Scrooge’s clerk, Bob Cratchit, represents the exploited, underpaid, yet hard-working
employee.
Despite Scrooge's miserly ways, Bob toasts him, declaring him ‘the Founder of the Feast’.
With this action, Dickens draws the attention of the reader to Bob’s Christian generosity
of human spirit in the face of financial hardship and ill treatment.
This is heightened by Mrs Cratchit’s contrasting attitude to Scrooge: ‘I wish I had him here.
I'd give him a piece of my mind to feast upon, and I hope he'd have a good appetite for it.’
Her righteous indignation is only calmed by her husband reminding her that it is Christmas.
Through dialogue, Dickens sets expectations about forgiveness and goodwill to others at
this time of year.
Dickens depicts Bob as a dedicated employee, even though Scrooge treats him badly.
At the start of the novella, we see how he is unable to keep himself warm at work.
Bob wears a ‘comforter’ (scarf) and tries ‘to warm himself at the candle’.
We also learn that ‘Scrooge had a very small fire, but the clerk's fire was so very much
smaller that it looked like one coal.
But he couldn't replenish it, for Scrooge kept the coal-box in his own room’.
By showing us what Bob is wearing, what Bob is doing and explaining why he is so cold,
Dickens invites the reader to feel empathy for Bob and to criticise Scrooge, who clearly
has no concern for Bob’s comfort or welfare.
Despite being a downtrodden employee, Bob has resilience.
Leaving Scrooge’s office at the end of the day, he ‘ran home to Camden Town as hard
as he could pelt, to play at blindman's-buff’.
He finds comfort and joy in his family and is excited about Christmas.
Dickens introduces Mrs Cratchit by drawing attention to her poverty: she is ‘dressed
out but poorly in a twice-turned gown, but brave in ribbons, which are cheap and make
a goodly show for sixpence’.
Despite wearing a dress so old that it has been taken apart, turned inside out and resewn
twice, she still makes an effort with her appearance.
Her effort to mark Christmas day with ‘ribbons’ contrasts with Scrooge’s cold, bare rooms
and lack of decoration.
Her role is defined by others as Bob’s ‘good wife’.
Bob reports after the future Tiny Tim’s death that Fred has expressed his condolences:
‘I am heartily sorry for it, Mr. Cratchit,’ he said, ‘and heartily sorry for your good
wife.’
By the bye, how he ever knew that, I don’t know.”
“Knew what, my dear?”
“Why, that you were a good wife,” replied Bob.
“Everybody knows that!” said Peter.
“Very well observed, my boy!” cried Bob.
“I hope they do.
‘Heartily sorry,’ he said, ‘for your good wife.
This conversation conforms to contemporary attitudes of the time towards married women,
who were judged by their role in relation to a husband.
An obedient wife was praised.
Dickens might be drawing attention to this point because of his experiences with his
mother who, seeing the value of an extra income, was very reluctant for him to leave his job
at Warren’s Blacking Warehouse after his father had been released from debtors’ prison.
Dickens later wrote: ‘I never afterwards forgot, I never shall forget, I never can
forget, that my mother was warm [lukewarm] for my being sent back [home]’.
These feelings of being betrayed by his mother contribute towards his beliefs that a husband
should be the decision maker, and his wife should be obedient and submissive.
Nevertheless, Mrs Cratchit does have an opinion about Scrooge, which she freely expresses
at the Christmas dinner: ‘I wish I had him here.
I'd give him a piece of my mind to feast upon, and I hope he'd have a good appetite for it’.
At the time, it was commonly believed that women were ruled by their emotions and not
capable of ‘rational’ thought.
When Dickens describes Mrs Cratchit’s emotional outburst, this therefore conforms to contemporary
ideas about women.
We have already discussed how her comment contrasts with Bob’s, emphasising Bob’s
Christian generosity of human spirit in the face of financial hardship and ill treatment.
Dickens also positions Mrs Cratchit with her righteous indignation as a loyal wife.
It is understandable that she dislikes Scrooge because she sees how hard her husband works
for him, yet he is not rewarded for his effort.
In order to appreciate her character more fully, we need to look at Bob’s response
to her criticism of Scrooge: “My dear,” was Bob’s mild answer, “Christmas
Day.”
She only backs down when her husband—head of the household, moral leader, capable of
logic—reminds her of the religious significance of the day.
Her wedding vows would have been to ‘love, honour and obey’ her husband.
Reluctantly, she obeys her husband, as every (in Dickens’s opinion) ‘good wife’ should.
Let’s consider the historical context here: In 1843, married women had no legal rights:
* • A woman was first the legal possession of her father and then that of her husband
(this is the origin of the tradition of a bride being given away by her father at a
church wedding).
* • When a woman married, everything she owned belonged to her husband.
* If she earnt any money, she was not allowed to keep it—she had to pass it to her husband.
Being the mother of six children would have made it difficult for Mrs Cratchit to work
outside the home—if her husband had allowed her.
Financially, she is totally dependent upon her husband.
This shows how important it is for Bob Cratchit to keep his job.
Well I hope you found this video useful.
Everything I go through in this video series can be found in the second edition of Mr Bruff’s
Guide to A Christmas Carol.
The links are in the description - you can pick up a copy.
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