poverty & social injustice

• throughout the novella, dickens depicts the huge gap between the rich and poor in victorian england
• scrooge represents the wealthy upper classes; at the beginning, he shows no sympathy for the poor, arguing that those who can't support themselves should be in prison, in a workhouse or dead
• his attitude is based around the assumption that people are poor because of their own laziness, however, dickens shows the reader that this is not the case
• the cratchit's are poor but it's clear that this it through no fault of their own; bob is a hardworking, honest and kind person, and his eldest son peter also works to support the family, but they still struggle for money simply because they are badly paid
• tiny tim represents the thousands of innocent children who lived in poverty in victorian england
• tiny tim's potential death shows the reader that the lives of the poorest people are dependent on compassion from those who are more fortunate
• as bob's employer, scrooge is in a position to improve the lives of the cratchits, but it's up to scrooge to decide whether to do so or not
• dickens shows that a relatively small amount of money for someone like scrooge can be life-changing for someone like bob
• dickens shows the reader that if everyone shares some responsibility for the welfare of the poor then all of society benefits
• the appearance of ignorance and want exemplifies this idea
• through them, dickens shows that children who are born into poverty and denied access to education have no chance of improving their situation and are stuck in poverty all their lives
• dickens argues that generosity towards the poor is beneficial to all of society as it breaks this cyle of poverty
• the alternative for those poor children to grow up into desperate adults who turn to crime to make a living