A-Z Characters & Transformation: Scrooge

Scrooge is one of the best-known transformative heroes! 

In truth, Scrooge is not entirely believable. Dickens does a fine job preparing readers for the final transformation. He establishes that Scrooge was a lonely boy who became a sensible if workaholic young man who had the chance to marry the love of his life. He was, once upon a time, a friendly, sweet-natured guy, who turned into a "scrooge" due to his own choices and the bitterness of life.

Okay. But the end does leave one pondering whether the bitterness of life can be wiped out in a single night. Where exactly does personality come from if not one's choices and the exigencies of life? Can a person utterly undo what has made him or her a certain way in one fell swoop?

The best approach is to indicate that the Scrooge is changing perspective, not personality. In Joanna Chambers "Humbug," the thirty-something Scrooge, Quin, is inherently obsessive. That is, his personality is such that no matter what he does, he has to go at it to the nth degree. He gets into the consulting game by accident but once he is there, of course, he's going to be the best consultant ever whose team is also the "best". He's on the fast-track to becoming a manager.

Problem: the gig isn't totally in line with his personality, so he becomes--as characters in the story repeatedly tell him--a "dick." He later tells Rob, the Bob Crachit character, "I think [this job] brings out the worst in me."  Instead of becoming the kind of leader whose team is the best because they admire him and feel appreciated, he becomes (is becoming) the kind of leader who wrings work out of people through unreasonable demands and sheer sarky irritation. He is acting in accordance with what he believes to be the "role" of manager--and he does it well, but it makes him absolutely unpleasant to be around. 

After his epiphany, he returns to his first plan to be a math teacher. And here is where Joanna Chambers really knocks the characterization out of the park: because of course, Quin has to be the BEST teacher. Only this time, what he wants and what he brings to the table are in line. He'll get in his students' faces ("They'll love you," Rob says, "because you're sarky"). He'll get in their parents' faces. He'll tick off the school board but still win. The aggressive energy that makes him unlikable in one field (that he doesn't feel at home in) will make him an excellent advocate in another.

Quin is a Scrooge whose tweaks to his life believably result in a much, much happier life in the long-run. 

Another good "Scrooge" who undergoes believable changes is Phil from Groundhog Day. 

Phil is unique because his changes are linked to a romantic attachment. Although the original Scrooge lost a great love--the scene earns a song in The Muppet Movie--few movie/television versions of the book reunite him with that great love. Likewise, The Grinch doesn't start dating at the end--not in the picture book or animated feature anyway. And although Russ from The Kid has a girlfriend/wife waiting in his future, his change is due to a visit from a "ghost of Christmas past," not the potential significant other.

Yet, the repentant hero in Groundhog Day does have a romantic attachment.

The difference lies in the character arc. Original Scrooge undergo an internal realignment. The internal change is shown through external images and events. With Groundhog Day, on the other hand, the change is about the main character learning to get along with other people. 

Original Scrooge alters internally and shows that internal alteration through his treatment of others. 

Phil learns how to change internally by how he treats others--including a life insurance salesman!--better day by (same) day.  

I think that both types of change/epiphany are possible. But Phil is possibly a little more believable. Rather than an about-face (which could undo itself at any moment), he progresses over time.