ACC model GCSE essay: family

How does Dickens present the importance of family in A Christmas Carol?

Apr 29, 2025

Here’s a model essay I wrote on the importance of family A Christmas Carol.

It’s a little longer than is realistically achievable in the exam, but reading it over again I could probably cut some of the supporting textual references to bring down the total word count.

Anyway, I was motivated to write this because Mr Salles predicts that it will be the AQA theme question this year.

Additionally, as I argue, Scrooge’s childhood leads him to become the man Dickens presents him as in the opening and it’s something I believe many students fail to truly appreciate.

Essay

How does Dickens present the importance of family in A Christmas Carol?

Through the character arc of Scrooge, Dickens suggests that even kind and sociable children can grow up to become cruel (‘as hard and sharp as flint’), ‘solitary’ and ‘covetous’ under the right circumstances. Scrooge’s ‘avarice’ is not rooted in a lust for material possessions, but is borne out of insecurities formed in his childhood, The accumulation of wealth is for Scrooge a means of self-preservation and insulation against poverty. However, while abandonment and loss lead Scrooge to forget the importance of family, foils such as Fezziwig and Bob Cratchit remind him of its importance again on his transformative journey. Fezziwig and The Ghost of Christmas Present in particular also inspire Scrooge to rid himself of his Malthusian scarcity mindset and adopt an abundance mindset, leading him to live generously among friends and family.

Scrooge’s deterioration begins in his childhood. The very first vision Scrooge is shown is of him as a child, left alone at a boarding school which has a ‘chilly bareness’ to it. This description of the atmosphere suggests the school is lacking human warmth and comfort. This is confirmed shortly after in the terror the schoolmaster inspires in young Scrooge with his look of ‘ferocious condescension’. The fact that Scrooge’s father has sent him to this school and leaves him there during the holidays suggests that he is unloved by his father. We learn then that in these formative years Scrooge does not have good patriarchal role models nor a loving, stable family, and we start to feel sympathy for him, especially as he began life as a warm hearted and imaginative young man. He loves his sister Fan and he loves to read stories like ‘Robin Crusoe’. The inclusion of this novel also hints at his desire to escape his own dire circumstances. Scrooge is left emotionally adrift so perhaps resonates with Crusoe and his yearning for home trapped on his desert island. We do not learn if he does return to a loving father, but he is saved from his emotional isolation by Fan.

However, we learn that Scrooge then loses Fan and Dickens suggests it causes an emotional rupture which leads him to become more emotionally guarded. When the Ghost of Christmas Past recalls Fan’s passing, Scrooge laments that she was ‘a delicate creature… but she had a large heart’, suggesting that she was physically frail but very loving which partly explains why Scrooge is so moved by Tiny Tim’s situation and becomes a ‘second father’ to him. Pivotally, this is one of the first times that Scrooge lets his guard down, and, though he only has a few brief words for Fan, they are spoken with a tenderness that is in stark contrast to the remorseless way he speaks of the ‘surplus’ poor with the gentlemen asking for a charity donation. Scrooge is then reminded by the ghost that he neglects his nephew, making him feel guilty. It is the first prompt which leads Scrooge to eventually reconnect with Fred. Significantly, there is no mention of Scrooge’s mother, which suggests that he either does not grow up with a mother or she was emotionally distant like his father, hinting that he lacked a loving maternal as well as a paternal figure. Dickens, therefore, implies that the neglect and loss Scrooge suffers in his childhood, lead him to become very cautious, miserly and emotionally withdrawn later in life.

Despite the apparent absence of loving parental figures in Scrooge’s early life, however, he is fortunate to find a kind of surrogate father in Fezziwig. He acts as a foil to Scrooge, not just as a model of a benevolent employer but as a patriarchal ideal for Scrooge to emulate. Unlike Scrooge, who treats Bob Cratchit with cold condescension and as essentially disposable, Fezziwig is generous, ‘jovial’, and warmly paternal toward both his apprentices and the wider community. This is illustrated in the Christmas party he hosts, where the sheer number of guests highlights his warm, generous hospitality. Family, friends and acquaintances spill in as the narrator relays, sounding humorously surprised through the anaphora of 'in came' to capture a delighted astonishment at just how many people arrive for the party—'In came the fiddler… in came Mrs Fezziwig… in came three Miss Fezziwigs'. Yet despite having Fezziwig as a paternal role model, Scrooge, to his own detriment, neither builds a family nor expands his business, retaining just one employee: poor, old Bob Cratchit. Fezziwig then is more than a foil to Scrooge as an employer: he embodies abundance in contrast to Scrooge who fears scarcity. Through Fezziwig’s biological and economic fertility, Dickens implies that true wealth lies in a spirit of generosity and a belief that you can always provide, no matter the size of your family, business or wider community. Being reminded of Fezziwig's benevolence later prompts Scrooge to be kinder and more generous with his clerk, Bob Cratchit. Additionally, it helps motivate Scrooge to be like a second father to his son.

Dickens continues to subtly challenge Scrooge’s contemporary Malthusian mindset through the characterisation of the Ghost of Christmas Present. The Ghost of Christmas Present similarly embodies abundance. He is described as a ‘jolly giant’ with a torch that looks like ‘Plenty’s horn’, a symbol of abundance and nourishment. He is also presented as an angelic figure and Dickens suggests that the ghost will help provide for the poor faithful. He communicates this idea more explicitly in the vision of the Cratchits dinner. The Cratchits are very happy, comfortable and keep each other in good company despite their relative poverty, in stark contrast to Scrooge who is miserable, austere and isolated, sitting in his mansion by a ‘low fire’ eating his gruel despite his wealth. Before they even enter the Cratchit’s humble home, the ghost ‘bless[es] Bob Cratchit’s dwelling’ and the subtext is that angels provide for the poor and keep them content. This belief is then voiced by positive Tiny Tim who reminds his father that Jesus ‘made lame men walk and blind men see’, alluding to parables in which Jesus performed miracles on those most disadvantaged. Tiny Tim not only reminds Scrooge that Jesus helped those most vulnerable but encourages Scrooge to follow his example. Scrooge then comes to see it as his duty to act and save Tiny Tim, whose health is failing, moved by his faith and good cheer.

The Cratchits are just the sort of good Christian family angels watch over. Bob Cratchit has just ‘fifteen “Bob” a week’ the narrator emphasises in a tone of incredulity (‘Think of that!’), implying that it is hard to imagine how a man could provide for a family of six with such a meagre salary. Dickens here is reflecting the incredulity that a comfortable middle class reader would have learning about the clerk’s financial situation. It sets up an expectation of a family living in miserable poverty, yet Scrooge sees a very grateful, content and loving family. The girls are dressed ‘brave in ribbons’, looking their best with what they can, the youngest Cratchits’ come ‘tearing in’ with excitement, the eldest daughter good-naturedly teases her father, and the eldest boy, ‘Master Peter’, proudly brings in the goose, with the two youngest in ‘high procession’, evoking an image of the two youngest Cratchits following behind excitedly, suggesting there is a general celebratory atmosphere. This scene contrasts starkly with the image of Scrooge eating his gruel alone by a low fire, and through this juxtaposition Dickens suggests that money cannot bring the happiness that a loving family provides. Scrooge clearly learns this lesson because he finally accepts Fred’s Christmas party invitation, reconnecting with his own family and becomes a ‘second father’ to Tiny Tim, which suggests that he becomes part of the Cratchit family or at least very close to them.

In summary, Dickens suggests the neglect and loss Scrooge suffered as a child led him to fear poverty and become ‘miserly’. However, Scrooge learns through the second spirit in particular that his Malthusian attitude is detrimental to his own happiness and counter to the Christian imperative of growth and our mission to be ‘fruitful and multiply’. Further, he comes to realise that life without family is miserable and lonely, and the Cratchit’s happiness reveals to Scrooge that it is better to live in poverty with the love of family than live as a wealthy miser.

Word count: 1393

Thanks for reading. Give this post a thumbs up if you found it helpful–it helps me to reach more students!

Best,

Morgan