The central character in Charles Dicken's novella A Christmas Carol. Scrooge is the quintessential skinflint. One Christmas Eve, in his dismal, old house, Scrooge has a dream in which he is visited by three spirits:
The Ghost of Christmas Past, The Ghost of Christmas Present, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. The visions the spirits present to Scrooge touch him deeply. He awakens a new man, a convert to a life of kindness,decency and generosity.
A Scrooge is a man from whose soul all vestiges of humanity have been squeezed. Although Scrooge suffers a change of heart and mind, he is rememberd mainly as a repulsive miser.
~Facts on File Dictionary of Cultural and Historical Allusions.
