Scrooge and Bob Cratchit Employment

The employment of Bob Cratchit by Ebenezer Scrooge is the story's primary economic relationship and the crucible of its moral transformation. It begins as a stark illustration of Victorian labor exploitation and ends as the most concrete proof of Scrooge's redemption, when the miser becomes a second father to Cratchit's family.

Conditions of Employment

Bob Cratchit works in a "dismal little cell beyond, a sort of tank," copying letters for Scrooge. His fire is so small it looks like "one coal," and he cannot replenish it because Scrooge keeps the coal-box in his own room; whenever the clerk approaches with the shovel, the master predicts they will have to part. Cratchit earns only fifteen shillings a week—a sum Scrooge later derides as insufficient for a man with a wife and family to speak of merry Christmas. On Christmas Eve, Scrooge grudgingly grants him the next day off, calling it "a poor excuse for picking a man's pocket every twenty-fifth of December," and demands he be "here all the earlier next morning." The clerk, who boasts no great-coat, slides down Cornhill twenty times in honor of the holiday before running home to Camden Town to play blindman's buff.

Scrooge's Initial Contempt

Scrooge regards Cratchit with open disdain. When the clerk involuntarily applauds Scrooge's nephew's defense of Christmas, Scrooge threatens: "Let me hear another sound from you, and you'll keep your Christmas by losing your situation!" He later mutters about his clerk's fifteen shillings and family, declaring he will "retire to Bedlam." Scrooge's worldview, expressed to charity collectors, is that the poor should go to prisons and workhouses, and if they would rather die, "they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population"—a philosophy that directly threatens the Cratchit family's existence.

The Cratchit Home and Scrooge's Role

The Ghost of Christmas Present takes Scrooge to the Cratchits' four-roomed house, where the family gathers for Christmas dinner despite their poverty. Mrs. Cratchit bitterly calls Scrooge "the Founder of the Feast," wishing she could give him "a piece of my mind to feast upon." She drinks his health only for her husband's sake and the day's, calling him "an odious, stingy, hard, unfeeling man." The children drink the toast without heartiness, and Tiny Tim "didn't care twopence for it." Scrooge is "the Ogre of the family," and his name casts a dark shadow on the party for five full minutes. Yet Scrooge, watching, feels an interest he has never known before, and asks the Spirit whether Tiny Tim will live. The Ghost quotes Scrooge's own words back at him—"If he be like to die, he had better do it, and decrease the surplus population"—and Scrooge hangs his head in penitence.

The Vision of Tiny Tim's Death

The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come shows Scrooge the Cratchit home after Tiny Tim's death. The house is quiet; the children sit still; Mrs. Cratchit says the color hurts her eyes. Bob Cratchit enters, his voice breaking as he speaks of his little child. He has walked to the churchyard and promised to visit every Sunday. The family draws comfort from Fred's kindness, and Bob expresses hope that Peter may get a better situation. Scrooge, witnessing this grief, is driven to ask the identity of the dead man whose body he has seen plundered—and learns it is his own.

The Transformation

On Christmas morning, Scrooge awakens transformed. He sends the prize turkey—twice the size of Tiny Tim—to the Cratchits anonymously, laughing until he cries. The next morning, he arrives at the office early to catch Bob coming late. When Cratchit enters, Scrooge feigns his old anger, then leaps from his stool, gives Bob a dig in the waistcoat, and announces: "I am about to raise your salary!" He claps him on the back and says, "A merrier Christmas, Bob, my good fellow, than I have given you for many a year! I'll raise your salary, and endeavour to assist your struggling family, and we will discuss your affairs this very afternoon, over a Christmas bowl of smoking bishop, Bob!" Scrooge becomes "as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man as the good old City knew." To Tiny Tim, who does not die, he becomes a second father. The relationship that began as exploitation ends as the story's most powerful emblem of redemption: the miser who once begrudged his clerk a single coal now embraces him as family.