Bob Crachit is an incredibly loving and jovial man despite his "Dismal little cell", a metaphor for terrible working conditions.

• Cheerful -"Bob was very cheerful with them".
• Loving -"Bob hugged his daughter to his heart's content".
• Forgiving -"Mr Scrooge, the founder of the feast!"
• Caring with Tiny Tim who sits "very close to his father's side".

Tiny Tim is "crippled" but he does not complain.
In stave 3 we understand that Tiny Tim wants people to be reminded about "who made lame beggars walk, and blind men see".

He also states "God Bless us every one!", both quotations display an unmissable generosity and maturity in the child.

Dickens uses Tiny Tim to highlight the detrimental effects of poverty, that a form of innocence and goodness will die resultingly.

Hard-working family, Dickens language and structure are focused on highlighting how the Cratchit family is not lazy nor unwilling to work.

• Bobs son Peter "Son and heir" aspires to become wealthy and successful and proudly wears Bobs "shirt collar" He wants to become a "man of "business".

  
  

• Martha works long hours in a mill.

  
  

• The young Cratchits are excitable which echoes the positive emotions of the household-" crammed spoons into their mouths, lest they could shriek for goose".

Structure, Dickens uses long sentences to emphasise how enduring their lives are and the length of labour they suffer.
Short clauses are used in combination to highlight the jovial, erratic emotions the Crachits display

1834 POOR LAW was intended to curb costs of poor relief.

The act saw relief being given to only those who engaged/entered workhouses, which were greatly feared due to the dangers. They were deliberately unpleasant to discourage the poor from relying on society.

Dickens uses Scrooge to emphasise to the reader his view on poverty and classes. Scrooge makes harsh comments about "surplus population" and sending the poor to workhouses and prisons, these ignorant remarks display scrooge as the antagonist and people begin to develop a sympathetic socialist viewpoint.

THOMAS MALTHUS -malthus believed that poverty was inevitable.
In 1798, he wrote that human population would grow faster than food supplies. He believed that the poor dying was an inevitable result of overpopulation.

Dickens believed that Malthus was wrong and believed the poor shouldn't suffer because the rich were too selfish to share.
In stave 1, Scrooge says the it would be better to "decrease the surplus population". This is a direct reference to Malthus. Dickens is again portraying the rich and ignorant as the antagonists.

CHILDHOOD

• Dickens was the second of eight children.
• His family moved around a lot due to financial issues before settling in a poor neighbourhood in Camden Town.
• By 12 years old Charles was working in a factory handling "blacking"/ shoe polish.
• His father had just been sentenced to debtors prison and his family had moved, leaving Dickens to live alone.
• His time in poverty shaped the structure of his writing.
• By 1832 he had become a reporter where he began to establish himself as a writer.

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION-from 1780 saw mass-migration to cities for factory jobs.. Factory workers often had harsh working conditions and workers often had to live in extreme poverty.

Cities became overcrowded: famine, disease and crime became common.

"What right have you yo be merry... you're poor enough" stave 1

"The clerk's fire was so much smaller that it looked like one coal"-stave 1

"A poor excuse for picking a man's pocket every 25th of december"-stave 1

"The happiness he gives is quite as great as if it costs a fortune".-stave 2

"I'll raise your salary, and endeavour to assist your struggling family"

"might be pleasant to them to remember who made lame beggars walk, and blind men see."-stave 3

"Nobody said or thought it was a small pudding for a large family".

"Reeked with crime filth and misery"-stave 4, streets of london

RELIGION-Victorian society was very much Christian.

• Many believed that you must follow a strict moral code of church, no alcohol and sexual restraint.

  
  

• Dickens however believed that as a Christian you should practice good deeds.

  
  

• Sabbatarianism- victorian practice for sunday to be a day of rest and church. Dickens doesn't believe in this as it "deprive" the poor of things such as a cooked dinner.

EDUCATION-Dickens believed sociatal issues were caused by a lack of education

• Dickens supported several projects educating the poor, such as Ragged schools.