Mr. Fezziwig is a character from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. He is a seemingly prosperous London businessman to whom both the young Ebenezer Scrooge and Jacob Marley were apprenticed. A jovial and in most versions rotund fellow, he serves as an odd counterpoint to Scrooge. On the one hand, he embodies all the lessons about life Scrooge has lost and rejected. On the other hand, when Scrooge sees him in the vision provided by The Ghost of Christmas Past, he is clearly delighted and overjoyed, and in most versions makes it clear that his beloved former employer has passed on. In some versions, young Scrooge briefly bemoans the expense of the party, but quickly becomes just as eager to get to what even older Scrooge readily admits was a wondrous event, Fezziwig's Christmas party. Unlike his time as a young boy, there is no misery or loneliness here, and he even has a best friend in Dick Wilkins, whom he says he was inseparable from. It is at one of Fezziwig's Christmas parties that he meets the love of his life, usually named Belle.
Fezziwig's physical description and demeanor again seems almost a point-by-point inversion of Scrooge's description as the story begins. Some versions add why and how Scrooge left his employ, but in most it is simply implied that this was after all an apprenticeship, and that Scrooge was expected to go his own way eventually. Even without acrimony between the two, it is shown how Scrooge in the name of greed ended up forgetting what he plainly saw as the best part of his life, and the reminder of the Ghost is a major step in his path to redemption.
In some versions of the story Fezziwig has suffered some malady and his fortunes have dwindled, and it is his trust in Scrooge & Marley that has led to his downfall, and in turn leads Belle to be disgusted that Scrooge has exploited his old boss. In most versions Scrooge and Marley struck out on their own, rather than inheriting Fezziwig's company.
Portrayals[]
Picture | Performer | Production | Year | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Forrester Harvey | A Christmas Carol | 1938 | ||
Roddy Hughes | Scrooge | 1951 | ||
Voiced by Paul Frees |
Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol | 1962 | ||
Laurence Naismith | Scrooge | 1970 | ||
J. Thaddeus Toad | Mickey's Christmas Carol | 1983 | ||
Timothy Bateson | A Christmas Carol | 1984 | ||
Fozzie Bear (puppeteered by Frank Oz) |
The Muppet Christmas Carol | 1992 | This version of the character is named Fozziwig. | |
Barney Rubble (voiced by Frank Welker) |
A Flintstones' Christmas Carol | 1994 | ||
Voiced by Colin McFarlane |
Christmas Carol: The Movie | 2001 | Fezziwig is seen hosting his Christmas party attended by Scrooge, Belle, Scrooge's sister Fan and her husband Fredrick. | |
Voiced by Bob Hoskins |
A Christmas Carol | 2009 | ||
Voiced by James Cosmo |
Scrooge: A Christmas Carol | 2022 |