Scrooge sees his future, but thinks it is the future of another man.
During Stave Four, Scrooge journeys with the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come in order to see the world after his death. However, since Scrooge believes he is a changed man, he doesn’t realize that the man whose life he is seeing is him. He thinks it is another unfortunate man whose miserable life he is seeing.
Scrooge begins by telling the ghost that he is most worried about this ghost. He is dark and scary, with his features obscured, and doesn’t talk.
“Ghost of the Future!” he exclaimed, “I fear you more than any Spectre I have seen. But, as I know your purpose is to do me good, and as I hope to live to be another man from what I was, I am prepared to bear you company, and do it with a thankful heart. Will you not speak to me?” (Stave Four)
Scrooge is afraid of the ghost, because he is noncommunicative and looks spooky. He also is worried about seeing his future. He does not want to know what is going to happen to him in the future. He tells the ghost that he will listen to him and pay attention to the visions he is shown so that he can learn from them.
As they continue through the future, Scrooge sees a group of businessmen who are discussing a man who has just died. None of them are going to go to the funeral, and they are not really shaken up by his death. Scrooge’s name is never mentioned. He next sees two businessmen who very briefly discuss “Old Scratch” being dead, and the weather. Scrooge wonders why the ghost is showing him such a trivial conversation. He doesn’t understand that the ghost is showing him what a fleeting impression his death made on his fellow businessmen.
Next they go to a dark alley, in an area that “reeked with crime, with filth, and misery.” Here Scrooge sees several household staff and an undertaker who have stolen from their employer.
“If he wanted to keep ’em after he was dead, a wicked old screw,” pursued the woman, “why wasn't he natural in his lifetime? If he had been, he’d have had somebody to look after him when he was struck with Death, instead of lying gasping out his last there, alone by himself.” (Stave Four)
They have taken his bedclothes, the curtains from his bed, his silver, and even the shirt he was supposed to be in. Scrooge is horrified by what he sees, but it is too dark for him to recognize the items as his own. The woman’s point is a good one. If Scrooge had been a better person, he would not have died alone.
Scrooge acknowledges that the fate of the man whose things were stolen might have been his if he hadn’t changed. In response, the ghost shows him a man on a bed, whom he is afraid to touch. In terror, he asks to see emotion connected with the man’s death. The ghost shows him two debtors that are thrilled that the man who lent them money died before they had to pay it back. Scrooge is upset, and asks to see “tenderness connected with a death.”
As a result, Scrooge is taken to the Cratchits mourning Tiny Tim. They are sad, but agree that they will stick together as a family and survive the tragic loss. Scrooge is deeply affected, having asked the Ghost of Christmas Present if Tiny Tim would live and learning that if nothing changed, he would die. That is the future Scrooge is seeing.
Scrooge asks to see the identity of the man whose life he has seen. As a result, he is taken to his headstone. He realizes that the man he has been seeing has been him. It was his miserable future. Scrooge tells the ghost that he will reform, and asks what the point of showing him these things is if he is past hope of being a better person. He vows to keep Christmas in his heart.
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