Tiny Tim, who hopes that "people saw him in . . . church, because he was a cripple, and it might be pleasant to them to remember upon Christmas Day who made lame beggars walk and blind men see" (45) is the clearest literary image of physical disability in the minds of 20th century people. He is also the disabled character most objectionable to literary critics and disability activists alike, both an emblem of Victorian sentimental excess and the model for all the poster children of our time - the "patient . . . mild" cripple who accepts his suffering and is sweetly grateful for the charity of the non-disabled (68).
Tim's body invites metaphoric and spiritual readings as a reminder of Christly miracles and as a figure for spiritual wholeness. With a crutch and iron frame, however, the character is firmly anchored to harsh Victorian realities, as are the allegorical figures of Ignorance and Want, who appear to Scrooge.
Tim should be evaluated within the context of Victorian literature and culture, in which the saintly child visibly "afflicted" with physical disability was recurrent and thus recognizable figure, so effective at stimulating charitable giving that indigent people with disabilities could not simply ignore it if they wanted to survive outside the workhouse. Similarly, the degree of cultural harm characters like Tim undoubtedly produced should be evaluated in conjunction with the possible benefits of the social awareness and financial contributions they stimulated.
Browse Christmas Carnivals A Christmas Carol Tiny Tim for your favorite Christmas character.
|
