The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come (or simply the Ghost of Christmas Future or the Spirit of Christmas Future) is the third of the spirits to visit Scrooge in Charles Dickens' Christmas Carol. His aim is to show the greedy protagonist the dark fate that awaits him if he doesn't change his way of life.
History[]
The spirit is presented as a figure (skeleton), tall and majestic, with a long black cloak (presumably death personified) that covers its entire body except a skeletal hand with the index finger. The ghost greatly terrifies Scrooge who, frightened, when he meets him, asks him many questions. The ghost, however, never responds: he is silent and at times only makes signs. Unlike the first two spirits, in fact, the spirit of Future Christmases will never speak for the entire duration of its appearance because it embodies death itself and it can be said that it is not completely present (static character embodying a human category, death)
At first the spirit shows Scrooge a few groups of businessmen talking with mild irony about the death of one of their partners. The ghost then transports Scrooge to one of the London slums, and then enters the shack of Joe, a junk dealer. This one receives, in fact, the visit of three men: a laundress, a funeral director and a maid, all of whom have come to sell the objects that belonged to their late employer. Scrooge's attention is mainly focused on the maid, who, unlike the other two cronies, who had contented themselves with stealing objects of little value, pulls out of her bundle the curtains and blankets of the dead man's bed and the shirt with which he had been dressed to be buried.
The ghost then shows Ebenezer the room where the dead man he had heard of lies lies, but he cannot guess who he is, as his face is covered by the sheets.
The action then moves to the house of two spouses who rejoice at the death of the man, with whom they had a debt, and who conclude their exultations by affirming that the one to whom the debt will be transferred certainly cannot be more cruel than his predecessor.
Continuing the journey, the two stop at the home of Bob Cratchit, Scrooge's employee. In the house previously visited with the Spirit of Christmas Present, in which joy reigned, a great sadness now reigns, however, due to the death of little Tiny Tim.
Finally, the spirit of the future reaches a graveyard where he points out a headstone to Scrooge. The elderly protagonist hesitates before looking at the name written above the tomb, only to discover that the engraved name is his and that the dead man mentioned in the previous images was him. In desperation, Scrooge vows to change his life and to respect Christmas Day forever, as long as the spirit allows that the scenes he shows can be changed.