'A Christmas Carol' Stave 3: Ignorance and Want

Dickens believed that the key to a moral and upstanding society, was a carefree and innocent childhood The children in the novella either depend on themselves or are depended on by others and therefore are not carefree Ignorance and Want represent society - they have been shaped and moulded by the cruelty and injustice of inequality Dickens describes Ignorance and Want as animalistic and feral to reflect the neglect and cruelty they have faced Dickens uses these two characters to highlight our moral necessity to protect children from misery and ‘Want’