Dickens used careful context in that quote, he capitalized “Poor” as if it were a proper noun. He brought attention to what was important, and what was important was certainly the poor. E. Scrooge then replied “Nothing!” but the man thought he only wished to be anonymous. “…I don’t make merry myself at Christmas and I can’t afford to make idle people merry.” I believe Charles Dickens felt like Scrooge’s response was how the upper class citizens felt. That charities supported enough and whatever was left was up to the poor to figure out. And if they would rather die than support themselves then “they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.”(Dickens). Upon the highborn, there wasn’t an understanding of lives among the poor. Mr.