A Christmas Carol Quotes - Bob Flashcards
“I’ll give you Mr. Scrooge, the founder of the feast.”
Ironically, despite scrooge offering very little support and generosity towards Bob as his employer, Bob is grateful and generous towards Scrooge in naming him “the founder of the feast”.
“as good as gold” said Bob “and better”
In contrast to scrooge who has been portrayed as exclusively caring for monetary wealth and gain,
Bob is presented as caring much more for his family as he describes Tiny Tim “as good as gold”,
suggesting those close to him, as well as his fellow man, are more valuable and important to him than material wealth.
“Master peter mashed the potatoes with incredible vigour; miss belinda sweetened up the apple sauce; Martha dusted the hot plates; Bob took Tiny Tim beside him in a tiny corner at the table; the two young cratchits set chairs for everybody”
Parallelism - Dickens presents the Cratchit family members as all having individual jobs and roles in the family that they support eachother with, suggesting that society should similarly be like one big family where everybody supports each other.
“Oh a wonderful pudding!” Bob Cratchit said, and calmly too, that he regarded it as the greatest success achieved by miss Cratchit since their marriage.”
Hyperbole reinforces their poverty
“Bob said he didn’t believe there ever was such a goose cooked”
Bob Cratchit generously compliments his family, being very optimistic, supporting them and being grateful for their support (the food “pudding” and “goose”) as well.
“Bob held his withered little child’s hand within his, as if he loved the child and wished to keep him be his side, and dreaded that he might be taken from him.”
Bob’s “love” for tiny tim is emphasised through his fear that “he might be taken away from him” as his health deteriorates, suggesting that tiny tim’s life is at risk due to the miserliness, stingy attitudes and lack of support from wealthy men like scrooge in society, causing immense pain for the deserving poor like Bob Cratchit and the Cratchit family, as well as suffering for society as a whole.
“Bob’s voice was tremulous when he told them this, and trembled even more when he said that Tiny Tim was growing strong and hearty.”
Dickens uses dramatic irony here, as despite Bob saying that Tiny Tim was “growing strong and hearty”, his “tremulous” inflection suggests the opposite and hints at Tiny Tim’s deteriorating health, emphasising the pain and suffering that the neglect and lack of support from misers like Scrooge causes for the rest of society, especially the poor such as the Cratchit Family.
“My little child!” cried Bob “My little child” He broke down all at once. He couldn’t help it. If he could have helped it, he and his child would have been further apart perhaps than they were”
Bob’s love for his family and Tiny Tim is emphasised massively here and the huge emotional impat that Tiny Tim’s death has on him is shown, suggesting that due to Scrooge’s cynical and miserly ideologies leading him to neglect and offer no charity or support towards the poor or anyone else in society, such as Bob and the Cratchit family, such suffering and pain exists within society among people like the cratchity family.
Through this, Dickens suggests that if men like Scrooge, with their stingy, unsociable ideologies (e.g. Malthusian economics) continue to offer no support to their fellow man, then only suffering and pain will continue to be perpetuated within society.
“It’s only once a year, sir” pleaded Bob.”
Bob Cratchit is overly apologetic and obedient to scrooge and pleads forgiveness, suggesting he fears scrooge’s wrath, further illustrating the harm Scrooge’s past miserly attitudes did to society and the poor like Bob cratchit.
