Dickens uses the novella, A Christmas Carol, to warn the misanthropic rich in society of their ignorance of their social responsibilities, as a result of their cavenous greed by emphasizing its negative effect on the ignored and on themselves Dickens, in the extract, describes Scrooge’s descent into greed to create a character representative of the misanthropic and warning of its consequences. Dickens describes how “another idol has displaced” his fiancee and through the metaphor criticises greed itself. The noun ‘idol’ refers to the physical representation of a God showing how greed for money can be rejecting core Christian values of generosity believed at the time. The ‘idol’ is described to be ‘a golden one’ cementing its greed. Scrooge’s fiancee also describes how “the master passion; Gain” has “engross[ed]” him the metaphoric language illustrating greed as a false God. Dickens also, in capitalizing ‘Gain’ refers to other sins later described such as “Ignorance and Want.”, together reinforcing his idea that greed is the antithesis to christian belief which was seen as objectively true. Additionally "Ignorance and Want” are used to convey the rejection of social responsibility that misanthropic greed brings. “Ignorance and Want” are described as “ two children, wretched, abject, frightful, hideous, miserable”, the asyndetic list portraying ignorance’s harmful effect on society. Ignorance being a child evokes sympathy from the reader to present these negatives on society being unjust, or perhaps to present these characteristics as childish in the people that present them. Scrooge, a mouthpiece of the greedy, presents ignorant views such as those held by T. R. Malthus in “If they had to die, they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population” The view that the poor’s death as merely a benefit to the rich, presents how the greedy see even the worst as something profitable and the idea that the poor simply a ‘surplus population’ degrades the poor as a mere statistic to illustrate Dicken’s view that greed leads to an ignorance of those in need. Dickens, to present the effects of greed on others and reject the idea of the poor as a simple statistic, puts a face to poverty, in Tiny Tim. His death serves as a consequence of greed as, in a future in which Scrooge remained ‘engross[ed]’ by greed, his death negatively affects his family. Dickens describes how his father “broke down all at once” to present the sadness his death causes. His father is saddened by his death and presents the poor’s death as not simply a ‘decrease’ in the ‘surplus population’ but the death of someone once loved by lots. Earlier in the novella, Dickens describes how Tiny Tim “bore a little crutch”, the crutch representing the support that the poor require, and the lack of support, through ignorance as a result of greed, leading to their tragic undeserving deaths. Finally, Dickens describes the consequences of greed to the greedy themselves and puts the greedy to blame. Dickens uses Marley, a character made to suffer consequences of their greed, to demonstrate his ideas when he says that Marley “wear[s] the chain [he] forged in life”. The verb ‘forged’ portrays the greedy’s own actions as making their own consequences in ‘the chain’ to present greed's self destructive nature. The ‘chain’ acts as an object holding Marley back to suffer in the afterlife, perhaps holding him back from the Christian afterlife, heaven, to again present greed as against God and stopping you from reaching happiness. Marley describes the cause of his suffering is that he “walked through grounds of fellow-beings with his eyes turned down” as “Mankind was his business”. The description of the poor as ‘fellow-beings’ contrasts the ignorant view of them as a statistic to present Marley’s words as an aphorism to teach the greedy of how they should act. Dickens, through A Christmas Carol, presents the greedy as immoral and unjust by illustrating how their ignorant views negatively affect the poor and themselves, and how greed goes against God. Dickens effectively warns against the allure of greed and eventually reminds the misanthropic rich of their responsibility to the poor.