To a certain extent, Bob Cratchit resembles Scrooge when he was a younger man. Once upon a time, young Ebenezer really used to enjoy Christmas. He'd celebrate the season of good will at the home of Mr. Fezziwig, his kindly employer; he'd indulge in dancing, playing games, and all manner of festive merriment. Of course, Scrooge was incredibly lucky to have such a good, kind-hearted man for a boss; the same can't be said of poor old Bob Cratchit. (At least not initially.)

But the main similarity between the two men is that they're both victims of a cruel economic system that puts the single-minded pursuit of profit before everything else. Cratchit's poverty and lack of opportunity would be an obvious illustration of this. Yet Scrooge is also a victim of a rapacious and unfettered Victorian capitalism. Although Scrooge has made himself enormously rich, his soul has been utterly corrupted to such an extent that he's in real danger of losing it altogether like his former business partner, Jacob Marley.

To say that Scrooge is in anyway similar to Cratchit, would be the same as saying that evil is the same as good, or that hate is the same as love. But if one looks closely at the aforementioned opposites, one can ironically find similarities.

First, both Scrooge and Cratchit work at the same place, which is Scrooge's business of loans and real estate.

Second, they both are men who live in the Victorian era.

Third, they both have a love for Tiny Tim. And as the narrator tells us at the end of A Christmas Carol, Scrooge becomes a second father to Tiny Tim.

Lastly, Cratchit knows how to celebrate Christmas, which Scrooge once did in his younger days, but learns once again to celebrate Christmas by the end of the novella.

How are Ebenezer Scrooge and Charles Dickens similar?

On first glance, the miserly, Ebeneezer Scrooge, and his creator, Charles Dickens, are very different types of people. There are, however, some parallels between the two men and, in particular, their life experiences. 

Firstly, both Scrooge and Dickens had some difficult times as children. Scrooge, for example, is described as a "solitary child" who is "neglected by his friends" and rarely sees his family. Dickens, too, had his own share of bad experiences. His father, for instance, was imprisoned for debt in 1824, forcing the young Dickens to take a job in a blacking factory in London. He worked long hours for poor pay and missed out on several years of education. Dickens never forgot this experience and it inspired many of the characters in his stories.

Secondly, both Scrooge and Dickens came to care strongly about the plight of poor children. For Scrooge, this takes place at the end of the book and is evidence of the strength of his transformation. He gives half-a-crown to the young boy who fetches him the prize turkey, for example, and becomes a "second father" to Tiny Tim. Dickens, too, cared deeply for poor children. In fact, he wrote A Christmas Carol after reading the Scriven Report of 1843 which exposed the terrible conditions of children working in the potteries of Staffordshire. Dickens was also heavily involved in the Ragged School Movement, to provide education for children in poorer districts, and dedicated much of his adult life to speaking out on behalf of the disadvantaged and deprived of Victorian England.