''Stave 4'' begins immediately after ''Stave 3'' as the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come approaches Scrooge. The Ghost is clad in a cloak and hood so that Scrooge can see nothing except its hand. The Ghost does not speak but simply motions Scrooge to see what it has to show him. He sees the London Stock Exchange and sees businessmen talking about someone who has recently passed away, someone of wealth. Scrooge then sees a family in poverty who have learned their creditor has passed away and, as his debtors, they will have more time to gather the money and pay their debts.
The Ghost then shows him a decrepit pawnshop where several servants are trying to sell items they stole from a recently deceased man. They show they are happy that they get to take care of themselves as the owner used to take care of himself while he was alive.
Finally, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come shows him the Cratchit household. The family is subdued and morose, and Scrooge fears the worse. His fears are confirmed when Cratchit arrives and tells his wife about Tiny Tim's grave and that it will do her good to see how beautiful it is. Cratchit also tells her that he met Scrooge's nephew Fred on his walk, and he showed him great kindness, which surprised Cratchit.
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come then shows him a graveyard and points to a freshly made grave. The gravestone is etched with ''Ebenezer Scrooge.'' In A Christmas Carol, Scrooge's grave is the setting for the novel's climax. Scrooge is overcome with grief and begs the spirit to answer one question. Scrooge wants to know if the things he has seen are destined to be or if they can be altered in some way, and he pleads to the Ghost that he has learned his lesson and will keep the spirit of Christmas all year long.
Scrooge grabs onto the Ghost's robe as he begs to change his life, but the Ghost's robe suddenly transforms into Scrooge's bedpost.
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Scrooge's story of redemption reaches its climax in ''Stave 4''. He has already reviewed his own beginnings and remembered the joy he felt as a child and the pain of those he pushed away. This is enough to plant the seeds of empathy and caring in him, so by the time he sees the Cratchit household and Tiny Tim, he expressed genuine concern for the child when earlier in the novel he flippantly asked if there were no prisons or workhouses for the poor. By the time he sees the future, Scrooge has gained enough of an understanding of the pain of others to be shocked at the callousness that the businessmen and the debtors show for the dead man they are all speaking about. He is horrified that one person's death could apparently bring joy to others.
The climax of the novel is Scrooge seeing his own grave and realizing what his actions have done: he has pushed others away, left no legacy other than pain, and directly contributed to the death of a child. The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is dressed in a way that evokes the traditional image of the Grim Reaper, and yet the death at the end of ''Stave 4'' is not a physical one, but rather a spiritual and emotional one. Scrooge's final pleading with the ghost is not to save his life, but rather to change the future he has seen, a future which includes Tiny Tim dying because his father could not afford the care he needed.
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is also one of two spirits that evoke actual fear in Scrooge. Marley's ghost appears human yet is clearly not alive, and Scrooge tries to dismiss him as some indigestion. The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, however, is ominous in both appearance and mannerisms. He never speaks and simply points, letting Scrooge come to his final epiphany by himself.
A Christmas Carol: ''Stave 4'' Quotes
''Stave 4'' is the culmination of Scrooge's lessons on the spirit of Christmas and a portent of what will happen if he fails to change.
- '''Who's the worse for the loss of a few things like these? Not a dead man, I suppose... 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.'''
The old woman pawning some of Scrooge's things points out the absurdity of Scrooge holding on to material things. In the end, he could take nothing with him. All that wealth he accumulated and never used served him no purpose except to make others miserable.
- ''But, however and whenever we part from one another, I am sure we shall none of us forget poor Tiny Tim — shall we — or this first parting that there was among us?''
Cratchit comforts his family soon after the passing of Tiny Tim and tells them Tiny Tim will never be forgotten. His death marks the first time a member of their immediate family has been lost, and with Scrooge gone, Cratchit is also out of a job, compounding the misery and depression that the family must endure.
- '''Spirit!' he cried, tight clutching at its robe, 'hear me! I am not the man I was. I will not be the man I must have been but for this intercourse. Why show me this, if I am past all hope?'''
Scrooge finally asks the most important question of the evening. If he cannot change, why show him the future? He fears what he has seen and feels genuine remorse for his actions, but he's also willing to change if given the chance. His final confession at the gravestone is the climax of his journey as he vocally admits his mistakes and vows to become a better man.
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''A Christmas Carol'' is a novel by Charles Dickens which has become a classic of English literature. After being shown the past and present in earlier parts of the novel, Ebenezer Scrooge meets the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, who shows him the future in ''Stave 4''. The Ghost is an ominous figure clad in black with only its hand visible. Scrooge sees several people discussing the death of a man, yet the only ones who experience any emotion seem to be the man's debtors, who are happy they will have more time to pay. He also sees a group of servants selling the dead man's positions in a resale or pawnshop.
Scrooge then sees his clerk Bob Cratchit mourning the death of his son, Tiny Tim. Cratchit muses how Fred, Scrooge's nephew, showed him genuine kindness upon meeting him on the street and thinks about how different Fred is from Ebenezer. The Ghost then takes Scrooge to a grave and Scrooge realizes the dead man is him. Faced with the pain he has caused and his own mortality, Scrooge vows to keep Christmas in his heart and learn from the lessons the spirits have taught him.
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Video Transcript
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come
As Stave 4, titled ''The Last of the Spirits'', of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol opens, a phantom approaches Ebenezer Scrooge. This spirit is shrouded in darkness, and the only feature visible to Ebenezer Scrooge is a single, outstretched hand. Scrooge surmises at once that the phantom is The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, and Scrooge knows the spirit is there to show him the future.
This spirit is silent and foreboding. Rather than respond to any of Scrooge's questions or comments, the menacing phantom only points with its hand. Scrooge admits that he is more afraid of this ghost than any of the spirits who have visited him on the previous nights.
Street Scenes
The spirit whisks Scrooge away from his familiar surroundings and deposits him in the city. The ghostly hand gestures toward a group of men, a clear indication that Scrooge should listen to their conversation. The businessmen are discussing the recent death of a man who was not very well-liked. '' 'It's likely to be a very cheap funeral,' one man says, 'for upon my life I don't know of anybody to go to it.' ''
The ghost then points to two other businessmen in conversation; Scrooge knows these two men to be wealthy businessmen. ''Old Scratch has got his own at last, hey?'' one of the men says. Scrooge is unable to make sense of the conversation and wonders why the ghost is showing him these apparently meaningless scenes.
Scrooge wonders if the men could be discussing the death of his business partner, Jacob Marley, but then he remembers that he's viewing the future. Marley has been dead for seven years, so they can't be referring to Marley's death. Scrooge begins to look for himself amongst the people ambling about the street, but he doesn't see himself anywhere.
The ghost then takes Scrooge to a remote part of town, an area Scrooge has never seen before. He recognizes it at once as a ''den of infamous resort.'' The spirit directs Scrooge into what is basically a pawn shop. Inside this rundown store, Scrooge sees a group of people with wares to sell.
He learns that the items once belonged to the dead man he's heard about; in fact, these people disrespect him so much that one woman has snatched the bed curtains and blankets from the man's deathbed. She has even taken the man's dress shirt, which he was to buried in. Scrooge is horrified by what he sees in the resale shop.
The Corpse
The scene changes again, and Scrooge finds himself in a bedroom. Upon the bed, a corpse lies. Scrooge could easily pull the cover from the corpse's face, but he's reluctant to do so despite the ghost's insistent gestures toward the corpse's head.
Scrooge promises that he has learned a lesson from this terrible sight, but the ghost continues to indicate that Scrooge should look at the corpse's face. Scrooge says that he cannot force himself to look. He then pleads with The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come to show him at least one person who has been affected emotionally by the man's death.
The Debtors & the Cratchits
The ghost then displays a lighted room for Scrooge. A family gathers, hoping for good news from the father who is just returning to his home. The man and his family owed the dead man money, and the father has just learned of the death as he was going to plead for an extension on the debt.
The family is actually happy that the man has died because they'll have time to accumulate enough money to pay their debt; they also know that whoever takes over collection of their debt cannot possibly be as bad as the man who has died. All agree that ''it would be a bad fortune indeed to find so merciless a creditor in his successor.''
The ghost then shows Scrooge the Cratchit family. The Cratchits are grieving because Tiny Tim has died. Bob Cratchit, Tiny Tim's father and Scrooge's clerk, reports that he has encountered Scrooge's nephew. Bob Cratchit is surprised by Fred's kindness, given his uncle's cranky temperament.
The Grave
At last, Scrooge asks the ghost to reveal the dead man's identity. The ghost takes Scrooge to the cemetery, where he finally discovers the dead man's name. On the grave stone, Scrooge reads his own name. Scrooge is now quite intent on changing his future. To avoid such a terrible end, Scrooge makes a vow to The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come:
'' 'I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach. Oh, tell me I may sponge away the writing on this stone!' ''
Though Scrooge pleads for a chance to change the future, the ghost doesn't indicate if his attempt to negotiate a brighter future for himself is successful. Scrooge grasps the spirit's hand in desperation, but the spirit pulls away. Scrooge watches as The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come dissolves into a bedpost.
Lesson Summary
Let's review…
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come arrives to show Ebenezer Scrooge the grim future that awaits him. Scrooge hears of a death, and the ghost shows him a covered corpse. It soon becomes apparent that most of the townspeople are undisturbed by the death; in fact, the only emotion associated with the man's passing comes from his debtors who are glad for the extra time they will have to make good their payment. Scrooge eventually learns that he's the dead man and pleads with the spirit for the opportunity to change the future.
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