"Scrooge and Bob Cratchit," or "The Christmas Bowl" by John Leech — final illustration for "A Christmas Carol" (1843)

Scrooge and Bob Cratchit, or The Christmas Bowl

John Leech

1843

Wood-block engraving

8 cm x 6.5 cm vignetted (3 inches high by 2 ½ inches wide)

Last illustration in A Christmas Carol, dropped into the text of p. 164; descriptive headline: "The End of It."

[Click on image to enlarge it.]

Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

[You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the image and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.] Image reproduced courtesy of Dickens collector and bibliophile Dan Calinescu, Toronto.

Passage Illustrated: A Convivial Boxing Day

"A merry Christmas, Bob," said Scrooge, with an earnestness that could not be mistaken, as he clapped him on the back. "A merrier Christmas, Bob, my good fellow, than I have given you for many a year. I'll raise your salary, and endeavour to assist your struggling family, and we will discuss your affairs this very afternoon, over a Christmas bowl of smoking bishop, Bob! Make up the fires, and buy another coal-scuttle before you dot another i, Bob Cratchit!"

Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more; and to Tiny Tim, who did NOT die, he was a second father. He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world. Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms. His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him. [Stave Five: "The End of It," pp. 163-165]

Commentary: Bridging the Divide of the Cash Nexus by Master and Man

In the Carol, John Leech provides a final tailpiece of Scrooge and Bob, sitting beside the hearth in Scrooge's reception room, the same room that Marley visits and that the Ghost of Christmas Present transforms with an overflowing display of plenty. . . . The table between the visitors, which appears in all three illustrations and that holds a smoking bowl of something next to Christmas Present, is stocked with more bottles than a parsimonious Scrooge would ever display. Although few have paid attention to the detail, Scrooge promises the smoking Bishop, along with a discussion of Bob's affairs, "this very afternoon," and it is held at home, not the office: the two locations, experienced in the same order, as structured the first Stave. . . . . Was it Leech, misreading, who set the scene in Scrooge's reception room instead? Clearly Dickens, in specifying that the festivities, would take place at the office, contrasts this scene to the frigid atmosphere, "dismal little cell," and one-coal fire that Cratchit inhabits in the first Stave. Or did Dickens make the alteration in proof, either before Leech produced his sketch where they are clearly at Scrooge's home, or afterward, persuaded that Leech's setting was better? [Patten 120-121]

In his last illustration Leech reinforces the notion expressed by Thomas Carlyle that mutual goodwill between man and master should replace the attitude that "business is business" and that the only bond between capital and labour (or, between the capitalist and the labourer) is strictly monetary (the "cash nexus"). Thus, Leech's final image complements the highly nostalgic frontispiece Mr. Fezziwig's Ball, in which Dickens had blurred the boundaries between work and leisure. Dressed in white nightgown and revealing his long, white hair, Scrooge now resembles The Spirit of Christmas Past. His expression is jovial as his serves his clerk a glass of steaming punch. Indeed, the luminous clouds of steam from the ladle and the kettle on the hob, as well the roaring coal fire, impart an almost heavenly quality to the cheerful parlour scene, which recalls the cold hearth that Marley's ghost visits in the opening Stave. Now the room is filled with light — "The Light of the World," of humanity and fellow-feeling — and decorated with greenery by Scrooge's own hand, signifying the ever-green nature of memory. Merry-faced Scrooge is slippers is a far cry from the Malthusian miser who quoted his master on the surplus population. According to Leech's conception, Scrooge has ushered in his clerk so quickly that Bob has yet to have a moment's leisure to unbutton his coat and take off his scarf. The footstool upon which the host rests one foot recalls the self-sae article of furniture upon which the Spirit of Christmas Present, torch held aloft, welcomed Scrooge to the abundance of the season, which included the bowl of punch to which the jolly giant gestured. Thus, in this final, summative image of Scrooge Leech has synthesized the former image of the inveterate miser with salient characteristics of the Second and Third Visitors. For Scrooge, then, life will never be "business as usual" again because now humanity is his business.

Bibliography

Dickens, Charles. A Christmas Carol. Illustrated by John Leech. London: Chapman and Hall, 1843.

Patten, Robert L. Chapter 6, "Marley Was Dead." Dickens, Death, and Christmas. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023. 74-126.

Thomas, Deborah A. Chapter 4, "The Chord of the Christmas Season." Dickens and The Short Story. Philadelphia: U. Pennsylvania Press, 1982, 62-93.

Created 14 June 2014

Last modified 18 May 2024