Scrooge and Greed
- We learn that Scrooge's greed has led him to the life he lives; miserly, lonely, ignored and pitied.
- Scrooge is too greedy to help those who are more unfortunate than he is.
- He even lives in relative discomfort as a way to save money - “Darkness is cheap, and Scrooge liked it.”
- Scrooge is too greedy to help those less fortunate than he - “I can't afford to make idle people merry.”
- The Ghost of Christmas Past shows the route of Scrooge's greed – his fear of poverty. In Stave Two he tells Belle that “There is nothing on which it is so hard as poverty; and there is nothing it professes to condemn with such severity as the pursuit of wealth.'”
- Belle calls of their engagement as she says “You fear the world too much.”
- Scrooge later regrets his decision when he sees Belle and her family living happily in a modest house. He sees that money is not the route to happiness.
Sickness and Tiny Tim
- Tiny Tim displays the stoic attitude of the poor as he shows how, no matter how hard things get, there is always something to be thankful for.
- Tiny Tim displays hope, despite his sickness - “God Bless us, everyone!”
- This attitude leads Scrooge to change as he feels “an interest he had never felt before” and pleads with the Ghost of Christmas Present to allow the boy to live.
- Tiny Tim is saved by Scrooge's financial and emotional support (as Scrooge becomes his “second father”). Similarly Scrooge is saved by the emotional support of others.