Stave 4

• Ebenezer Scrooge


  Realizes the spirit approaching him is the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come
• Scrooge anticipates the Ghost will show him Christmases from his future that he will learn from
• Scrooge says he will follow the Ghost with gratitude, but is more afraid of this spirit than any of the previous ones
• The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come


  • Does not speak or show its face, only points the way with its outstretched hand
• Scrooge finds himself with the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come


  1. Among a group of merchants in the city

  2. With another group of wealthy businessmen

  3. In a grimy, crime-ridden part of town

  4. In a darkened bedchamber

  5. In a room where a woman with children is waiting anxiously

  6. At the Cratchits' house

  7. In an overgrown, poorly-kept churchyard
• Conversations Scrooge overhears

  • Merchants discussing a man who has just died and wondering who he left his money to
  • Wealthy businessmen joking about the dead man having gone to Hell
• Scrooge notes he hasn't seen himself in these visions of the future, and realizes his future self has changed his ways and lives somewhere else
• Scrooge realizes his own life is going in the same direction as the dead man's
• Scrooge considers what it would be like to die alone
• The only real emotion caused by the man's death is one of pleasure and relief
• Tiny Tim has died, and the Cratchit family is grieving
• Scrooge reads the name on the tomb, and it is his own
• Scrooge falls to his knees and pleads with the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come to give him the chance to change his future
• Scrooge asserts that he is a changed man and will honor Christmas and the Christmas spirit forever