88 pages • 2 hours read
Charles DickensA Christmas Carol
Fiction | Novella | Middle Grade | Published in 1843A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapter 4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 4 Summary: “Stave IV: The Last of the Spirits”
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come glides toward Scrooge. Scrooge asks the spirit if it is the ghost he was told to expect, but the spirit merely motions for him to follow. Scrooge expresses his willingness to learn whatever the spirit has to teach him. He finds himself with the spirit in the stock exchange (‘Change) at the time that Scrooge would normally expect to be there. He looks around but doesn’t see himself in his usual corner. The spirit directs him to a trio of businessmen of his acquaintance who are discussing a death. One of the men introduces the subject by saying, “Well! […] Old Scratch has got his own at last, hey?” (53). None of the three seems to care in the least about the dead man. One says that he was probably the closest friend to the deceased, given that they used to stop and exchange a few words every time they met.
Next, the ghost brings Scrooge to a rag and bone shop in a poor, run-down part of town. A laundress, a charwoman (cleaning lady), and an undertaker arrive, each carrying a bundle from the home of the dead man. The undertaker stole some cheap trinkets, the laundress took towels and silver spoons, and Mrs. Dilber, the charwoman, took the bed curtains right off the bed and the shirt off the corpse. They laugh among themselves over their own ingenuity as well as the parsimony and ill nature of the deceased, who was alone at his death. Scrooge assures the ghost that he understands the intended message: His life tends in this direction now, and if he doesn’t change, he could end up like this poor man.
The scene changes, and Scrooge finds himself at the bedside of the corpse. The room is cold and dark, the bed curtains have been torn down, and rats and cats prowl outside, waiting for the opportunity to devour the body of the unwanted and unloved man. The spirit points to the sheet that covers the body, indicating that Scrooge should raise it and look at the corpse. Scrooge cannot bring himself to do so.
Scrooge begs the ghost to show him someone who has any feeling associated with the death of the unnamed man. The ghost takes into the house of a young couple. Scrooge has the impression that the spirit is taking him back and forth from one time to another, not in any chronological sequence. The young couple, having learned of the man’s death, are relieved because it means they will have another week or two to pay the debt that they owed the dead man. It will be enough to keep them out of the poorhouse or the debtors’ prison.
Scrooge begs the spirit to show him “some tenderness connected with a death” (59). The spirit takes Scrooge to the Cratchit home, where Mrs. Cratchit and her daughters are sewing graveclothes for Tiny Tim. Bob returns home from making the burial arrangements. He tells the family about the kindness of Scrooge’s nephew Fred, who, encountering Bob on the street, asked him what was the matter and expressed his sincere condolences. Fred then begged Bob to come to him if there was ever anything that he could do for Bob or his family. Bob says that it wasn’t the offer of help that was so touching and comforting but rather the kindness in Fred’s words. Bob tells his family that they must always remember Tiny Tim and love each other for his sake.
Scrooge asks the ghost about the identity of the dead man, and the ghost leads him through the area of town where Scrooge’s office is. Scrooge stops to look in at the window, hoping to see himself, but the office belongs to someone else. The ghost brings Scrooge to a little weed-choked graveyard and points to one of the headstones. Before looking down and seeing his own name on the stone, Scrooge begs the spirit to tell him whether these are “the shadows of the things that Will be, or […] shadows of the things that May be, only” (62). The implacable hand wavers, and Scrooge realizes that for all its dreadful appearance, the spirit means him well. He begs it to tell him that he can change his fate. The hand trembles again, but the spirit says nothing. Scrooge catches the spectral hand and tries to hold it, but the spirit gradually dwindles away and becomes a bedpost.
Chapter 4 Analysis
The motivating force behind this final step of Scrooge’s transformation is not the fear of death itself. Part of the point of the scene at the Cratchits’ house is to show that death is not the ultimate terror; the ultimate terror is to die forgotten and unloved. Before his encounter with Marley and the first two ghosts, Scrooge might have reacted with indifference to the scenes the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come shows him. He does not provide for the needs of his body—he is always cold, he eats little, he doesn’t laugh or engage in any exercise. His death and the indifferent treatment of his body trouble him now only because his human feelings have been awakened. He longs for love, for fatherhood, and for physical sensation, as well as to be remembered with pleasure by the people whose lives he touched.
In terms of the hero’s journey, the scene in which Scrooge finds himself unable to lift the sheet from the face of the body on the bed represents the “approach to the inmost cave”—the moment of contemplation before the final ordeal. Scrooge is not yet ready to face his own death (and rebirth). This is the moment when Scrooge realizes what he wants. He wants to be a part of the world—to be loved, to love others, and to be more than a cold body on a bed or behind a desk. However, he won’t be ready to face his ordeal until he has grieved for Tiny Tim, who illustrates what makes a life significant. He lies on his little bed, where his family watches over him. Instead of stealing the very clothes off his body, his mother and sisters are sewing his burial garments. They weep and speak fondly of him. He leaves a legacy that will influence them for the rest of their lives. Even people like Scrooge’s nephew, who never met Tiny Tim, respond with pity to his death. By contrast, the only use Scrooge offers after his death is as food for predators, and the only emotion his loss inspires is relief.
While death is typically a figure of dread, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is ultimately benign in its purpose. It is, after all, a spirit of Christmas. Scrooge finally faces the ordeal of learning (or admitting) that he is the man who died unloved. Shaken, he realizes that the ghost is there to save him: “‘Good Spirit,’ [Scrooge] pursued, as down upon the ground he fell before it: ‘your nature intercedes for me, and pities me’” (63). The spirit never speaks, and it implies no promises, but Scrooge swears that he will remember its lessons and those of its two brothers and that he will change his life immediately. Because he receives no promise in return, Scrooge is acting out of free will and pure motives.
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