A Christmas Carol essay English Literature AQA

Please could someone mark this and tell me what grade/mark out of 30 they think this would get.
The Question is:
How is Scrooge presented as an outsider in society?

In ‘A Christmas Carol’, Scrooge is presented as an outsider through the way he is treated by others in society as a result of his misanthropic and avaricious behaviour. Despite being wealthy, Scrooge still feels less a part of society than the impoverished, whom he initially ostracises in line with his Malthusian views. Although he claims to enjoy being feared by others, no amount of money can fill the ever-growing hole caused by being “neglected”.

In the extract taken from stave 1, Dickens presents Scrooge as an outsider in society due to his misanthropic behaviour leading to his neglect. His uncongenial nature is a result of being “secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster”. An “oyster” is shut tightly and hard to open, which reflects Scrooge’s unapproachable personality. It also lives at the bottom of the ocean away from other species, mirroring Scrooge’s isolation. However, inside an oyster is a pearl which is rare and highly valued by society possibly symbolising Scrooge’s compassion which he locks away. The use of sibilance also highlights Scrooge’s wicked exterior, but again hints at the possibly of a softer interior such as love. Scrooge may see this as his weakness that can be exploited by others, so he keeps it hidden just like a “secret” and doesn’t depend on others resulting in him being “self-contained”. This suggests that Scrooge has become a recluse as a result of distrust leading us to ponder on what Scrooge’s past was like, foreshadowing the visit of the Ghost of Christmas Past. We also see how Scrooge is neglected in the extract by how “no beggars implored him to bestow a trifle, no children asked him what it was o’clock, no man or woman ever once in all his life inquired the way to such and such a place, of Scrooge”. The use of listing emphasises the magnitude of his neglect; he is an outsider to all of society, not just a certain group of people. The fact that even the desperate “beggars” and the innocent and naïve “children” know better than to approach Scrooge, gives us an understanding that Scrooge has a well-known reputation for being misanthropic. It is ironic how Scrooge appears alienated in the same way he ostracises the poor, yet the poor seem to fit into society better than he does. Perhaps Dickens meant to touch on the insignificance of money. Money cannot buy people happiness as even the wealthiest of people feel miserable and outcast if they are misanthropic like Scrooge.
Dickens also presents Scrooge as an outsider due to his miserliness and greed at the start of the novella, creating a moral and emotional distance between him and others. Scrooge’s stinginess roots from his obsession with wealth, which isolates him from the warmth and generosity that are valued in society. He claims that he “can’t afford to make idle people merry”. With Scrooge’s wealth, the words “can’t afford” emphasise his disbelief in charity. Scrooge clearly has no desire to help the poor, calling them “idle” which reinforces his Malthusian beliefs of the poor being too lazy to break out of the cycle of poverty. He goes a step further when he states that “if they would rather die (…) they had better do it and decreases the surplus population”. The word “surplus” relates back to the idea of money and therefore the economic language proves Scrooge’s obsession with money which sets him so far apart from others, believing that everyone’s raison d’etre is financial gain. Dickens also uses Scrooge as an audience surrogate to show the upper class audience the repercussions of their avaricious behaviour and lack of empathy towards the plight of the poor. This is because Scrooge is a representation of the quintessential upper class, and so portraying Scrooge as an outsider would force the contemporary reader to reflect on their own attitudes towards charity in an attempt to disassociate themselves from Scrooge. Therefore, Scrooge’s miserliness and greed is the principal cause of him becoming an outsider, as his views differ from the rest of society.

In conclusion, it is both Scrooge’s misanthropic behaviour and stinginess which ultimately lead to his alienation in society, which emphasise the detrimental consequences of a lack of empathy towards the poor. Dickens uses this to underline the essential need for empathy in order to change and avoid an outcast life.