# A Christmas Carol — Character guide

> Key figures in A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.

- [Ebenezer Scrooge](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_christmas_carol_se/characters/ebenezer_scrooge.md): Scrooge sits at the cold center of the book's social world: the employer Bob Cratchit fears, the uncle Fred keeps inviting, the partner Marley's ghost has come back to warn. His defining tension is between the ledger and
- [Bob Cratchit](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_christmas_carol_se/characters/bob_cratchit.md): Bob scratches away in the tank, hat off before he opens the door, pleading that being late is only once a year. His warmth toward a family that can barely afford a goose stands in quiet rebuke to his employer's wealth, a
- [Jacob Marley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_christmas_carol_se/characters/jacob_marley.md): Marley was Scrooge's mirror in life — same counting-house, same clenched fist — and in death he is the book's first terrible proof that a fortune can be a prison. His clanking ghost, bound by the very keys and padlocks h
- [Ghost of Christmas Past](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_christmas_carol_se/characters/ghost_of_christmas_past.md): This spirit walks Scrooge down roads he could once trace blindfold, past a lonely schoolroom, a laughing Fezziwig, and faces he has spent decades refusing to remember. Its power is not menace but tenderness: it notices t
- [Ghost of Christmas Present](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_christmas_carol_se/characters/ghost_of_christmas_present.md): This spirit throws open the world Scrooge has been ignoring: the Cratchit kitchen, Fred's party, miners and sailors and strangers all keeping the day. Its abundance is generous, but its torch can sprinkle sorrow as easil
- [Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_christmas_carol_se/characters/ghost_of_christmas_yet_to_come.md): Where the other spirits speak and shine, this one says nothing and shows everything, gliding ahead of Scrooge through scenes he does not yet understand. Its terrible reticence forces Scrooge to read the future for himsel
- [Tiny Tim](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_christmas_carol_se/characters/tiny_tim.md): Tiny Tim is the Cratchits' frail child, carried on his father's shoulder and cherished all the more because his family knows his time may be short. His gentle blessing and uncomplaining spirit sharpen the contrast betwee
- [Mrs. Cratchit](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_christmas_carol_se/characters/mrs_cratchit.md): Mrs. Cratchit runs the Cratchit household with threadbare dignity, making much of little and guarding her children's cheer. Her blunt dislike of Scrooge is the family's one unsoftened note, a reminder that his meanness h
- [Fred](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_christmas_carol_se/characters/fred.md): Fred is the son of Scrooge's late sister Fan, and he carries her warmth into every room, hosting a Christmas party full of games, music, and easy laughter. His stubborn affection for his uncle is the story's most persist
- [Fezziwig](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_christmas_carol_se/characters/fezziwig.md): Jolly former employer of Scrooge who threw grand Christmas parties.
- [Peter Cratchit](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_christmas_carol_se/characters/peter_cratchit.md): Eldest Cratchit son who works to help support the family.
- [Topper](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_christmas_carol_se/characters/topper.md): Young man at Fred's party who flirts with and marries one of the sisters.
- [Old Joe](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_christmas_carol_se/characters/old_joe.md): Fence who buys Scrooge's stolen belongings after his death.
- [Dick Wilkins](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_christmas_carol_se/characters/dick_wilkins.md): Fellow apprentice of Scrooge at Fezziwig's warehouse.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_christmas_carol_se/characters