The plight of the underprivileged is a recurrent theme in Charles Dickens’ short story “A Christmas Carol.” Dickens vividly captures the harsh realities of poverty and its effects on the lives of the less fortunate throughout the narrative.

Dickens portrays the impoverished family of Bob Cratchit, Scrooge’s overworked and underpaid clerk, in one particular excerpt. The family of Cratchit is depicted as residing in a small, claustrophobic home with scant heating and lighting. The extract states, “The fireplace was an old one, built by some Dutch merchant long ago, and paved all round with quaint Dutch tiles, designed to illustrate the Scriptures… There was a small fire in the grate, which, instead of warming the room, seemed to make it colder.”