Upon first
glace, the role of women in A Christmas Carol seems very limited. However,
while the majority of the narrative focuses on Scrooge, minor characters such as Scrooge's
sister Fan, his ex-fianc©e Belle, and even Mrs. Cratchit play significant roles in his
development. Of these three characters, two of them have direct interactions with him, both
occurring during the memories conjured by the Ghost of Christmas Past.
Fan,
Scrooge's younger sister and mother of Fred, who is now Scrooge's only living relative, played a
major part is Scrooge's childhood. As a young boy, Scrooge was sent away to boarding school.
While the reader is never given a specific reason why, Fan's words suggest that Scrooge's home
life was far from ideal. Scrooge views one memory of himself in which Fan arrives at the
boarding school, hugs him and claims "I have come to bring you home, dear brother!"
She goes on to state,
"Father is so much kinder than he used to
be, that home's like Heaven! He spoke so gently to me one dear night when I was going to bed,
that I was not afraid to ask him once more if you might come home; and he said Yes, you should;
and sent me in a coach to bring you. And you're to be a man!"
Fan's words illuminate her close relationship with Scrooge. However, this happy memory
is cut short by the spirit's statement that "She died a woman." One of the most
loving relationship that Scrooge experienced ended in a heartbreaking loss, which could explain
why he has distanced himself from Fred. He very well could be afraid to allow family
in.
As Scrooge grew, he started to develop a different type of relationship
with Belle. After the spirit takes Scrooge through the revelry of Fezziwig's Ball, he shows
Scrooge a much bleaker scene. In this memory Scrooge is older, "in the prime of life"
and sitting beside Belle, with whom he had fallen in love. As was the case with Fan, Belle's
words reveal the truth of the memory. Belle states, "Another idol has displaced me,"
meaning that Scrooge has come to love money as he once loved her. Scrooge protests, but Belle
continues,
"[...] if you were free to-day, to-morrow,
yesterday, can even I believe that you would choose a dowerless girl - you who, in your very
confidence with her, weigh everything by Gain: or, choosing her, if for a moment you were false
enough to your one guiding principle to do so, do I not know that your repentance and regret
would surely follow? I do; and I release you. With a full heart, for the love of him you once
were."
Thus, Belle ends the relationship because she no longer
wants him to feel obligated to someone he no longer loves. For the second time, the reader sees
a once beautiful become tarnished, this time by greed. These two instances mark two of the
major reasons for Scrooge's misanthropic view of the world. One love was taken away by death,
the other by his growing greed. While their words to Scrooge are few, they speak volumes. His
loss of the love represented by the two women is one of the major reasons he became the cold,
hateful man we meet at the start of the tale.
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