Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come visits Scrooge

The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come visits Scrooge as the last and most terrifying of the three spirits foretold by Jacob Marley. This silent, shrouded phantom, draped in a deep black garment that conceals everything but one outstretched hand, appears at the stroke of midnight after the Ghost of Christmas Present has vanished. Scrooge, though now accustomed to ghostly company, fears this specter more than any he has seen; his legs tremble beneath him, and he finds he can hardly stand. The spirit gives no reply to his questions, communicating only by pointing its hand, and Scrooge follows in the shadow of its dress, carried along as if borne up by the garment itself.

The Future Revealed: Death and Indifference

The spirit first leads Scrooge to the Royal Exchange, where a knot of businessmen casually discuss the death of a man they knew. One says, "I only know he's dead," and another remarks, "I thought he'd never die." They joke about the funeral being cheap, and one offers to attend only if a lunch is provided. Scrooge knows these men, and the trivial, callous tone of their conversation disturbs him deeply. The phantom then takes him to a more obscure part of the town, a foul and narrow quarter reeking with crime and misery, to a low-browed shop where a grey-haired rascal named Old Joe buys old rags, bones, and refuse iron. There, three people—a charwoman, a laundress named Mrs. Dilber, and an undertaker's man—arrive with bundles of goods they have plundered from the dead man's house. They laugh as they sell his bed-curtains, his shirt, and even the blankets from his bed. The charwoman declares, "He frightened every one away from him when he was alive, to profit us when he was dead!" Scrooge listens in horror, realizing that the case of this unhappy man might be his own.

The Corpse and the Cratchits' Grief

The scene shifts to a dark, bare, uncurtained bed where the body of the dead man lies, plundered and bereft, unwatched, unwept, uncared for. Scrooge longs to withdraw the veil and see the face, but he has no power to do so. The spirit then shows him a room where a young couple, Caroline and her husband, learn of the man's death. Caroline is thankful in her soul, clasping her hands and saying, "We may sleep to-night with light hearts!" The only emotion the ghost can show Scrooge caused by this death is one of pleasure. Finally, the spirit takes Scrooge to the home of Bob Cratchit, where the family sits in quiet grief. Tiny Tim has died. Mrs. Cratchit says, "I have known him walk with Tiny Tim upon his shoulder very fast indeed," and Bob Cratchit, returning from the churchyard, breaks down, crying, "My little child!" He tells them of the kindness of Scrooge's nephew Fred, who offered help. Scrooge, witnessing this, is overcome with penitence and grief.

The Grave and Scrooge's Plea

The spirit conveys Scrooge to a churchyard, overrun with grass and weeds, choked up with too much burying. It points down to a neglected grave. Scrooge, trembling, asks, "Are these the shadows of the things that Will be, or are they shadows of the things that May be only?" The spirit gives no answer. Scrooge creeps forward and reads upon the stone his own name: Ebenezer Scrooge. He cries out, "Am I that man who lay upon the bed?" and falls upon his knees, clutching the spirit's robe. He pleads, "I am not the man I was. I will not be the man I must have been but for this intercourse. Why show me this, if I am past all hope?" For the first time, the hand appears to shake. Scrooge vows, "I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach. Oh, tell me I may sponge away the writing on this stone!" The spirit repulses him, and as Scrooge holds up his hands in a last prayer, the phantom shrinks, collapses, and dwindles down into a bedpost.

The Transformation and Aftermath

Scrooge awakens in his own bed on Christmas morning, overjoyed to find that the time before him is his own to make amends. He is "as light as a feather, as happy as an angel, as merry as a school-boy." He sends the prize turkey to the Cratchits anonymously, raises Bob Cratchit's salary, becomes a second father to Tiny Tim, and embraces the Christmas spirit fully. The visit of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, by showing him the consequences of his miserly life, finally breaks his resistance and catalyzes his complete redemption.