Scrooge and Fezziwig Apprenticeship

The Scrooge and Fezziwig Apprenticeship is a formative relationship from Ebenezer Scrooge's youth, presented during the Ghost of Christmas Past's visit. It contrasts the warmth, generosity, and communal joy of Fezziwig's employment with the cold, miserly path Scrooge later chose, and it becomes a crucial emotional catalyst for Scrooge's reclamation.

Identity and Introduction

When the Ghost of Christmas Past takes Scrooge to the warehouse of his old employer, Scrooge immediately recognizes the scene with an excitement that cuts through his usual reserve. At the sight of an old gentleman in a Welsh wig sitting behind a high desk, Scrooge cries out, "Why, it's old Fezziwig! Bless his heart, it's Fezziwig alive again!" Fezziwig is introduced as a jovial, benevolent master who embodies the spirit of Christmas generosity. He is a man who laughs all over himself, from his shoes to his organ of benevolence, and calls out in a comfortable, oily, rich, fat, jovial voice. The scene is set in a warehouse that, under Fezziwig's direction, is transformed into a snug, warm, and bright ballroom for a Christmas Eve celebration.

The Christmas Eve Celebration

The heart of the apprenticeship memory is the Christmas Eve party Fezziwig throws for his employees and the community. With a sharp clap of his hands, Fezziwig declares, "No more work to-night. Christmas-eve, Dick. Christmas, Ebenezer! Let's have the shutters up before a man can say Jack Robinson!" The two apprentices, Scrooge and Dick Wilkins, clear the warehouse with astonishing speed, packing off every movable item. In come a fiddler, Mrs. Fezziwig, the three Miss Fezziwigs, and a host of young men and women, including the housemaid with her cousin the baker, the cook with her brother's friend the milkman, and the boy from over the way. They dance twenty couple at once, with Fezziwig and Mrs. Fezziwig leading as the top couple, dancing with such vigor that a positive light appears to issue from Fezziwig's calves. The feast includes cake, negus, a great piece of Cold Roast, a great piece of Cold Boiled, mince-pies, and plenty of beer. When the clock strikes eleven, the ball breaks up, and Mr. and Mrs. Fezziwig shake hands with every person individually, wishing each a Merry Christmas.

Scrooge's Emotional Response and the Lesson Learned

During the entire celebration, Scrooge acts like a man out of his wits, his heart and soul in the scene with his former self. He corroborates everything, remembers everything, and undergoes the strangest agitation. When the Ghost of Christmas Past remarks that it was a "small matter" to make these silly folks so full of gratitude, having spent but a few pounds of mortal money, Scrooge heatedly defends Fezziwig. He argues that Fezziwig's power lies not in money but in "words and looks; in things so slight and insignificant that it is impossible to add and count 'em up." The happiness Fezziwig gives, Scrooge insists, is quite as great as if it cost a fortune. This realization immediately turns inward: Scrooge feels the Spirit's glance and stops, then confesses, "I should like to be able to say a word or two to my clerk just now. That's all." The memory of Fezziwig's kindness directly contrasts with Scrooge's own treatment of Bob Cratchit, and it plants the first seed of his desire to change.

Contrast with Scrooge's Later Life

The Fezziwig apprenticeship stands in stark opposition to the life Scrooge has built for himself. Where Fezziwig's warehouse was a place of communal joy, Scrooge's counting-house is a cold, dismal cell where he keeps his clerk's fire so small it looks like one coal. Where Fezziwig spent freely to create happiness, Scrooge is a tight-fisted, squeezing, wrenching, grasping old sinner who ices his office in the dog-days and doesn't thaw it one degree at Christmas. The memory of Fezziwig's generosity becomes a moral benchmark against which Scrooge measures his own failings. The Ghost of Christmas Past uses this contrast to show Scrooge the path he has abandoned, and the lesson is so powerful that Scrooge, upon his transformation, immediately applies it by sending the prize turkey to the Cratchits and raising Bob's salary.

Narrative and Thematic Significance

The Fezziwig episode is a pivotal moment in Scrooge's reclamation. It provides the emotional and moral counterpoint to the miserly existence he has embraced. The memory is not merely nostalgic; it is a direct challenge to Scrooge's worldview, demonstrating that true wealth lies in human connection and generosity, not in hoarded gold. The scene's vivid, joyful detail—the dances, the food, the laughter—makes the lesson visceral. Scrooge's defense of Fezziwig, speaking unconsciously like his former self, shows that the capacity for warmth and gratitude still exists within him, buried beneath years of avarice. This episode, more than any other, gives Scrooge a concrete model of the kind of master and man he can become, and it is the foundation upon which his final, ecstatic transformation is built.