Calvinist Stereotypes in Media
Ebenezer Scrooge is the classic non-Puritan Calvinist stereotype in media: He was wealthy (or otherwise powerful) but lived frugally, Scottish in ancestry (like many of the non-Puritan Calvinist immigrants), miserly, honest in business dealings (as can be seen by his keeping Jacob Marley’s name on his business), cold, calculating, sociopathically pragmatic, dubious of charity, unconcerned with others’ opinions of him, dour in personality (though Calvinists are sometimes stereotyped as being wacky, overenthusiastic, and heady), and unconcerned or obsessed with suffering. The only major classic Calvinist stereotypes Scrooge lacks are status as an inventor/scientist, moral absolutism, open hostility toward bureaucrats, and either overindulgence in or total abstention from alcohol. Because Scrooge lacks any living partner, he also doesn’t exemplify how if a Calvinist stereotype character has a romantic interest or family, they usually work together.
Scrooge is even physically depicted like most Calvinist stereotypes: Tall, thin, and gaunt, swathed in black, white, and red clothing, and sporting an implied physical disability (often shown through the use of a cane or facial scars—even in my—Malcolm’s—family, some people “show off” physical disabilities or endurance through suffering as a status symbol). The use of black and red in clothing was an area of contention between Puritan and non-Puritan Calvinists, as Puritans often saw black and red as arrogant colors and thus bad while non-Puritan Calvinists were known for embracing elitism and arrogance, believing themselves naturally better than others.
Even after Calvinist culture mostly died out, its impact on American society was so significant that Calvinist stereotypes are still depicted in popular media. Examples range from Silco in Arcane to Scrooge McDuck in DuckTales, Varrick in The Legend of Korra, the Krum clan in Klaus, Rick of Rick and Morty, and Darth Vader / Anakin in Star Wars. (If you are thinking: “But George Lucas didn’t say that was the stereotype he was going for,” remember, he also didn’t say “Jewish” was the stereotype he was going for with Watto. This is how the accidental use of stereotypes works—they worm their way into our cultural memory and slip out because they make “sense” as collections of traits we expect to see together.)