thomas malthus

• Thomas Malthus (1766 - 1834) was an influential British economist who had strong beliefs about the impact the poor have in society.
• Malthus believed that poverty was an inevitable consequence of the increasing population.

  • Famine and poverty, he saw, were unavoidable, as due to an increasing population, it meant an increase in food demand.

  As the food demand could not be met, it means that individuals would have to starve.
• Dickens also makes Scrooge have hyperbolic (over-exaggerated) views towards Christmas and the poor through referencing the poor as 'surplus population'.

  • He shows that throughout the novella, the detrimental effect of having an ignorant Malthusian mindset and vilifies it through the presentation of Scrooge at the beginning of the novella.
• Link to novella:

  • Dickens political diatribe (criticism of politics at the time) can be seen as anti-Maltusian tale.

  He directly indicts the Malthusian idea of the scarcity of supplies through the ghost of Christmas present who sits on a pile of food and symbolises abundance.