How is Scrooge portrayed as an outsider in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol?

Before his character is reformed, Scrooge is portrayed as cold-hearted and miserly man who values money over friendship. As such, we see evidence of his status as a social outcast and outsider in the first stave (or chapter) of the story. In the opening paragraphs, for example, Dickens' writes that Scrooge is as "solitary as an oyster" and that he very little to do with the rest of society:

"Nobody ever stopped him in the...

Before his character is reformed, Scrooge is portrayed as cold-hearted and miserly man who values money over friendship. As such, we see evidence of his status as a social outcast and outsider in the first stave (or chapter) of the story. In the opening paragraphs, for example, Dickens' writes that Scrooge is as "solitary as an oyster" and that he very little to do with the rest of society:

"Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with gladsome looks, ``My dear Scrooge, how are you...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."

Dickens also states that Scrooge spent all of his days in his counting-house. He never visits other people and he even turns down his nephew's request to spend Christmas Day together. 

Later, when visited by the Ghost of Christmas Present, some of the images shown to him demonstrate his status as an outsider. At Fred's house, for example, the game of Yes and No shows how little he is valued by other people. They compare Scrooge to a "disagreeable" and "savage animal" because they cannot relate to him as a fellow human. Similarly, at Old Joe's Shop, in stave four, the women find it morally easy to steal Scrooge's possessions and sell them. Again, these women cannot relate to Scrooge because his values and character are so different to their own. His material focus and emphasis on wealth alienated him and made him stand out:

"Every person has a right to take care of themselves. He always did!"

"Why wasn't he natural in his lifetime? If he had been, he'd have had somebody to look after him when he was struck with Death, instead of lying gasping out his last there, alone by himself."

It is only when Scrooge is redeemed, in the fifth stave, that he loses his outsider status. By reconnecting with people like Fred and Tiny Tim, he becomes a well-liked and respected member of society.