Tiny Tim
Country of Origin: England

od Bless us, everyone!” exclaims the frail Tiny Tim Cratchit as his family begins their Christmas dinner in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

Mortality of children was something that Charles Dickens was likely very well acquainted with living in Victorian England. Married couples had an average of six children, and if they lived in poor industrial communities, with polluted living conditions, malnutrition and dangerous working conditions, their life expectancy was very low.

Two out of ten infants would die in their first year. One in four children would die before they were five. In wealthier areas, the average male life expectancy was fifty-seven, in industrial towns it was twenty-six. In these conditions that Dickens’ original readers knew well, it is not surprising that Tim’s character has stood out among others.

Tiny Tim is an ill little boy dependant on a wooden crutch, grateful for what he has and willing to say a prayer for the selfish man that hoards the money that could save his life. Even Scrooge’s heart would melt with that.

Sources for Tiny Tim:

http://www.victorianweb.org/vn/death/banjeree1.html
http://www.gober.net/victorian/reports/child1.htm