Ebenezer Scrooge: Christmas Paying Bills

Posted by admin on Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’ Money Quotation saying in his miserly characterization of Ebenezer Scrooge that Christmastime has nothing to recommend it. Ebenezer Scrooge said:
 

 

“What’s Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills without money; a time for finding yourself a year older, but not an hour richer?” — Charles Dickens

 

 

In the quote from Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”, Ebenezer Scrooge expresses a negative view of Christmas. He says it is a time for paying bills without having money to pay them. As a miserly businessman, Scrooge would have seen Christmas as an unnecessary expense that took away from his profits.

By saying it is a time for finding oneself a year older but not richer, he implies that Christmas is a waste of time and money that does not make one financially better off. This captures Scrooge’s extremely stingy and profit-focused attitude before his redemption later in the story.