Dickens wrote in the wake of British government changes to the benefits system known as the Poor Laws, changes that required, among other things, benefits applicants to work on treadmills. Dickens asks, in effect, for people to recognise the plight of those whom the Industrial Revolution has displaced and driven into poverty, and the obligation of society to provide for them humanely. Failure to do so, the writer implies through the personification of Ignorance and Want as ghastly children, will result in an unnamed "Doom" for those who, like Scrooge, believe their wealth and status qualifies them to sit in judgement over the poor rather than to assist them.[59]
Stephen Skelton states that Christian themes are woven throughout the book, with Dickens himself stating that "I have always striven in my writings to express the veneration for the life and lessons of our Saviour." The title of the book has the word "carol" in it, which in Dickens' time, was defined as "a song celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ" and for this reason, Dickens calls the chapters of the book "staves, which means the stanzas of a song." Dickens' statement that Jacob Marley "had no bowels" is a reference to the "bowels of compassion" mentioned in I John, the reason for his eternal damnation. The themes of "sinfulness to regret to repentance to salvation" are also featured throughout the novel.[60] It is for this reason that the novel is regarded by some readers "as a Christian allegory of redemption."[61]
Some critics like Restad have suggested that Scrooge's redemption underscores what they see as the conservative, individualistic and patriarchal aspects of Dickens' 'Carol philosophy', which propounded the idea of a more fortunate individual willingly looking after a less fortunate one. Personal moral conscience and individual action led in effect to a form of noblesse oblige, which was expected of those individuals of means.[44]