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Wikipedia / Tiny Tim (A Christmas Carol)

"Tiny" Tim Cratchit is a fictional character from the 1843 novella A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Although seen only briefly, he is a major character, and serves as an important symbol of the consequences of the protagonist's choices.

Character overview

Tiny Tim is the young, ailing son of Bob Cratchit, Ebenezer Scrooge’s underpaid clerk. When Scrooge is visited by the Ghost of Christmas Present he is shown just how ill the boy really is (the family cannot afford to properly treat him on the salary Scrooge pays Cratchit). When visited by the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, Scrooge is shown that Tiny Tim will die. This, and several other visions, leads Scrooge to reform his ways. At the end of the story, Dickens makes it explicit that Tiny Tim does not die, and Scrooge becomes a "second father" to him.

Cratchit says of Tim:

In the story, Tiny Tim is known for the statement, "God bless us, every one!" which he offers as a blessing at Christmas dinner. Dickens repeats the phrase at the end of the story, symbolic of Scrooge's change of heart.

Character development

In earlier drafts, the character's name was "Little Fred". Dickens may have derived the name from his brothers, who both had "Fred" as a part of their names, one named Alfred and the other Frederick. Dickens also had a sister, Fanny, who had a disabled son named Henry Augustus Burnett (18391849) who may have been an inspiration for Tiny Tim. It has also been claimed that the character is based on the son of a friend, who owned a cotton mill in Ardwick, Manchester.

Dickens tried other names such as "Tiny Mick" after "Little Fred" but eventually decided upon "Tiny Tim". After dropping the name "Little Fred", Dickens later used it for Scrooge's nephew "Fred".

Illness

Dickens never explicitly specifies the illness Tiny Tim suffers, although he walks with a crutch and has "his limbs supported by an iron frame".

In 1992, American paediatric neurologist Donald Lewis, although describing the boy as "the crippled son of Ebenezer Scrooge's clerk", proposed as one possibility renal tubular acidosis (type 1), a type of kidney failure causing the blood to become acidic. Rickets (caused by a lack of vitamin D) has been proposed as another possibility, as it was a not uncommon disease during that time period.

A 1997 editorial in The Journal of Infectious Diseases presented a fictional account of construction workers in London discovering Tiny Tim's grave to speculate on the possible causes of his ailment.

Notable portrayals

The role of Tiny Tim has been performed (live action, voiced or animated) by:

Nicholas Phillips (as Calvin Cooley, in this case a depressed boy of few words) in the 1988 film Scrooged

References

  • —Special Collections, University of Glasgow