Family

• What does Dickens highlight as important in his text?

  The importance of family
• How is family portrayed in Dickens' text?

  • Source of comfort
  • Source of strength
  • Source of joy
• What do the visions shown to Scrooge by the Ghost of Christmas Present illustrate about family?

  They show family as a source of joy
• How many children do the Cratchits have?

  Six
• What characteristics define the Cratchit family?

  • Close-knit and affectionate
  • Supportive and loyal
  • Unite in grief over Tiny Tim's death
• What does Dickens suggest about the Cratchits' social status?

  They have "nothing of high mark"
• How does family love affect the Cratchits according to Dickens?

  It strengthens them and makes them happy
• What was common in families during the middle of the nineteenth century?

  • Large families were common
  • Many families had five or six children
• Family life is shown to be full of happiness

  1. Throughout A Christmas Carol, Dickens links the theme of family with the idea of happiness. For example, Fred's family are shown having fun together as they celebrate Christmas. Fred's laughter is "irresistibly contagious". His wife "laughed as heartily as he" and their friends "roared out, lustily"

  2. Scrooge is also shown a vision of Belle's boisterous and playful family. Belle and her daughter laugh "heartily" at the turmoil caused by the younger children, and Dickens says the family is full of "joy, and gratitude, and ecstasy"
• At first Scrooge doesn't see the point in family

  1. In contrast to the other main characters in the text, Scrooge doesn't see the virtue in family life. Every year he dismisses Fred's invitation to dine with his family in favour of solitude

  2. When Fred tells Scrooge that he married because he fell in love, Scrooge laughs at him and says that love is the "one thing in the world more ridiculous than a merry Christmas"

  3. Scrooge can only think about the financial burden that family brings. He wonders how Bob Cratchit can feel "merry" at Christmas when he has to support his whole family with his low wage - "my clerk, with fifteen shillings a-week, and a wife and family, talking about a merry Christmas." Similarly, his reaction to the Ghost of Christmas Present's eighteen hundred brothers is to mutter that it's "a tremendous family to provide for"
• How was Scrooge described in his youth?

  As a solitary child, neglected by friends
• What does Scrooge weep about when shown a vision of his schoolroom?

  He weeps about being alone again
• How did Scrooge cope with his loneliness as a child?

  He created companionship from book characters
• What does the scene with Belle foreshadow about Scrooge's life?

  His solitary life after failing to create a family
• What turning point occurs for Scrooge regarding Belle?

  He stops caring about others and obsesses over money
• How does Scrooge justify his fixation on money?

  He claims it makes him "wiser"
• What does Scrooge see in Chapter Four regarding his rejection of family?

  He sees the isolation it brings him after death
• What do the thieves say about Scrooge after his death?

  He might have had someone to care for him
• How does Scrooge's selfishness affect him after death?

  He has no one to take care of him
• What impact did Fan's death have on Scrooge?

  It greatly affected him and increased his isolation
• How is Scrooge's corpse described after his death?

  As plundered, bereft, unwatched, unwept, uncared for
• How does Scrooge's death contrast with Tiny Tim's death?

  Scrooge is uncared for, while Tiny Tim is mourned
• Who rescued Scrooge from his isolation as a child?

  His father
• What does Fan say about the family home?

  It is "like Heaven"
• Why can't Scrooge be saved from loneliness?

  He lacks a family of his own
• What does Scrooge regret about Belle?

  Missing his chance to have a family
• What does Scrooge never have the chance to be?

  A father
• How does Scrooge's situation change at the end?

  He becomes part of two families
• Who does Scrooge become a "second father" to?

  Tiny Tim
• How does Scrooge help the Cratchits?

  He endeavours to help them
• What relationship does Scrooge embrace at the end?

  His relationship with Fred
• When does Scrooge visit Fred?

  On Christmas day
• What was Queen Victoria's family presented as?

  • A loving family
  • A happy family
  • A model family to subjects
• How is Marley related to Scrooge?

  He is the nearest thing to family
• What does Marley do for Scrooge as a ghost?

  He shows deep interest and watches over him
• What does Marley pass down to Scrooge?

  His rooms like a family heirloom
• Why is it appropriate for Marley to help Scrooge?

  He helps bring about Scrooge's redemption