Who is Belle in A Christmas Carol?
Everyone thinks they know who Belle is. She’s the gal who dumped Scrooge, of course. But what do you really know about her?
I would venture to guess very little.
Much of what we think we know about this woman is not based on the original text. It is generally Hollywood that paints our picture of Belle in embellished ways that Dickens never mentioned.
Here is exactly what we know about her from the original manuscript of A Christmas Carol . . .
FACT #1: Belle appears only in stave two.
Okay, but what in the world is a stave? I mean besides pieces of wood or a musical notation. Great question! A stave in Dickens’ case is simply him being creative, using the word to denote a different chapter. In his tale A Cricket on the Hearth, he used the word chirp to signify different sections of the book.
FACT #2: Belle was Scrooge’s fiancée but broke it off when he became obsessed with wealth.
Though the text doesn’t say so overtly, I say kudos to this brave woman! It took a lot of gumption to turn down a prospective husband because hearth and home was the goal of most Victorian women.
FACT #3: Dickens calls Belle “a fair young girl in a mourning-dress” and later gives her a name.
And that’s it. We don’t know if she was blonde or brunette. Had freckles or a mole. We have no idea if she was short, tall, round-faced or long of nose. There is no official physical description.
FACT #4: Belle is described as dowerless (not poor) but with no backstory or family name.
To be dowerless simply means she had no inheritance or land to bring into the marriage. It did not mean she was destitute and I think it could be argued she was not. Ebenezer would not have been attracted to a poor girl as he abhorred poverty.
That, my friends, is the sum total of what we know about Belle. Precious little, eh? But that is great news for an author. It gave me license to flesh her out, and if you’d like a little peek behind the scenes, here is part of the character profile I created based on these facts.
Isabelle Grace Beaumont
30 years old.
Smells: ginger, cinnamon, the heady fragrance of dew dampening a fir tree
Eyes: rich coffee brown
Face: heart shaped
Hair: Dark brown
Personality: Decisive. Determined. Kind.
Style: fashionable but not fancy
External GMC
Belle wants to run the best orphanage to carry on Mrs. Trumble’s legacy
Because she’s compassionate about the children and would like to ease their loss of Mrs. Trumble by providing the best Christmas ever
But the orphanage is in huge disarray and she can’t keep up with all the demands of running the place.
Internal GMC
Belle wants to manage every detail of her life and others
Because she has taken on the matron of the house since her mother died
But life takes unpredictable and uncontrollable turns
Sound like a character you’d like to read more about? You can in Belle’s Christmas Carol. Here is a blurb:
When Ebeneezer Scrooge's former fiancée, Belle Beaumont, unexpectedly inherits a struggling London orphanage, she dreams of giving the children of Haven House the most splendid Christmas they've ever known. But her vision of snowflakes and merriment quickly collides with reality: Fire damage has rendered part of the building unsafe, and the paperwork is years behind.
Barrister Rafe Munro is fighting to clear an innocent man and searching for a child, who may be his relative. His pursuit leads him to Haven House, where Rafe offers to help Belle sort through the chaotic records that might lead to the missing child. Amid the mayhem of running an orphanage full of mischievous children and eccentric staff, will Belle and Rafe find love and the answers they seek this holiday season?
