| Tiny Tim | |
|---|---|
Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim as depicted in the 1870s by Fred Barnard |
|
| First appearance | A Christmas Carol 1843 |
| Created by | Charles Dickens |
| Full name | Timothy Cratchit |
| Nickname(s) | Tiny Tim |
| Gender | Male |
| Family | Robert "Bob" Cratchit (father) |
Timothy Cratchit, called "Tiny Tim", is a fictional character from the 1843 novella A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. He is a minor character, the young son of Bob Cratchit, and is seen only briefly, but serves as an important symbol of the consequences of the protagonist's choices. It is claimed that the character is based on the invalid son of a friend of Dickens who owned a cotton mill in Ardwick, Manchester.[1]
When Scrooge is visited by The Ghost of Christmas Present he is shown just how ill Tim really is, and that Tim will die unless he receives treatment (which the family cannot afford due to Scrooge's miserliness). When visited by The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come all he sees of Tim is his crutch, as Tim has died. This, and several other visions, led Scrooge to reform his ways. At the end of the story, Dickens makes it explicit that Tim did not die, and Scrooge became a "second father" to him.
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.
Dickens did not reveal what Tiny Tim's illness was. However, renal tubular acidosis (a type of kidney failure causing the blood to become acidic) has been proposed as one possibility, another being rickets (caused by a lack of Vitamin D).[2][3] Either illness was treatable during Dickens' lifetime, thus following in line with the comment of the Ghost of Christmas Present that Tiny Tim would die only if the present remain unchanged.