Ebenezer Scrooge (2019)

"Behold. One day of the year, they all grin and greet each other, when every other day they walk by with their faces in their collars. You know, it makes me very sad to see all of the lies. They come as surly as the snow this time of year. How many "Merry Christmases" are meant, and how many are lies? To pretend on one day of the year that the human beast is not the human beast? That it is possible we can all be transformed? But if it were so, if it were possible for so many mortals to look at the calendar and transform from wolf to lamb, then why not every day? Instead of one day good, the rest bad, why not have everyone grinning at each other all year and have one day in the year where we all beasts and we pass each other by? Why not turn it around?"

- Scrooge's speech on the hypocrisy of Christmas.

"Bah. Humbug."

- Ebeneezer Scrooge

Ebeneezer Scrooge is the main protagonist of the 2019 British television miniseries A Christmas Carol, based on the 1843 novella of the same name by the late Charles Dickens. He is a cruel investor whose greedy nature and belief that all humanity is evil causes many deaths and misery for his employers. With the aid of his deceased business partner Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future, he must repent from his sins or else suffer eternal damnation.

He was portrayed by, who also portrayed Aldrich Killian in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Peter Weyland in the Alien franchise, and Fernand Mondego in the 2002 film adaption of The Count of Monte Cristo. As a child, he was portrayed by Billy Barratt.

Early Life
Ebenezer Scrooge was born to a poor family, and was the youngest of two children. Though his mother and older sister Lottie cared for him, his father Franklin Scrooge saw him as a burden and frequently abused him. The Scrooge family's poverty led Franklin to being very tight with money, which instilled in Ebeneezer from an early age the importance of wealth and material possessions above all else. Despite this, Ebeneezer had a black horse that he used to get to and from school every day that he cared and provided for.

One Christmas, Ebeneezer was given a pet albino rat with a bell around its neck as a gift, and loved it dearly. However, his father was enraged by the gift; he saw the faux golden bell as a mockery of their poverty, despised the idea that the rat somehow ceased to be vermin simply due to the holiday, and saw it as nothing more than a nuisance and another mouth to have to provide for. In one of his drunken rages, Franklin stole the rat from Ebeneezer and decapitated it in front of the boy. The event would traumatize Ebeneezer, and instill a softness for animals for the rest of his life.

When Ebeneezer reached his preteens, Franklin sen him off to boarding school and sold Ebeneezer's horse. Franklin made a deal with the Schoolmaster that, in exchange for not having to pay any school fees, the Headmaster could have his way with the boy, and that Ebeneezer would never be released from the school, even on breaks and holidays. Ebeneezer spent the next few years of his life in misery under the abuse and misconduct of the schoolmaster, with his only escape being the books he read, and his only companions being the characters and the occasional schoolmate.

One Christmas, Lottie arrives at the school at informs Ebeneezer and the schoolmaster that Franklin Scrooge has died, and that Ebeneezer is to be taken home. Ebeneezer flees to the carriage, and when the schoolmaster tries to give chase, Lottie pulls a gun on him and threatens to reveal what he had been doing to Ebeneezer if he tried to follow. Lottie and Ebeneezer go home, but at that point, Ebeneezer had lost his hope in humanity, and found himself incapable of loving another, even his own sister.

Scrooge grew up cold and bitter, but when he was a young adult, met a woman named Elizabeth and began to fall in love. However, his hardened heart and pessimistic outlook on life led the two to break up late in their relationship, an event which further convinced Scrooge that he was incapable of love and that the world was incapable of true happiness.

Lottie was eventually married and had a son named Fred, but later passed away from unknown means. Ebeneezer mourned her death, and held an irrational grudge against his nephew because of it, blaming him for her passing. Even after Fred grew up and was married, Scrooge still refused to acknowledge him or accept his invitations to dine with them on Christmas.

Business
Later in life, Scrooge met and somewhat befriended Jacob Marley, another shrewd businessman. Together they started an investing firm, and began buying factories and coal mines to increase their profits. They used blackmail to convince a man to sell his late father's textile factory, and then proceeded to flip it and sell it for hundreds more pounds than they purchased it for. In another extension of their greed, they removed safety measures from many of their factories and mines, leading to at least four major accidents, including a fire in a factory and a collapse in a coal mine, that took the lives of dozens of men, women, and children. Despite this, Scrooge and Marley bribed the judges and had them rule the accidents as the fault of the employees.

One Christmas, Marley passed away suddenly. Scrooge had him buried, unaware that, due to his crimes, Marley was in purgatory.

Scrooge employed Bob Cratchit at his office as a clerk, though he was treated poorly. After a few years of service, Cratchit's wife Mary gives birth to their second child, a son named Timothy "Tiny Tim" Cratchit, who suffers from fluid in the lungs and a crippled leg. Knowing that her son was dying and needed surgery, Mary Cratchit visited Scrooge one morning and pleaded for a loan. Scrooge agreed, but only if she would meet him at his home on Christmas Day and do whatever he asked. Mary reluctantly agreed, and set out on Christmas Day to meet Scrooge. Once there, assuming he desired sexual favors, she undressed in front of him. When she was nude, Scrooge then told her that he did not seek any kind of sexual favors, as he found himself incapable of love and lust. He explains that his only desire is to prove that everyone is as dark as he is, and all he wanted was to see how low she, a married woman and a mother, would go for the sake of money. He gives her the money and commands her to leave, though he blackmails her by threatening to reveal to Bob what she did if Bob ever attempts to resign. Mary takes the money, but swears vengeance on Scrooge.

Visit from Marley
Marley, fed up with being trapped in purgatory, pleads for mercy and swears repentance. Though his cry is heard, he is forced to wear heavy chains, each link representing a life lost due to his actions. He is told by spirits that in order for his penance to be payed and his soul redeemed, he must redeem Ebeneezer Scrooge. Marley sees this as an impossible task, but agrees to try.

On Earth, Scrooge is angry at the return of the Christmas holiday, writing a letter of complaint about the carolers and well-wishers. He muses to Cratchit about the hypocrisy of Christmas, asking why one day must be good and all else bad instead of one day bad and all else good. When Fred offers for the last time an invitation to Christmas dinner, urging him to see it as Jesus Christ's birthday party if he so wishes, Scrooge again declines and mocks the idea of Jesus Christ. Scrooge allows Cratchit to leave fifteen minutes early, then heads home himself. On the way, a couple of men ask if he would like to donate to the impoverished, to which Scrooge replies that they should all just die.

Upon returning to his home, Scrooge sees a carriage drawn by two horses left out in the snow in front of his home. With the horses reminding him of his childhood pet and feeling a sense of pity for the two creatures, Scrooge drapes a blanket over them. In actuality, this carriage was a test by the spirits to see if he was even worth the attempt at redemption, and he passed.

Scrooge approaches his doorstep, and sees Marley' face replacing his door knocker. Startled, Scrooge makes his way inside, where Marley's ghost materializes before him. Scrooge demands that Marley leave, but Marley instead shows him the aftermath of one of their factory fires, where Scrooge is forced to witness the injuries and deaths caused by his negligence. Marley informs Scrooge that he will be haunted by three spirits, who seek to redeem him. Scrooge welcomes their visits, not out of a desire to reform, but to prove to them that he is irredeemable. Marley leaves to wait back in purgatory, and the first spirit goes to meet with Scrooge.

Ghost of Christmas Past
As Scrooge is expecting the first ghost, he hears a bell ring and follows it to his window, where he sees his old pet rat, bell still around its neck, waiting for him. Scrooge is enchanted and softened by the sight of his old companion, but then assumes that it is the spirit Marley told him about, and throws it out the window. It is then that the Ghost of Christmas Past arrives, bearing the appearance of Scrooge's late father, and tormenting him with the memories of abuse and the death of the rat.

The Ghost then takes him back to his old schoolhouse and takes the appearance of Ali Baba, the icon of hope that Scrooge read about in his childhood. The Ghost takes Scrooge to the schoolhouse, and upon seeing the schoolmaster again, Scrooge grabs Ali Baba's hatchet and attempts to murder him. However, as they are simply spirits, they do not exist in that time or place, and Scrooge falls through him. Scrooge watches as the schoolmaster tries to abuse him, then realizes that the day he is witnessing is the day Lottie saved him. Lottie arrived and