This definitions covers Key Terms for Scrooge's Character within Scrooge (character) for GCSE English Literature. Revise Scrooge (character) in A Christmas Carol for GCSE English Literature with 12 exam-style questions and 13 flashcards. This topic shows up very often in GCSE exams, so students should be able to explain it clearly, not just recognise the term. It is section 11 of 17 in this topic. Make sure you can use the exact wording confidently, because definition marks are often lost through vague language.
📖 Key Terms for Scrooge's Character
- Hamartia
- The tragic flaw — in tragedy, the quality that destroys the hero. Scrooge's hamartia is his prioritisation of wealth over human connection, but Dickens subverts the tragic form: Scrooge's hamartia is curable, making A Christmas Carol a comic (in the classical sense: ending in restoration) rather than tragic structure.
- Simile
- A comparison using "like" or "as." "Solitary as an oyster" is the defining simile for Scrooge's character — it describes not just his isolation but its self-imposed, armoured quality, while hinting at an interior worth preserving.
- Allegory
- A narrative in which characters and events represent abstract ideas or moral qualities. Scrooge functions partly as allegory — he is not just one miser but the embodiment of laissez-faire ideology. His transformation is not just personal but represents what Dickens argues all of England must do.
- Dramatic irony
- When the audience knows something a character does not. In Stave 4, the reader understands that the neglected grave is Scrooge's before he does — making his horror when he recognises it a moment of dramatic release rather than surprise.
- Redemption arc
- A character trajectory from moral failure towards moral restoration. Scrooge's is the most famous redemption arc in Victorian literature, used by Dickens to argue that the wealthy can change — and therefore must.
Practice questions for Scrooge (character)
In Stave 1, Dickens describes Scrooge as 'a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner!' Which of the following best describes what Dickens achieves by accumulating six present participles in this single phrase?
Identify and explain ONE technique Dickens uses in the following description of Scrooge in Stave 1: 'cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait.'