Scrooge is portrayed and compared with the rich people in the 19th century. In that time the rich were very negative towards the poor. So Dickens makes scrooge the symbolism of the rich and their lack of sympathy towards the poor. Scrooge is undisputedly a cold and dark character. He is describes as “hard and sharp as a flint.” The writer Dickens uses a simile to give a better image of scrooge’s character. By using the simile to compare Scrooge to a stone, “flint” we understand that he is hard-hearted yet also sharp and quick-witted. The reader would link the image of a flint as a stone which is dangerously sharp, giving him a menacing image. The quote continues “from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire.” Here, he is presented as a cold, mean and a stingy person suggesting he is never warm or generous. The quote continues “secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster”. Dickens uses another simile to compare him to “oyster” supporting his hard image and also presenting him as secretive and isolated. The reader may also sympathise …show more content…
Firstly, surplus means something extra, excess and has no purpose to exist. When these two words are joined, it dehumanises the poor and infers that they are nothing. In the 19th century there was a man named Thomas Malthus. He established his view of the poor being surplus population publicly. He thought that as they don’t have enough money to live and do not benefit society they might as well die. Dickens completely rejected this opinion and used it in scrooge. A view scrooge and Malthus also had, was that the poor do not benefit society financially so are therefore surplus population. These were the exact concepts that Dickens wished to counter so he presented scrooge as stingy like the rich. Henceforth, scrooge is shown as a cold hearted, stingy and aloof rich man of the 19th