Scrooge is a rare example of a character who can be considered flat yet dynamic. He undergoes a complete transformation, finally becoming the exact opposite of who he was at the beginning of the story, yet he remains something of a caricature. Here he is at the beginning of A Christmas Carol:

Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice.

Even at this point in the story, Dickens makes a point of saying that Scrooge's coldness does not thaw even at Christmas. After it has been gradually thawed during the night by the three ghosts and the visions they show him, Scrooge wakes to find himself a changed man, benevolent and happy. As he himself puts it:

I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a schoolboy. I am as giddy as a drunken man. A merry Christmas to everybody! A happy New Year to all the world.

Scrooge changes from a miserable, selfish, hard-hearted skinflint to a kindly, generous old gentleman. This general change is paralleled with a more specific one, which is in line with the theme and title of the story. He begins as a man who particularly dislikes Christmas, which he regards as an excuse for idleness and gluttony. This hatred of festivity has a strong element of Puritanism in it; it is ideological as well as opportunistic. At the end of the book, however, Scrooge is completely converted to the joy of Christmas, as he regards the festive season as the source of his salvation.

Scrooge undergoes a complete change over the course of A Christmas Carol. When we first meet him, he's a thoroughly nasty piece of work, a heartless miser who hates Christmas and spreads misery and gloom wherever he goes.

Yet by the end of the story, after being visited by a succession of ghosts, he changes his ways and becomes a genuinely kind, lovable man devoted to the spirit of Christmas and all that it entails.

To some extent, Scrooge is returning to what he used to be before naked greed entered into his soul and turned him into a mean old skinflint. Once upon a time, he used to love Christmas and would happily enter into the spirit of things at the legendary parties thrown by his former employer, Mr. Fezziwig. But his attitude to Christmas, and to other people, took a turn for the worse when he became obsessed with making money.

Thanks to the spirits who visit him on Christmas Eve, however, Scrooge has finally seen the error of his ways. He now realizes, at long last, that money really isn't everything and that goodwill to all, the most important message of the Christmas season, is the overriding value by which he will live the rest of his life.

As A Christmas Carol begins, Scrooge is characterized as a greedy, coldhearted miser with no apparent empathy or sympathy for others. Having come to value the acquisition of wealth over all human connections, he lives a lonely life, and yet he is so trapped in his materialist values that he does not recognize how impoverished his life truly is.

The story of A Christmas Carol follows Scrooge's dramatic change in character as a result of his encounters with various spirits: first, there is Marley, his former business partner who now serves as a terrifying warning of the afterlife awaiting Scrooge himself, and then there are the three Christmas ghosts, representing past, present, and future.

It is notable that his character development is shaped through these supernatural encounters. In his time with the Ghost of Christmas Past, Scrooge revisits various moments from his own history (delving backward all the way into his childhood), and through these memories, he comes face to face with the human connections that once featured in his life, which he has since spurned in his pursuit of wealth. Meanwhile, the Ghost of Christmas Present shows Scrooge just how empty and lonely his own life has become. Notably, by this point, you can also see Scrooge's growing empathy, as he voices sorrow at the thought of Tiny Tim's death. Finally, the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come shows Scrooge a frightening vision regarding his future and how Scrooge currently stands to be remembered after his death.

These encounters amount to a life-changing experience for Scrooge, who turns away from his miserly, misanthropic ways to embrace those qualities of kindness, generosity, and empathy he had previously spurned.

From the very first visit by Jacob Marley, Scrooge, in A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, is beginning to change. With each of the ghosts, he becomes more and more afraid of what lies before him in the afterlife and more determined to change. When Jacob Marley visits, Scrooge has a lot of questions for him. Scrooge is surprised when Marley tells him he (Marley) regrets the things he did in life, and Scrooge says,

"But you were always a good man of business, Jacob" (Dickens 23),

as though that was what counted in life, but Marley counters with, "Business! Mankind was my business" (Dickens 23).

At the end of Stave I, when Marley tells Scrooge he will be haunted by three ghosts, Scrooge says he would rather not, but Marley makes him understand that through these visits, Scrooge has a chance of avoiding Marley's fate. Scrooge is tempted to use his usual rejoinder, "Humbug," but stops himself, which, in itself, shows progress already.

The Ghost of Christmas Past in the second stave reminds Scrooge of his younger life--of the joys and sorrows, of the love he once felt for others, and by the end of this stave, he is exhausted and saddened, and he realizes he put material wealth over once important relationships.

The Ghost of Christmas Present shows him Bob Cratchit's family and how, even though Scrooge pays his worker, Bob, so little, the family is happy and loving. Bob even toasts Scrooge in spite of his selfishness and greed. This stave finds Scrooge very humbled and on the verge of change.

Finally, the last spirit--the Ghost of Christmas Future--seals the deal by showing Scrooge his own end--his death all alone with nobody to mourn him. By the time this ghost is gone, Scrooge is a completely changed man. He wakes up to Christmas and realizes that he has been given a second chance. He is not about to blow this chance.

"'I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future!' Scrooge repeated, as he scrambled out of bed. 'The spirits of all three shall strive within me. O Jacob Marley! Heaven and the Christmastime be praised for this! I say it on my knees, old Jacob, on my knees!' He was so fluttered and so glowing with his good intentions that his broken voice would scarcely answer to his call. He had been sobbing violently in his conflict with the Spirit, and his face was wet with tears" (Dickens 113).

Scrooge spends the rest of his days making up for his past, becoming a generous boss and man, becoming like an uncle to Bob Cratchit's children. His metamorphosis is complete.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens is a novella or short novel. Although A Christmas Carol is divided into five Staves that might be confused with a five-act play at first glance, Dickens’s story is written in prose.

With that out of the way, let’s focus on Ebenezer Scrooge. It is no exaggeration to claim that Scrooge is one of the most iconic and dynamic figures in all English literature. A major part of the character's popularity is his overnight transformation from crotchety miser to full-hearted philanthropist.

In the opening scenes of the play, Scrooge is comically grouchy and cold-hearted. He refuses to allow his employee, Bob Cratchit, to add coal to the fire to warm his office. He dismisses his nephew with the famous retort, “Bah, humbug!” when invited to participate in family Christmas celebrations. Scrooge also rebuffs a pair of gentlemen seeking charitable donations for the poor; he declares, “I wish to be left alone,” and says of the poor, “If they would rather die . . . they had better do it and decrease the surplus population.” The Scrooge of the opening pages of Dickens’s novel is a bitter man who cares only for his wealth and revels in social isolation.

Over the night of Christmas Eve, Scrooge is visited by three ghosts in rapid succession. With the Ghost of Christmas Past, Scrooge is reminded of happier days when he had lived and loved life to the fullest. Scrooge’s heart is softened by reliving scenes from his childhood and youth. The Ghost of Christmas Present shows Scrooge the lives of his nephew and employee and reveals two horrors: Ignorance and Want. These serve as a warning to Scrooge to change his ways. The third and final phantom, the Ghost of Christmas Future, shows the miserly accountant his unvisited grave, which finally breaks Scrooge. Desperate for redemption, he pleads with the silent figure for a second chance.

When Scrooge awakes on Christmas morning, he rises from bed a changed man. Look at how he acts when he realizes he still has time to change his future:

“I don’t know what to do!” cried Scrooge, laughing and crying in the same breath, and making a perfect Laocoön of himself with his stockings. “I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a schoolboy. I am as giddy as a drunken man. A merry Christmas to everybody! A happy New Year to all the world. Hallo here! Whoop! Hallo!”

Scrooge sends a massive turkey to Bob Cratchit, surprises his nephew at the family Christmas dinner, and dedicates his life to helping the poor and bringing joy to the lives of those around him. This is quite a dramatic change from the cranky penny-pincher Scrooge had been in the first pages of the novel!

Scrooge changes from a miserly and unhappy person who only cares about money (in the beginning of the novel) to a generous and happy person who cares most about other people (by the end of the novel). Early on, the narrator describes Scrooge as

a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. The cold within him froze his old features . . . He carried his own low temperature always about with him.

In other words, Scrooge is callous and unfeeling, completely lacking in generosity or even goodwill toward his fellows. He's as hard as a rock, a simile Dickens uses to describe his lack of feeling. He keeps himself to himself and does not engage with other people if he can help it. He is so "cold"—another way to express his indifference to humanity—that it seems to freeze his very features, and he even seems to make the room grow colder when he enters it. Scrooge is rude to his nephew, mean to his clerk, and cruel to a caroler who comes singing for his supper.

In the end, after the ghosts have visited him,

He dressed himself "all in his best," and at last got out into the streets. The people were by this time pouring forth, as he had seen them with the Ghost of Christmas Present; and walking with his hands behind him, Scrooge regarded every one with a delighted smile. He looked so irresistibly pleasant, in a word, that three or four good-humoured fellows said, "Good morning, sir! A merry Christmas to you!" And Scrooge said often afterwards, that of all the blithe sounds he had ever heard, those were the blithest in his ears.

Scrooge loves Christmas now, but, more importantly, he loves other people and not just money. He makes a generous donation to the men who came to collect for the poor just the day before. He goes to Christmas dinner at his nephew's house. He sends a huge turkey to his clerk. And, on the next day, when Bob Cratchit comes to work, Scrooge offers him and his family whatever help money can provide.

In the beginning of the novel, Scrooge lives by himself, cuts himself off from other people, rebuffs overtures from his nephew to visit for Christmas, and cares only about money. He is hardhearted and resents being asked to help the poor. He even resents giving his clerk a half day off for Christmas. After the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future show him glimpses of his forgotten past happinesses, the current state of the people around him, and his own future, in which no one mourns his death, Scrooge's heart melts and his emotions reawaken. When the night ends and he realizes he is still alive and can make amends to the world, Scrooge is overjoyed and transforms into a giving, loving person. 

At the beginning of the play, Ebenezer Scrooge is presented as a selfish, uncaring, greedy, and caustic old man.

“…he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire, secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster" (Dickens).

He has no friends and the family he does have, he does not spend time with. He does not appear to value anyone or anything, other than money.

Throughout the play, he begins to see himself with more clarity and his perception of the world begins to change. He sees the very negative affect he has on others, like the Cratchits, and he also sees how little he will be missed when he dies.

At the end of the play, he has changed completely. He is kind, generous, involved in his family, happy, and caring. He seems to have genuinely learned from the journey that the spirits have taken him on.

“I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach" (Dickens)!

He does not want to end up dead and forgotten, leaving nothing behind except ill memories and even pain (if he could have helped prevent Tiny Tim's death, that certainly would have avoided much pain for the Cratchit family). He starts anew on Christmas morning and embraces life.

The change in Scrooge's character is the whole point of this short story.  If he did not change, there would be no story.

At the beginning of the story, Scrooge is a miserly man who seems to hate people.  He won't let his clerk have a warm fire and he won't participate in any sort of holiday festivities.

But then Scrooge is shown visions by the three spirits.  After that, he changes his character completely.  He realizes that he has not been behaving well and he mends his ways.  For example, he buys the biggest goose for the Cratchit family where once he would not have wanted Cratchit to even have a fire to keep himself warm at work.

In the novel A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, the character called Scrooge goes through a catharsis - he manages,just in time as far as his age is concerned, to reinvent himself. He goes through an 'enlightenment' when the ghost of his old business partner comes back from the dead momentarily to tell him about the shackles of sin (greed, selfishness, uncharitable behavior, avarice and general penny-pinching meanness) and where it has led him in the afterlife. It has brought him nothing but misery - but Scrooge can avoid it if he manages to mend his ways before his own death. This requires remorse, sorrow and genuine shame on Scrooge's part. At first he doesn't seem to be learning any lessons - then there is an illumination (he asks what will become of Tiny Tim and now seems to genuinely care.) The change in Scrooge is a change of heart.

Why does Scrooge change in A Christmas Carol?

The ghost of Scrooge's friend Marley dragging the heavy chain he forged in life as well as the three ghosts of Christmas—Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and Christmas Yet to Come—awaken Scrooge's long dormant emotions, and it is this emotional awakening that changes Scrooge.

As the story opens, we encounter a Scrooge who is almost dead emotionally. Feeling has been replaced with the logic of money and calculation. Scrooge has isolated himself from his fellow man so long that he has lost the capacity to feel and empathize with other human beings. People are simply a bother to him, an obstacle in the path to making money. He wishes the poor would hurry up and die to rid England of excess population, he considers his nephew's Christmas party a waste, and he resents having to pay Cratchit for a day off on Christmas.

The ghosts reawaken Scrooge's sleeping emotions, a painful process for him. The ghost of Christmas Past shows him scenes that bring back to him forcefully forgotten kindnesses, joys, and love. He remembers how good Fezziwig was to him and how merry his Christmas party was. He recalls being in love.

The ghost of Christmas Present shows Scrooge the Cratchits and their poverty, and especially poor, sickly Tiny Tim. For the first time, Scrooge's employee and his family become real to Scrooge. The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come brings home to Scrooge that his life can make a difference, for Tiny Tim could die, and the ghost shows Scrooge the coldness with which his own death will be received if he doesn't change his ways.

Dickens uses an idea common in the nineteenth century: the idea that arousing people's emotions or sentiments can transform their lives. Since the twentieth century, this appeal to sentiment, often derided as sentimentality, has been looked down upon. Dickens, however, uses sentiment supremely well by creating real, rounded characters in people like Scrooge. Dickens was convinced that if people could feel for others—that is, experience empathy—their hearts and behavior would change, just as happens to Scrooge.

Why does Scrooge change in A Christmas Carol?

It is truly the combined efforts of the three ghosts that bring about Scrooge's metamorphosis.  The Ghost of Christmas Past starts the change process by reminding Ebenezer of the people and places he used to love -- Fezziwig's business, Belle, Fan.  The Ghost of Christmas Present shows that Christmas is a feeling and a state of mind, neither of which have anything to do with monetary expenditures.  He sees the miners and those on the ship having a lively time in spite of their surroundings, and the Cratchit family seeming content with their Christmas, even in spite of the meager rations of food.  Thus, he is taught that money does not necessarily buy happiness.  Christmas Yet to Come drives the point home by showing Scrooge that, although he is rich, he is leaving no legacy for those that follow after him. All three, and particularly Tiny Tim within the Christmas Present trip, have a profound effect on Scrooge and ultimately bring about his lasting personality change.

How has Scrooge changed in A Christmas Carol?

Ebenezer Scrooge changes completely from the beginning of the story to the end. Transformation is a very important theme to the story, in fact. The ways in which he changes are many, but the most significant is probably in terms of his generosity. 

At the beginning of the story we know that Scrooge is a miser. This means he is a penny-pinching, miserable, greedy man who cares of nothing other than his money. This love of money has cost him all of his personal relationships, his social life, and any any empathy he might have ever had.

At the end of the story, however, he is a generous and kind man who wants to help others. He is no longer selfish and greedy. We see this best displayed in the final stave where he so completely transforms.

"He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world. Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms. His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him" (Stave V).

It is important to note that he has not just become generous with his money, but with his feelings. Before he seemed so filled with anger that he was incapable of even seeing others, let alone feeling compassion for them. We see at the end of the story that he is freely sharing with friends and family and has become generous with his love and kindness as well as his money.

How does young Scrooge change throughout his life?

When the novella begins, Scrooge is known as

... a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone... a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster.

But, he was not always such a person; in fact, he possessed the normal joys of youth and led a life replete with music, laughter, love, emotions, colors, feasts, family, and friends. However, all these emotions and unions with loved ones are but "shadows" in Scrooge's present life.

In Stave Two when the Ghost of Christmas Past visits old Ebenezer Scrooge, he takes the miser back to the past, a distant time in which Scrooge was normal. In fact, he feels some elation as he returns to this past, although at first he views the stark boarding school where he was made to remain even during the holidays. One day, however, his loving sister appears, telling him she has come to take him home, and he is happy.

After this vision, Scrooge is taken to a warehouse where he and another young man were once apprenticed to a man called "old Fezziwig." When the Christmas holidays come, Fezziwig closes his business, and brings in musicians and bakers, cooks, and milkmen who provide a feast for his guests. The Fezziwig family enters and the festivities begins with Fezziwig himself spritely dancing. When everyone departs, Fezziwig and his wife wish all their guests "Merry Christmas." About his Scrooge remarks,

He has the power to render us happy or unhappy; to make our service light or burdensome; a pleasure or a toil. say that his power lies in words and looks; in things so slight and insignificant that it is impossible to add and count'em up.

At this point in his life, Scrooge finds joy in love and friendship.

The next vision that the Ghost shows Scrooge is himself as in the prime of his life. As this man, he is visited by a "fair young girl" whose eyes are wet with tears as she talks to Ebenezer, telling him that he has replaced her with "another idol," "a golden one." Further, she informs Ebenezer that he tries to insulate himself against the world with money, but in so doing, he has lost his "nobler aspirations."

The last image is one of Ebenezer now alone with his partner dying. Belle, the young woman who has left him in the earlier scene, sits in her home awaiting the return of her husband; as they wait, there is laughter and joy throughout the house--a delightful home that Scrooge could have had for his own if he had not wedded himself to the pursuit of wealth.

How does Scrooge change?

Ebenezer Scrooge begins A Christmas Carol as a cold and unfeeling man.  He shuts others out of his life and appears to have no compassion or pity for others.  We see this immediately in his treatment of his assistant, Bob Cratchit, and his dismissal of the men who come to ask for charitable donations.  As the story progresses, Scrooge is visited by three ghosts.  Each ghost shows him a different aspect of his life and a different area where he has gone wrong.  Scrooge is able to see beyond himself and to experience the pain he has caused others.  Scrooge is also able to see the true consequences of his actions (or in-actions).  When he wakes on Christmas morning, Scrooge is a changed man.  We have seen him change bit by bit as each ghost reveals something new.  Scrooge's attitude and generous actions on Christmas day contrast sharply to his previous behavior.  We are led to believe that Scrooge will become a very different person from the cold, money-loving man we first met.

How does Scrooge change?

At the very beginning of the story Ebenezer Scrooge is a selfish and greedy man who cares for only his money. He has no friends and he pushes away the only family he has left, his nephew, Fred. He does not seem to care about anyone and is described as being a very cold man.

"External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. No warmth could warm, no wintry weather chill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than he, no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no pelting rain less open to entreaty. Foul weather didn’t know where to have him" (Stave One).

This means he is so cold, in terms of his emotions, that he literally cannot warm to anything. In other words, he is cold-blooded.

By the end of the story he has changed completely. He has seen the error of his ways. He understand how much people are willing to care for him if he will only care back. He understands how alone he is and if he were to die no one would really care- some people might even be relieved. He truly understands all he has done wrong and wants to make it right. So, he goes about becoming a better person by showing those around him how much he cares.

"He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world. Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them" (Stave Five).