Talk:Bob Cratchit

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Untitled

Perchance does Bob Cratchit's wife have a name? I've never been able to find one and it's been a frequent discussion point among colleagues. 192.240.80.230 (talk) 06:42, 14 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Emily Cratchit?

Unnamed children

In the article text, it says he has an unnamed son and an unnamed daughter, but in the infobox to the side, it says two unnamed daughters. Which is it? 70.247.11.215 (talk) 04:47, 6 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Calculations for earnings

I am unsure if the statement that 180 pence = £63.00 is accurate on the article. According to this calculator, it's £432.56 ($578.60 in the same statement, not $94) http://www.concertina.com/calculator/

Anyone know if the above is more accurate and therefore should be updated on the article? I didn't want to update until I could get some confirmation that the calculation is correct. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Wardenari (talk • contribs) 04:32, 27 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Bob's age

Is there a reference to Bob being 30 years old? It seems odd to me, given that his daughter Martha is old enough to work and live on her own (as an apprentice to a milliner) and his son Peter is big enough to wear his father's clothes. 23.17.81.202 (talk) 05:27, 30 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Apprenticeship could start at single digit ages and lodging with the master was often a standard part of the indenture, so Martha needn't be all that old. 51.6.242.184 (talk) 01:08, 13 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Notability?

My search reveals some promising snippets that I don't have access to, such as in here. Add to this two books that may have some usable content (unless they are just pure novels): The Haunting of Bob Cratchit and The Life and Times of Bob Cratchit (lulu.com red flag...), and what possibly could be a dissertation titled The Building and Performing of a Character, Bob Cratchit, none of which I can access, however. Likewise, I can't access this academic article: [1], nor this. Oh, and I did skim through this book chapter, but I don't think that's SIGCOV on the character... Bottom line, after half an hour of BEFORE, sadly I couldn't extract anything usable outside plot summaries. There is also the issue of Bob's story being overshadowed by that of his son (Tiny Tim (A Christmas Carol)) or entire family in the context of the Ghost of Christmas Present "arc", and hence, consideration of redirect/merger (since both of the linked articles are much better developed and referenced). I'd like to see this saved (I expected there'd be some coverage of this character from the literature on Victorian-era lower classes or such), but I am struggling. This is one of those hard cases where I may need help from others. Ping User:Uncle G, User:Daranios, User:ReaderofthePack. Can anyone find something to add a reception/significance section and save this from AfD? _{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 11:09, 7 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

If there were more works focusing on the character then I'd say we could probably justify it, but I'm running into a distinct lack of coverage or notable works. A potential option is to make an article about the family rather than the individual Cratchits, with the exception of Tiny Tim of course. That's assuming that there is coverage for the other family members. Offhand the only one I'm bringing up anything for is the wife and that's pretty slim. TBH, I'm not seeing where the portrayals are so major that we need a page just to list them or where there's a lot of discourse about the character like there is for TT. ReaderofthePack(formerly Tokyogirl79) (｡◕‿◕｡) 12:15, 7 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
OK - my recommendation is an article on the Cratchit family rather than Bob Cratchit in specific. He's a visible character, but it doesn't seem like there's really a lot of notable works or coverage on specifically him. When he is covered, it's in relation to the overall work or in passing. There is at least one notable work about him and there's also one for his wife, so those together could help justify an article on the family. I would recommend paring down the list of performances to only those with a lot of coverage. This play/story is so well known that it's going to be pretty widely performed or mentioned/adapted in other works. I'd limit it to only those performances where the performer themselves have an article, as opposed to the adaptation. For the various adaptations we can always have a link at the top of the section to Adaptations of A Christmas Carol. ReaderofthePack(formerly Tokyogirl79) (｡◕‿◕｡) 12:52, 7 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Even then I think we should limit the notable performers to those with ample coverage of the performance. We don't really need to have a huge list of performances. I know lists have value, but I don't want it to be the majority of the page. ReaderofthePack(formerly Tokyogirl79) (｡◕‿◕｡) 12:53, 7 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Would this be of help? The Cratchit family does have it's own entry in Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature, p. 280-281, if a short one. Daranios (talk) 15:09, 7 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
@DaraniosThe first size seems like a guide for younger students. It's not very in depth but it does contain a sentence or two of analysis. If we treat it as a more reliable (BBC-affilated) Sparknotes, Wikipedia:Reliable_sources/Perennial_sources suggests we can use it, but with a caution (no consensus: " usable for superficial analyses of literature, and recommend supplementing SparkNotes citations with additional sources"). The MW EoL entry is very disappointing, it's just two sentence long plot summary with no analysis, it's just states they are characters in the story and lists the members of the family. @ReaderofthePack I am fine with having an article on the family, although I am so far not seeing sources for that either. Any chance you could link them or try to rewrite this? And yes, I agree the list of performances is terrible (unreferenced, editorialized trivia - notable performances according to whom?) and should be removed. _{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 09:45, 8 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The MW article, with all due critizism for it's limited scope, does describe the family in a number of adjectives (which I can no longer see in the preview now). I'd see that as characterization rather than plot-summary, but that may be a matter of point of view. Here is another fringe case to discuss: This mostly talks about images of Bob Cratchit. So does it help? Anyways it does have one relevant snippet of commentary: "...realised how important to the story at so many levels are Bob Cratchit as Scrooge's foil (a devoted father and supportive husband)...". Daranios (talk) 10:52, 8 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]