --> 00:33:34,480 warmth, generosity and love. As Jacob Marley's ghost says, 469 00:33:34,640 --> 00:33:38,640 mankind was my business. And that's the lesson at the 470 00:33:38,640 --> 00:33:43,000 heart of A Christmas Carol. We are all responsible for one 471 00:33:43,000 --> 00:33:46,360 another. We are all, as Fred says, fellow 472 00:33:46,360 --> 00:33:50,600 passengers to the grave. And if Ebenezer Scrooge, the 473 00:33:50,600 --> 00:33:54,080 hardest, coldest man in all of London, can learn that lesson, 474 00:33:54,560 --> 00:33:57,440 then perhaps there's hope for us all. 475 00:33:57,960 --> 00:34:01,720 Now, if this episode has sparked your curiosity about Dickens's 476 00:34:01,720 --> 00:34:04,760 London, then buy yourself a ticket to join me on one of my 477 00:34:04,760 --> 00:34:07,360 public walks of A Christmas Carol. 478 00:34:07,640 --> 00:34:10,560 Or why not treat the family to a private tour? 479 00:34:11,120 --> 00:34:14,040 These walks are designed to bring the novella to life by 480 00:34:14,040 --> 00:34:17,600 exploring the actual streets and alleyways where Dickens set this 481 00:34:17,600 --> 00:34:21,719 haunting tale. These walks offer more than just 482 00:34:21,719 --> 00:34:26,320 literary connections, they provide insight into social and 483 00:34:26,320 --> 00:34:29,000 political landscape of Dickens's time. 484 00:34:29,800 --> 00:34:32,960 That alloys you walk through are the same ones where Victorian 485 00:34:32,960 --> 00:34:37,040 Londoners wheezing their way through, beating their hands 486 00:34:37,040 --> 00:34:40,120 upon their chests and stamped their feet upon the pavement 487 00:34:40,120 --> 00:34:43,960 stones to warm themselves in the winter cold, just as Dickens 488 00:34:43,960 --> 00:34:45,920 described in the opening of the novella. 489 00:34:46,880 --> 00:34:49,960 Thank you for joining me today on the London History Podcast. 490 00:34:50,199 --> 00:34:53,400 I hope this luck into Ebenezer Scrooge has given you a new 491 00:34:53,400 --> 00:34:56,320 appreciation of 1 of literature's most complex 492 00:34:56,320 --> 00:34:59,800 characters. A man defined by the meanings 493 00:34:59,800 --> 00:35:03,520 hidden in his name, written across his frozen face, yet 494 00:35:03,600 --> 00:35:07,520 ultimately redeemed by the choice to change. 495 00:35:08,920 --> 00:35:12,320 If you're a fan of A Christmas Carol, then you may enjoy 496 00:35:12,320 --> 00:35:17,120 episode 127, Archie's journey through Dickens's London. 497 00:35:17,480 --> 00:35:21,600 That's a short story about a little orphan named Archie set 498 00:35:21,600 --> 00:35:25,120 against the backdrop of the City of London during Christmas of 499 00:35:25,120 --> 00:35:30,200 1843, and perhaps Scrooge himself may make an appearance. 500 00:35:31,200 --> 00:35:34,480 Other Christmas Eve podcast episodes you may enjoy include 501 00:35:34,640 --> 00:35:39,240 Episode 34, London's Old Shops, Food and Drink edition that 502 00:35:39,240 --> 00:35:43,680 includes Fortnum and Mason, Episode 35 A Tudor Christmas. 503 00:35:44,040 --> 00:35:49,960 Episode 74 Christmas in Post War London looking at the start of 504 00:35:49,960 --> 00:35:52,600 the iconic Christmas lights in the West End. 505 00:35:53,080 --> 00:35:57,480 Episode 75 The Christmas cracker, a Victorian invention, 506 00:35:57,920 --> 00:36:03,840 Episode 98 Christmas puddings through history, Episode 99 507 00:36:04,120 --> 00:36:09,320 Royal Christmas speech, a modern tradition and episode 100 508 00:36:09,760 --> 00:36:12,720 Christmas words. Find out where they came from. 509 00:36:14,040 --> 00:36:16,920 If you enjoyed the episode, please subscribe, leave a review 510 00:36:17,000 --> 00:36:19,720 and share it with fellow history and literature lovers. 511 00:36:20,200 --> 00:36:22,880 If you're in London during the Christmas season, consider 512 00:36:22,880 --> 00:36:24,960 joining me for one of our guided walks. 513 00:36:25,160 --> 00:36:28,400 We have A Christmas Carol, a Victorian Christmas and of 514 00:36:28,400 --> 00:36:31,800 course our ever popular Christmas lights in Mayfair and 515 00:36:31,800 --> 00:36:32,640 St. James's. 516 00:36:33,400 --> 00:36:37,080 Until next time, I'm Hazel Baker, and as Tiny Tim would 517 00:36:37,080 --> 00:36:40,000 say, God bless us everyone.