Dickens 'A Christmas carol'

foghorn

foghorn

Valued Senior Member
A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens.


How come Scrooge lets his clerk, Bob Cratchit, have Christmas day off, yet, Scrooge's nephew Fred keeps his maid working on Christmas day.

And, to top it, there's more work for the maid then usual, a dinner party.


He passed the door a dozen times before he had the courage to go up and knock. But he made a dash and did it.

'Is your master at home, my dear?' said Scrooge to the girl. 'Nice girl! Very.'

'Yes, sir.'

'Where is he, my love?' said Scrooge.

'He's in the dining-room, sir, along with mistress. I'll show you upstairs, if you please.'
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If you ask me, I would say those Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to come, visited the wrong man, it should have been Fred the slave driver.
 
foghorn said:
Scrooge's nephew Fred keeps his maid working on Christmas day.
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Without context, it is impossible to judge.

For all you know, his maid has no family to share Christmas with except Fred's. And he gave her the entire previous week off.
 
DaveC426913 said:
Without context, it is impossible to judge.

For all you know, his maid has no family to share Christmas with except Fred's. And he gave her the entire previous week off.
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After all that extra cleaning up on Christmas Day she needed it.
 
foghorn said:
Or, she could be working for a better employer, like the new later improved Scrooge, and not have her position exploited by the likes of Fred.
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As I said, without context, it is impossible to judge.

You can't assume malfeasance based solely on your own cynicism.
 
foghorn said:
Or, she could be working for a better employer, like the new later improved Scrooge, and not have her position exploited by the likes of Fred.
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That's exactly what she did, after the holidays. Before, her choices were Fred's house or none, because the old man was too cheap to hire a maid. Even then, you should see the 20 years of dirt she'll be facing! And Scrooge had to let off the office and warehouse staff because the law forbade business on holy days, though it could not control domestic arrangements.
 
Isn't that where Boxing Day came about, where the Masters serve the servants for a day, thus the servants do get a day off, it's just not Christmas day?
 
foghorn said:
A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens.


How come Scrooge lets his clerk, Bob Cratchit, have Christmas day off, yet, Scrooge's nephew Fred keeps his maid working on Christmas day.

And, to top it, there's more work for the maid then usual, a dinner party.




If you ask me, I would say those Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to come, visited the wrong man, it should have been Fred the slave driver.
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No it was normal for servants to serve on Christmas Day. It was the following day, Boxing Day, that they were allowed to visit their own families. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxing_Day

So Fred is just doing the expected thing, for that era.
 
(Q) said:
Isn't that where Boxing Day came about, where the Masters serve the servants for a day, thus the servants do get a day off, it's just not Christmas day?
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No, the boxing refers to packing up the leftover food to be distributed among the poor. Since it was servants who did the packing, no doubt they saved out some tidbits for their own aged parents and little siblings.
 
exchemist said:
No it was normal for servants to serve on Christmas Day. It was the following day, Boxing Day, that they were allowed to vi

So Fred is just doing the expected thing, for that era.
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From your link:

The Oxford English Dictionary gives the earliest attestations from Britain in the 1830s, defining it as "the first weekday after Christmas day, observed as a holiday on which postmen, errand boys, and servants of various kinds expect to receive a Christmas box"
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And that is the old boxes, now empty, the masters and mistress presents came in.

Jeeves said:
No, the boxing refers to packing up the leftover food to be distributed among the poor. Since it was servants who did the packing, no doubt they saved out some tidbits for their own aged parents and little siblings.
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No, on that day the master and mistress of the house took it in turn to box the servants ears.

Besides, I take it back what I said earlier about the new improved Scrooge, he should have said something about it on the day, instead of going along it with it all.
This only reflects the flip flop loose morals of the author, Dickens kept a mistress in a house in Peckham, South East London.
 
foghorn said:
I forgot, there are Canadians on this site.:):)
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Hey. Canadians have Christmas too.

But I'm pretty sure no one's boxing any ears.
And I'm pretty sure Fred's servants were happy to be employed.

Ultimately, there is a different expectation for holiday shifts between domestic house work and a clerk in a business office.
The comparison you make in the OP is not apt.
 
foghorn said:
If you ask me, I would say those Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to come, visited the wrong man, it should have been Fred the slave driver.
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Scrooge's housekeeper was working on Christmas Day. Remember how she freaked out when he turned nice?
 
sideshowbob said:
Scrooge's housekeeper was working on Christmas Day. Remember how she freaked out when he turned nice?
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Your thinking of the film. Alastair Sim as Scrooge.
But, have you read the book? I bet you have. Your thinking of the Charwoman.
In the book she appears only at the time when she is ''selling'' Scrooge's bed curtains.
I know in the film she also appears on Christmas morning at Scrooge's house.
In the book Scrooge awakes, is grateful and merry for the chance to start over, opens the window and orders the bird for bob via the little lad, shaves then goes out.
Here's a Christmas present Sideshow... At Gutenberg.

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/46/46-h/46-h.htm
“Let the charwoman alone to be the first!” cried she who had entered first. “Let the laundress alone to be the second; and let the undertaker’s man alone to be the third. Look here, old Joe, here’s a chance! If we haven’t all three met here without meaning it!”
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In meander mode I guess.
Title ''Dickens A Christmas Carol''
Got anything else you would like to say?
How about reporting it for being in the Arts and Farts section.
 
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foghorn said:
In meander mode I guess.
Title ''Dickens A Christmas Carol''
Got anything else you would like to say?
How about reporting it for being in the Arts and Farts section.
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That seems needlessly defensive for an innocent question.

I think we resolved the topic. Fred's servants weren't slaves.
I'm just asking if we've moved on.
 
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