Lessons of GoCYtC

• Scrooge sees three wealthy gentleman making light of his death. These are his business associates who do not care that he has died and are only interested in what has happened to his money.

  On discussing attending the funeral, it is apparent they do not want to go but one jokes that he will attend if there is a free lunch.
• Scrooge learns that there is little love for the man who has died. He can also see the cold hearts of people who are deeply embroiled in business and take little interest in anything else. He sees both himself in these men but also fears that he may be as unloved and un-missed as the man who has passed.
• Scrooge sees the dead person's belongings being stolen by Scrooge's charwoman Mrs. Dilber, Scrooge's laundress, and the local undertaker and sold to a 'fence' called Old Joe. This gives him an idea that it may be his body but, again, he isn't ready to admit this.
• He sees that these people are only interested in his possessions and not the man himself. He recognises the indignity that comes with people only concerning themselves with material possessions as opposed to human life. This is also a reminder that money and possessions cannot go to the grave with you.
• When it becomes apparent that they have stolen the shirt from his back and it is still warm, the thieves justify their crime by saying they are no different to the dead men: both he and they steal from others to keep themselves well.
• Scrooge is shown the shrouded corpse of the dead man. He implores the ghost not to reveal who the man is.

  This is likely because Scrooge knows it is himself. He is also likely to be worrying that if this is revealed, it means it is set in stone. He is determined, as we learned at the beginning of Stave Four to change his ways and, therefore, alter the future.
• Scrooge then asks the ghost to show him some emotion at the man's death. He sees the poor couple - Caroline and her husband - indebted to the man, momentarily rejoicing that the man is dead, giving them more time to pay off their debt. This upsets Scrooge as he sees that the man really has only spread negativity and made people's lives worse. His death seems to bring more joy to people than his living did.
• Scrooge asks to see some tenderness connected with death but, rather than seeing this connected with the dead man, he is taken to the Cratchits to witness the aftermath of Tiny Tim's death.
• He realises from this that the man's death has no tenderness connected with it. Contrastingly, there is a child, who has lived few years, who is poor and a crippled and deemed part of the 'surplus population' and his passing has caused more upset and suffering than the man's.
• Scrooge realises that being kind and looking after those around you makes you a worthy and good person. It makes no difference whether you are rich or poor, old or young.
• The spirit then takes Scrooge to a rundown churchyard and shows the repentant miser his own grave. Scrooge does not want to look at it but, upon seeing his own name, is distraught.
• He vows to 'sponge away' the writing on the stone and make amends for his sins.

  This forms both the climax of the novel and Scrooge's anagnorisis. From this point on, the novel adopts a very different tone.