A Christmas Carol

The theme of mothers and fathers runs through the story. The loss of Scrooge’s mother and the rejection of his father—who was judgmental, controlling, and powerful—deeply influenced Scrooge, laying the foundation for his own obsession with money and control.

Bob and Fred are fathers of a different kind. Bob has six children, and Fred is about to become a father for the first time. Like the Christian God (“the Father”), these indulgent fathers offer Scrooge unconditional sympathy and forgiveness. It is the mothers—Mrs. Cratchit, Fred’s wife, and Belle—who define appropriate social behavior and withhold approval until the unacceptable behavior changes (a twist on the ideal wife/mother in Victorian culture, who bettered those around her through the purity and selflessness of her mere presence). The novel depicts all three women as good and desirable, but they are also implacable in their demand for moral behavior; Belle actually breaks her engagement with Scrooge when he falls from her moral standard. It is up to Scrooge to meet the mother’s moral standards before the father forgives him.

By rejecting Belle, the archetypal mother, Scrooge also denies himself the opportunity to be a father—symbolically, the opportunity to grow up and be a man.