Bob Cratchit
has every reason to hate and despise Scrooge. Scrooge is rich but the poor clerk has to warm his
frozen fingers over a candle, which doesn't work well. Scrooge begrudges having to pay Bob for
one day off a year. He also doesn't pay Cratchit enough to even begin to imagine affording
medical treatments for his poor disabled son, Tiny Tim, who will die without help.
All the same, Bob speaks of Scrooge with a generosity of spirit that is a marked
contrast to Scrooge's hard, withered personality. He refuses to speak poorly of his employer,
preferring to toast Scrooge for providing the wages that paid for the family's modest Christmas
feast. When he can't find anything good to say and can't contradict his wife's hard words, he
says nothing at all, focusing instead on it being Christmas Day. He says, twice, in response to
her critique of Scrooge, "Christmas Day."
Bob's refusal to be
unkind reflects the Christmas spirit that the Ghost of Christmas Present has sprinkled liberally
on his poor home.
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