Bob Cratchit, Scrooge’s Clerk, is introduced to the novella as a timid and nervous man. He remains unnamed for the first stave and is instead referred to as “the Clerk”. Perhaps Dickens only identifies Bob according to his occupation to highlight how the lower-class didn’t have an individual identity and were instead only recognised for their service. This illustrates the way in which the working class were defined by their positions in the workforce, which is where their value came from. In this way, it could be argued that Bob Cratchit’s role in the novella is to represent the plight of the poor, as he is an immediate source of sympathy in the novella.