Gender roles affect every part of our life such as the way we express our feelings, how we dress, and the nature of our relationships with others. Traditional gender characteristics and roles of how men and women should behave vary across cultures. Moreover, different people internalize these culturally specific and traditional gender characteristics and roles in various ways. This paper will examine how two characters from popular narratives, Ebenezer Scrooge and Georgiana, manage and internalize their gender-specific characteristics and roles. Scrooge is the main character in the famous novella titled A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Georgiana is a beautiful woman that plays the wife of the main character, Aylmer, in the story called “The Birthmark.” Scrooge accepts the roles and characteristics of a typical male but then modifies these prescriptions of masculinity to be more gender neutral. On the other hand, Georgiana accepts the roles and characteristics of a typical female by embodying the role of an obedient wife, particularly when she undergoes the surgery to remove her birthmark at her husband’s request. Although Scrooge embraces the masculine ideals of the nineteenth century, he also alters them, strengthening their neutrality. During the 1800s, the role of a businessman was solely a male position. Only men could be businessmen because as breadwinners they were responsible for obtaining an income for the household whereas females were regulated to the domestic sphere. In the beginning of the narrative Scrooge, as a powerful businessman, displays stereotypically masculine qualities. He is greedy and obsessed with solitude; however, after visiting his past, present and future with the three ghosts he then changes and adopts more gender neutral characteristics, such as caring and giving. Thus, he evolves from a selfish character that prioritizes his wealth to a man who cares about others. Scrooge initially believes that for someone to be a man they must be money-centered and business oriented. It is Scrooge’s love interest from the past that reveals to him his preoccupation with money. She says, “‘When we were both poor and content to be so, until, in good season, we could improve our worldly fortune by our patient industry. You are changed, when it was made, you were another man.’ ‘I was a boy,’ he said impatiently” (Dickens 31). This illustrates that Scrooge has changed over time and has adopted masculine qualities throughout his life. Prior to his business success he relied on his companionship for his love for attaining happiness. However, he asserts hastily that it is because he was a boy before and that is why he was not so money-driven. Thus, Scrooge’s impatience displays that he does not believe that he has changed into another man because he was not even a man in the first place; he was only a boy. He progresses and evolves into a man by focusing more on wealth and money, and embodying the role of a powerful businessman. Therefore, he has internalized the gender-specific roles of the male breadwinner by not only believing in these prescriptions but also by fulfilling them. Scrooge has accepted the role of a male by believing that a man should provide for the family. He says to the second spirit with a big family, “a tremendous family to provide for” (Dickens 39). This shows that Scrooge has internalized the traditional male role of being the provider of the family; an important responsibility. Even though Scrooge has no family to provide for he has managed to maintain the traditional role of a male because of his power and financial success. This is evident when Scrooge’s niece says, “‘I am sure he is very rich, Fred’ ‘At least you always tell me so’” (Dickens 50). This shows that he is rich and earns money so he has accepted the gender-specific roles of males generating income. Scrooge is more profit motivated and believes that happiness comes with earning and having money. Scrooge states, “Merry Christmas! What right have you to be merry? What reason have you to be merry? You’re poor enough” (Dickens 6). This shows that he sees happiness in terms of economic wealth since he cannot fathom why someone impoverished could be happy. Consequently, without money there is no happiness since the role of earning money is what every male should aspire to do, more specifically every businessman, which in turn will make them satisfied as they fulfill their appropriate role. In addition, Scrooge is a hard, cold miser who counts his profits and spending. When his sole partner and friend, Jacob Marley, had died “Scrooge was not so dreadfully cut up by the sad event, but that he was an excellent man of business on the very day of the funeral, and solemnized it with an undoubted bargain” (Dickens 4). Scrooge did not visibly display signs of grief and emotion on the day that his only friend and partner died, perhaps because these sentiments are usua