Fred

• Scrooge/Cratchit - [BEFORE][S1] "A merry Christmas, uncle! God save you! cried a cheerful voice" | "he was all in a glow ... his eyes sparkled"

  • Sudden change of mood/tone from depressing and sullen to a burst of delight.
  • Unlike the semantic field surrounding scrooge, Fred brings joy and enthusiasm along with him - he acts as a FOIL, painting Scrooge in a more Morose light than he actually is to emphasise his avaricious qualities.
• Scrooge/Cratchit/Fred - [BEFORE][S1] - "a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time" | "to think of people below them" | "The clerk in the tank involuntarily applauded ... extinguished the last frail spark forever"

  • attacks the classist society with asyndetic listing, it fixes our eyes on his inability to think of people as humans
  • By clapping, Cratchit shows a brief moment of spirited resistance before falling silent again, fearing for his job. The "frail spark" of fire he accidentally extinguishes like his spark of courage dying out. Dickens highlights how the poor were easily suppressed.
• Fred [S3] - "His wealth is of no use to him. He don't do any good with it' 'ha, ha, ha!" "i have no patience with him"

  • Fred is the foil to Scrooge's behaviour as he is charitable and accepts social responsibility. He is Dicken's version of the ideal middle class man.
  • He is mocking and being cynical of how his Uncle goes about his life. Fred's generosity of spirit stands in contrast to Scrooge's lack of humanity."