Want

Want is one of the two allegorical children—Ignorance and Want—whom the Ghost of Christmas Present reveals to Ebenezer Scrooge from beneath his robe. The Spirit brings them forth from the foldings of his garment, where they kneel at his feet and cling to the outside of his clothing. They are described as wretched, abject, frightful, hideous, and miserable. The boy is Ignorance; the girl is Want. They are yellow, meagre, ragged, scowling, and wolfish, yet also prostrate in their humility. Where graceful youth should have filled their features and touched them with fresh tints, a stale and shrivelled hand, like that of age, has pinched, twisted, and pulled them into shreds. Where angels might have sat enthroned, devils lurk and glare out menacingly. The Spirit declares that no change, no degradation, no perversion of humanity in any grade through all the mysteries of creation has produced monsters half so horrible and dread. Scrooge, appalled, tries to say they are fine children, but the words choke themselves rather than be parties to such a lie. When Scrooge asks if they belong to the Spirit, the Ghost replies, "They are Man's," and says they cling to him, appealing from their fathers. The Spirit warns Scrooge to beware of both, but most of all the boy Ignorance, on whose brow is written Doom unless the writing be erased. When Scrooge asks if they have no refuge or resource, the Spirit turns on him with his own earlier words: "Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?"

Appearance and Symbolism

Want is depicted as a girl, the female counterpart to the male Ignorance. Her physical description emphasizes extreme deprivation: yellow skin, meagre frame, ragged clothing, and a wolfish, scowling expression. The narrative stresses that her degradation is not a natural state but the result of a deliberate, violent process—a stale and shrivelled hand has pinched and twisted her features. The contrast between what she should be (graceful youth, angelic potential) and what she has become (a lurking devil) underscores the horror of her condition. The Ghost's declaration that no monster in creation is half so horrible and dread elevates Want and Ignorance from mere social problems to existential threats.

Narrative Role and Thematic Significance

Want functions as the climax of the Ghost of Christmas Present's moral lesson. After showing Scrooge scenes of Christmas cheer—the Cratchits' humble feast, the miners' song, the lighthouse keepers' toast, the sailors' shared memories, and his nephew Fred's lively party—the Spirit reveals the two children as the hidden underside of the holiday's abundance. The revelation directly refutes Scrooge's earlier Malthusian rhetoric. When Scrooge had told the charity collectors that the poor who would rather die "had better do it, and decrease the surplus population," and when he had asked "Are there no prisons?" and "Are there no workhouses?" as substitutes for charity, he was dismissing the very people now embodied in Want. The Spirit's final, devastating echo of Scrooge's own words—"Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?"—forces Scrooge to confront the human cost of his ideology. Want is not an abstract concept but a living indictment of the social system that Scrooge has supported. The scene prepares Scrooge for the final visitation of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, which will show him the ultimate consequence of his choices: his own lonely death and the plundering of his corpse. The revelation of Want and Ignorance is the turning point in Scrooge's moral education, making him receptive to the final Spirit's lessons.