Can someone please mark by Christmas Carol essay on the Cratchits?

In Dickens’ altruistic play, he presents the Cratchit family as hard-working, strong willed but unfortunately indoctrinated by the cruel and callous nature of the bourgeoise. Dickens’ message in the novel is to raise awareness and show the rich that the poor do not deserve the hardships they face, and that the rich's’ lack of generosity will brew even more disastrous consequences, like a criminal class. Therefore, Dickens tries to advocate for social responsibility in the novel.
Dickens begins the novel by describing Scrooge as a ‘wrenching, squeezing, grasping, clutching, covetous old sinner’. The use of the tough and brutal verbs implies that Scrooge has adverse effects on himself due to the harsh and excessive connotations of the verbs and is reluctant to give money to those who need it. Dickens also portrays him as an ‘old sinner’ which implies that selfishness is a sin and would result in damnation like Marley. This would directly appeal to Dickens’ Christian audience as they would have been mostly Christian and now understand that generosity and giving is a virtue they must adopt to those like the Cratchit family. Bob Cratchit is a ‘clerk’ in scrooges’ office is often referenced as a ‘clerk’. The lack of a name shows how the poor are dehumanised and devalued by their wealth and treated unjustly throughout the novel. Furthermore, influential individuals like Scrooge further allow the cycle of poverty to continue when he actively supports the ‘workhouses’ and ‘prisons’ due to his Malthusian attitude. The Malthusian theory states that the poor should not reproduce as they do not contribute to society and just waste resources. Therefore, Christmas Carol can be viewed as anti-Malthusian and Dickens is trying to show how his attitude that many adopted in Victorian Society was detrimental.
In the extract, the Cratchits dinner is exaggerated and hyperbolised to show the readers how little the quantity is but how wonderful the experience is instead. The direct acknowledgement of such a ‘small pudding’ would make any ‘Cratchit blush’. This shows how the Cratchits are ashamed at their lack of expenses and show how society values individuals based on wealth rather than other factors. Even throughout this hardship and obvious lack of money, the Cratchits value their time together and still are overjoyed at the prospect of celebrating Christmas. The fact that the Cratchits are devout and religious even throughout their hardships juxtaposes to Scrooges ‘sinful’ nature. Tiny Tim repeats ‘God bless us everyone’ which shows how Dickens presents the Cratchits as grateful and strong-willed. Dickens utilises the Cratchits as a microcosm for most of the proletariat and exposes how tough their lives are, especially when Bob’s hand is ‘little and withered’ suggesting that he is overworked and not sufficiently fed.
Also, instead of portraying the Cratchits as lazy and ungrateful he presents them as content and overjoyed with Bob representing the ideal, loving family man to his wife and children. He declares the pudding as his wifes ‘greatest achievment’, the hyperbolic message shows how he supports and greatly admires his wifes’ effort even in their destitute state. Therefore, the poor come together and usually have better values than the rich as they value love, kindness and respect for each other. This evokes a powerful response in the reader that shows how the poor was undeservingly subject to hardships even when they are innocent and optimistic and their ability to spread affection should be admired.
However, Bob gets paid ‘15 bobs a week’ which was the minimum wage, so Scrooge himself is not underpaying him. This means that Dickens is criticising the government and urging the whole system that exploits the poor to be changed and recognised as harmful and detrimental to society. The physical appearance of Bob would stun readers as even though he is hard-working he is still struggling to feed himself and his family. Consequently, this would evoke sympathy in the readers, and they would feel guilty at their lack of action to help the poor and perhaps adopt a more philanthropic attitude towards charity and the destitute.
However, this social injustice and exploitation of the Cratchit family would result in a criminal class emerging. When the ghost of Christmas present shows ‘Ignorance’ and ‘Want’, they are described as ‘wolfish and meagre’ reducing them to an animal. The animal imagery highlights how the poor are further dehumanised and reduced to an animal due to their poverty which is created by the rich’s unforgiving and greedy attitude with money. The ghost iterates that the ‘beware the boy the most for on his forehead there is written doom’, the foreshadowing of a criminal class emerging shows how the cycle of poverty only catalyses violence and crime to be committed; but to survive. Therefore, the poor are villainised for their criminality and sloth, but these things are fuelled due to the rich’s policies that actively discriminate against the poor like the Poor Laws, that sent millions of destitute individuals to harsh and disciplined lives of work because they could not survive. Furthermore, the ghost states that they are ‘mans’ which shows how the poor have been abandoned by rich and how it is humanity’s business to care for each other, which is a Christian value that people should uphold. Additionally, Dickens uses children to highlight how the most vulnerable and innocent in society are often exploited the most and that they feel the effects of poverty harder. This also juxtaposes to how innocent individuals like Tiny Tim will die and just ‘decrease the surplus population’ because of his disability and lack of contribution to society. Therefore, Dickens utilises the victims being children to shock and expose the harsh reality and disturbing consequences of poor and how corrupt and inhumane our system is toward the poor, which echoes the need for social change and social responsibility. As a result, the idea that poverty breeds crime is true when the charwoman and undertaker rob Scrooges’ belongings. This shows how poverty has extensive and potentially harmful effects, urging social responsibility again.
However, the dismissive attitude of the rich, like scrooge will only result in misfortune as ‘in the poor chimney-corner, there is a crutch without an owner’. The death of Tiny Tim is emotive and tough to deal with, as he was a kind soul despite his condition. Dickens uses a pararhyme of ‘corner’ and ‘owner’ to show that this fate of many children like Tiny Tim is not definite and that there is the ability to change the fate through actions. Therefore, Dickens believes that society can change and aid the poor rather than marginalise them even more through workhouses, low-pay and poor laws, which echoes his desire that social responsibility should be taken to help deserving families like the Cratchits. This is manifested by Scrooge’s redemption and change in attitude where he feels ‘as merry as a schoolboy and as light as a feather’, which shows how being a benefactor and giving can be gratifying but also beneficial for society. This shows how giving especially during Christmas can be alleviating and rewarding in a spiritual and physical sense. This merry and joyous attitude contrasts Scrooge ‘misanthropic’ and dismal attitude which was due to his greed and lack of charity. Dickens urges the bourgeoise to take care of the poor like how Scrooge ‘was a second father to Tiny Tim’ and shows how it is never to late to help the poor.

Hi, please include the question you are answering.
As a general essay, this is very strong. However, it is very heavy and long. You have made many points, but you will run out of time in the exam. Stick to 4 very strong points with at LEAST 2-3 quotes for evidence. This way, you can keep relevance while still bringing new ideas to the table. Work on including more quotes and evidence to back your points. Also, i noticed your last 3 paragraphs all started with ‘However’. Try thinking of other ways to say this - ‘despite this,’ ‘on the other hand,’ ‘alternatively,’ etc. I understand this is literature, not language, but you still have to make an effort to keep the examiner interested and to get your SPAG marks.
I liked the paragraph where you mentioned Bob gets paid minimum wage. Talking about how the reader feels when reading the book is what gets you marks. Try to include this as much as possible (in different perspective of course, eg one paragraph makes them sad, another sympathy etc).
I don’t exactly remember how many marks an essay is worth in GCSEs, but as a general essay this is good - equivalent of 7/10? Again, stick to fewer points but more developed, with sufficient evidence, and make sure you can do this in enough time.
All the best!