family

• in a christmas carol, dickens shows that a loving family provides companionship, support and strength, even in difficult times
• the cratchits exemplify the theme of family in the novella: although they are poor, they love each other, find joy in each other's company and look after each other in their hardest moments
• dickens presents family as bringing a level of happiness that no amount of money could buy
• scrooge is alone at the start of the novella, but dickens makes it clear that this is his own choice - he has his nephew, fred, but rejects the chance to have a relationship with him
• scrooge is bitter about the neglect he suffered from his own father and the chance of a family of his own that he lost when belle broke up with himd
• dickens shows that scrooge's bitterness about the past holds him back from the chance of happiness in the future
• when scrooge finally accepts fred's dinner invitation and opens his heart to the cratchits, scrooge finally experiences all the joy of a loving family that he rejected for years
• dickens also shows that family relationships last for a lifetime and that it's never too late to patch things up with a family member
• fred never stops showing scrooge love, even though he's constantly rejected, and when scrooge finally realises the error of his ways, fred shows him unconditional forgiveness