Tiny tim quote

• Stave Three: 'Alas for Tiny Tim, he bore a little crutch, and has his limbs supported by an iron frame.'
• Tiny Tim


  • Cratchits youngest son
  • Example of the very real impact of poverty on the young and vulnerable
• Physically disabled saintly child

  • Stock character in Victorian Literature
  • Dickens uses Tiny Tim to provoke sympathy and elicit support for his social message
  • Tiny Tim is the embodiment of the 'surplus population'
• Semantic field of weakness

  • little
  • limbs supported
• Metaphor


  The 'crutch' as well as the 'frame' entrap as much as they support
• The poor in Victorian England


  Could only survive by working in low-paid positions
• Low-paid positions


  Allowed them to maintain their standard of living, but never improve
• Poverty is an inescapable cycle