Wednesday 7 September 2011

How does Bob Cratchit's attitude toward Scrooge differ from his wife's in A Christmas Carol?

After the Cratchits'
Christmas feast, Bob expresses a desire to toast to Mr. Scrooge, his employer, whom he calls
"'the Founder of the Feast.'"  Mrs. Cratchit, on the other hand, expresses her
absolute disgust at such an idea when she says,

The
Founder of the Feast indeed! [...]  I wish I had him here.  I'd give him a piece of my mind to
feast upon, and I hope he'd have a good appetite for it.


She scoffs at the idea that Mr. Scrooge is the founder of their feast, very likely because her
husband works so hard and earns such a meager wage from his employer.  She claims that if she
had Mr. Scrooge there to yell at, she'd have quite a lot to yell.  This is somewhat funny
because it does seem a bit of a gender role reversal for the time.  The wife would typically be
thought of as the one who would behave meekly and mildly, and the husband would be more
assertive, in terms of speaking up for himself.  And yet, Mrs. Cratchit has quite strong
opinions on the subject of Mr. Scrooge, and...

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