How does Dickens present the effect of poverty in A Christmas Carol stave 1?

Dickens
presents the effects of poverty in a number of ways in Stave One of . The
entire story is predicated on the idea of greed and its effects, particularly as related to the
rampant poverty of 1840s London. One of the main reasons for the plight of the London poor is
the discrepancy between the "haves" and the "have-nots" of the time, and
Dickens is clear in his belief regarding the responsibility of the rich in regards to the poor.


Both Jacob Marley and Ebenezer Scrooge are miserly characters. They are
beyond unkind to the poor; in life, they were both, in some ways, completely ignorant to the
plight of the poor. They didn't even notice the poor around them. This results in an afterlife
of isolation and torment for Marley, and others like him, and will result in the same for
Scrooge if he doesn't change his ways. When Marley's ghost visits Scrooge, he laments his
fate:

O! captive, bound, and double-ironed[...]not to
know that ages of incessant labour, by immortal...