Dickens presents the Cratchits as a grateful, moral family that abides by Christian laws to evoke

sympathy and questioning from the reader as to why there is very light help being offered towards
the poor by the rich in the Victorian era to establish societal changes towards the treatment of poor
people.

The Cratchits loyalty and gratefulness is shown to each other when Dickens brings up a semantic
field of religion. When the Cratchits have a small dinner, they wished that ‘God bless us!’ and they
deemed complaints as ‘heresy’. This constant use of biblical terminology is used by Dickens to
emphasise the devotion and loyalty that the Cratchits had towards religion, no matter if they are
severely impoverished. This resonates with a majority Victorian Christian audience at the time that
also practised and believed in religion, this immediately shows to the reader that the Cratchits are a
grateful and moral family. Furthermore, the noun ‘heresy’ is used to show how the Cratchits would
never commit a crime against the church, and perhaps God- further adding to this idea that they are
grateful and moral. However, a Marxist reader would argue that religion here is used as more of an
idea to keep the working class in order.

Dickens purposefully created this appearance of the Cratchits to evoke sympathy and respect
towards the Cratchits, as the average Victorian reader would acknowledge how devout their faith is
regardless of how unfortunate they are living. This is key as Dickens aimed to better societal ideas
and beliefs about the working class, and A Christmas Carol was written as a political diatribe to
achieve this goal of having more money and equality towards the poor, and conveying the Cratchits
in such a manner will inspire the Victorian reader to strive for equality and improve the lives of the
working class. Dickens suffered from poverty when he was young as his father was sent to a Debtor’s
prison and so understands the dire help that the poor need from those of high power.