Stave four.
In a nutshell.
The final ghost commands respect, fear and subservience immediately. Chilling effect as this Ghost remains silent and so heightens the tension and mystery. Enigmatically points rather than uttering any human words at all. Stave concerned with an unnamed ‘death’ and progressively moves towards the revelation that the dead man is Scrooge. He is without mourners and even the animals despise him. Finally, Scrooge reads the tombstone and realises the corpse is himself. Pleads for mercy and for a second chance. Epiphany!
Summary with Quotations.
Effect of the final ghost on Scrooge is immediate. He drops to his knee. Is this out of fear or respect or both? Gloom is pervasive. Impossible to separate the ghost from ‘ the darkness by which it was surrounded.’ Ghost is Death personified.
Unsurprisingly, Scrooge is filled ‘with a solemn dread.’ The ghost of Christmas Yet to Come does not speak. It points. Language is no longer necessary. Language is human. The Ghost is beyond language. Scrooge has run out of chances? Dialogue and convivial community are at an end. This Ghost represents death. Finality. ‘It thrilled him with a vague, uncertain horror.’ Will not speak to Scrooge.
In the city can hear ‘Change’ ( money) which seems personified. The animation feels/sounds surreal. Money disturbingly granted a life of its own. Final mockery of Scrooge’s ‘idol’ perhaps? Merchants discussing a death. Sense of surrealistic details. ‘Watches’ and ‘ b’day gold seals’. As if the world is now a mirror to what Scrooge deemed valuable. The shallowness of the chinking sounds of the material. The irony that the dead man is ‘ a very cheap funeral.’ Repulsive physical details of the potential mourners at the funeral. ‘ Excrescence on his nose.’ No explanation is given about the scene by the Phantom. Scrooge is being shown the aftermath of an ignoble death, without commentary. Terrible elegy. Grotesque. The men involved are known to Scrooge. ‘…old Scratch has got his own at last, hey?’ The realisation of the reader but not Scrooge. Speakers express No sadness. They move on to discuss the weather. Irony. Scrooge is barely acknowledged.
Leave the busy scene. Go into ‘obscure part of the town..’ Place of abject poverty, corruption and horror. ‘ grey haired rascal.’ We are in some den of criminality and iniquity. Two women visit the rascal carrying bundles. Objects are mixed items taken from the house of the newly dead, though this remains unacknowledged and obscure.
The climax is the unfolding of the ‘ Bed-curtains.’ Taken whilst the dead man still lying in the bed. Parasitic, greedy behaviour. No mercy or respect is shown for the dead who is still unnamed. ‘ blankets ‘ too. Horror. Even his shirt will not be ‘wasting’ in his grave. Scrooge feels ‘detestation and disgust.’ Scrooge begins to identify with the dead man. The scene segues into the chamber of death. Still, Scrooge fails to recognise himself. But does express understanding of the ‘avarice’. The dead man lays in the empty house whilst ‘ cat tearing at the food’s and sound of ‘gnawing rats.’ The impending threat that the starving animals may eat the dead man though Scrooge avoids this thought ‘by they were so restless and disturbed, Scrooge did not dare think.’. Dramatic irony. We know it is Scrooge in the bed. Ghost points at the bed. Does not move on. The gesture is weighted with meaning.
Then scene with a careworn couple waiting for news. ‘He is past repenting. He is dead.’. Caroline and husband liberated by the death of the moneylender. ‘Their hearts were lighter.’ The irony that only emotion expressed about the unnamed man, is a relief.
Irony too that ‘it was a happier house for this man’s death.’ Pleasure that their oppressor is dead. Scrooge desperate to find some tenderness connected with the death. Disoriented again. The ghost leads Scrooge through familiar streets. He is looking for himself. Wants to see himself presumably as a confirmation that he has a future. ‘There to find himself, but nowhere was he to be seen.’ The interesting syntactical arrangement shows the fracturing of Scrooge’s previous attitudes. He is ‘lost’. Still, Scrooge suppresses any realisation that he is dead. Deferring epiphany and ultimate horror.
Visit to the Cratchits. Mother and children around the fire. But something is different. Sense of loss.
Defamiliarization. All very quiet. Bob Cratchit.’ My poor little child.’ Extolling virtues and kindness of Scrooge’s nephew. Empathetic to the Cratchit family. Fred has empathy. Developed social conscience and responsibility.
Strong sense of decency. Irony Scrooge is nowhere to be seen. Keeps looking for himself. Reader understands what Scrooge is avoiding.
‘The inexorable finger underwent no change.‘ The Reaper. Pointing to the churchyard. Irony again. ‘A worthy place!’ All ‘ choked up with too much burying.’ Fetid, squalid, neglected place. Like the graveyard in the later Dickens’ novel, Bleak House.
Scrooge is now intuitively grasping the meaning of the Phantom’s signs. Needs to know if his future is certain and determined.
‘ The Spirit was as immovable as ever.’ Then Scrooge approaches the grave. ‘Trembling as he went.‘ So different to the arrogant, indifferent human being at the beginning of the story. Humble figure. Penitent.
‘EBENEZER Scrooge. ‘ The starkness of the name on the gravestone. Unambiguous truth. Mourned by no-one.
Scrooge begs for mercy. Pleads for a second chance.‘ I am not the man I was….why show me this, if I am past hope?‘ Scrooge is emotionally and spiritually alive.. He is reborn.
The hand ‘appeared to shake’ and then after more pleading, ‘ The kind hand trembled.’ Significant that the Spirit is now showing more tender emotion towards Scrooge who reciprocates , ‘ I will honour Christmas in my heart.’ Scrooge desperately grasped the spectral hand. Keeps us guessing as ‘ The Spirit stronger yet, repulsed him.’ Maintains the suspense, so there will be the elation and relief of the last stave.
Scrooge’s repentance needs to be sustained. When he holds up his hands in ‘ a last prayer’ the phantom ‘dwindled down into a bedpost.’ This marks the end of the fourth stave and the conclusion of all the ghosts’ visitations. Now the reader has to wait until the final stage to see how Scrooge can be redeemed. How he avert his terrible end?
These are really insightful and stimulating ideas and approaches to A Christmas Carol – very impressive and useful!
Well, this is so helpful!! Thanks for so many suggestions – love this story and you give new insight into a Classic – Cheers!