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Starting with this extract, explore how Dickens uses the Cratchit
family to show the struggles of the poor.
Write about:
how Dickens presents the Cratchit family in this extract
how Dickens uses the Cratchit family to show the struggles of
the poor in the novel as a whole. [30 marks]
Dickens presents the Cratchits as a relatable and morally good
family. He does this to evoke sympathy from the reader so that they
may therefore reflect and focus on their own personal attitudes and
beliefs towards poverty. Dickens embodiment of the Cratchits in the
allegorical novella as symbolic of the plight of poverty that is
widespread and floods Victorian England highlights the common
struggles that the poor faces.
Bob’s use of an exclamative sentence when he cheerfully says “Oh, a
wonderful pudding!” shows the excitement and delight he currently
possesses at this very moment of time which is also symbolic of how
many others would be feeling at this warm and festive occasion. It is
unusual for them to experience such tasteful luxuries and therefore
they are awed by the many flavours that the pudding dominates. The
fact that Mrs Cratchit tried very hard to create this “wonderful
pudding” and make it the “greatest success” achieved by her since
her marriage is painted upon as a juxtaposition towards the
Malthusian views that Dicken’s main protagonist Ebenezer Scrooge
carried out and shows the reader how the poor are not just “idle
people “who should “rather die and decrease the surplus
population” or the “deserving poor” which was a myth that was held
my many Victorian readers. Instead, Dickens aims to expel this myth
through the publication of this novella by showing us how the poor
are not lazy and do not deserve to be poor because they are
uneducated or have no job but do work hard to keep themselves
alive, their family well and make the most of their life as Christians
since God created them for a purpose. Mrs Cratchit “had doubts
about the quantity of flour”. The monetary noun “quantity” brings
forth connotations of money, wealth and amounts of people or other
items. This could be linked to the increasing population of Victorian
London due to the industrial revolution but also poverty which
Dickens tries to emphasise to inflict and spark a change within us as
the reader so that we may be to reflect on our own behaviours
through the sympathy we feel. This could also be linked to business
man Scrooge who was described “as hard and sharp as flint. "We
learn that through Dicken’s use of a simile here, anybody has the
possibility to change and help the struggles of the poor, later shown
in Stave 5 of the novella. the adjective ‘hard’ suggests that he lacks
warmth, empathy, and compassion while the adjective ‘sharp’
suggests pain, implying that Scrooge has no mercy towards others.
The comparison with ‘flint’ is interesting, however. Flint is used to
create fire. Dickens might be implying that there is the potential for a
spark of warmth within Scrooge, who might yet change. Referring to
Mrs Cratchit, the abstract noun “doubts” could link to the Cratchit’s
life, every day they receive new doubts and these doubts are
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