![]() Tiny Tim also is used to remind Dickens' Christian readers that Jesus made "lame beggars walk and blind men see" and that, if they wish to consider themselves Christians, they should reject their "wicked cant" of religious hypocrisy and instead act with pity and compassion towards the poor, telling Scrooge that "in the sight of Heaven, you are more worthless and less fit to live than this poor man's child". Dickens suggests through the Ghost that Tiny Tim's illness is caused largely because of poverty, telling Scrooge that there will be a "vacant seat" in the future if "these shadows remain unaltered", explicitly suggesting that poverty causes illness and death, but with financial intervention and care this can be avoided, if men reject the "wicked cant" of selfishness, greed and lack of compassion for those in need. He is always presented as being vulnerable with his "little crutch" and his limbs supported by an "iron frame" suggesting that he has some kind of wasting disease. In addition, the mistreatment and exploitation of poor children by their employers is also highlighted by two of Fezziwig's party guests - the "boy who was suspected of not having enough board from his master" and the "girl who was proved to have had her ears pulled by her mistress", as well as the long hours Martha Cratchit has to work in a milliners.ĭickens also presents the plight of the poor through the depiction of Tiny Tim, the youngest Cratchit child. He is forced to work in unpleasant conditions, in a cold "dismal little cell, a sort of a tank", too afraid to ask for more coal for the fire and forced to warm himself on a candle. ![]() The fact that in Stave One, Bob is continually referred to simply as "the clerk" suggests his lack of importance to Scrooge, that he is only valued in terms of what service he can provide, rather than as a person in his own right. ![]() Jacob Marley warns Scrooge that three further spirits will haunt him. Bob Cratchit is Scrooge's clerk, who is paid a measly "fifteen bob" a week, which even Scrooge accepts is not enough to survive on because he believes Bob is a "lunatic" to contemplate celebrating Christmas on such a small income. A Christmas Carol is an allegory about a penny-pinching misanthrope, Ebenezer Scrooge, who on Christmas Eve receives an unexpected visit from the spectre of his long-dead business partner. The Ghost of Christmas present first takes Scrooge to see the Cratchits. The first strictly supernatural sight in the story is the door knocker on the outside door of Scrooge's chambers that metamorphoses, as the miser looks at it, into the face of his former partner, Jacob Marley, dead for seven years. building a feeling of community despite the poverty in the scene. The principle Dickens opposes this unjust view is through his depiction of the hard-working, loving Cratchit family. During his visits with the Ghost of Christmas Past, however, he sees his old manager Fezziwig throwing a party and comments that the happiness he gives is quite as great as if it had cost a fortune.
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