Themes: Social Injustice

Question 1

Through which characters does Dickens portray social injustice?

Answer 1

Ignorance and Want- They embody the underclass, and their anger indicates fury at the government, felt by the poor.
Bob Cratchit- A sense of injustice prevails when we consider the long hours worked by Cratchit, who still cannot provide adequately for his family.

Question 2

Quotations that show social injustice

Answer 2

I can’t afford to make idle people merry.’ (Scrooge, S1)
‘The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour then?’ (Scrooge, S1)

Question 3

Quotations that demonstrate the products/ consequences of social injustice

Answer 3

Think of that! Bob had but fifteen ‘bob’ a week himself. (S3)
They were a boy and a girl. Yellow, meagre, ragged, scowling, wolfish. (S3)
‘This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy.’ (GOCP, S3)