# Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, also called the Ghost of Christmas Future, is the third and final spirit that visits [Ebenezer Scrooge](https://www.edgepedia.org/ebenezer-scrooge) in [Charles Dickens](https://www.edgepedia.org/charles-dickens)'s 1843 novella *A Christmas Carol*, showing him scenes of a possible future that includes the death of Tiny Tim and Scrooge's own unmourned grave.[1](https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/christmascarol/character/the-ghost-of-christmas-yet-to-come/) • [2](https://www.bourne.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/A-Christmas-Carol-Revision-Guide.pdf) Unlike the preceding spirits, it never speaks, and its appearance draws directly on the figure of Death.
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Role in the story | Third and final spirit to visit Scrooge, in Stave Four, titled "The Last of the Spirits"[3](https://www.gutenberg.org/files/46/46-h/46-h.htm) |
| Appearance | A silent figure in a hooded black robe, almost indistinguishable from the surrounding darkness[1](https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/christmascarol/character/the-ghost-of-christmas-yet-to-come/) |
| Communication | Answers no questions; communicates only by pointing, and by the scenes it reveals[1](https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/christmascarol/character/the-ghost-of-christmas-yet-to-come/) • [4](https://www.supersummary.com/a-christmas-carol/character-list/) |
| What it shows | The death of Tiny Tim, the death of an unloved, unmourned man who turns out to be Scrooge himself, and Scrooge's name on a tombstone[2](https://www.bourne.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/A-Christmas-Carol-Revision-Guide.pdf) • [5](https://www.enotes.com/topics/christmas-carol/criticism/criticism/harry-stone-essay-date-1979) |
| Symbolism | Read as the Grim Reaper or Death personified; within the allegory, the figure represents the fear of death[1](https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/christmascarol/character/the-ghost-of-christmas-yet-to-come/) • [6](https://www.hartschool.org.uk/_site/data/files/users/cu_curriculum-overviews/english/5DE23522162650E412DA226130D40FDC.pdf) |
| First publication | *A Christmas Carol*, published 19 December 1843; the first run of 6,000 copies sold out by Christmas Eve[7](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/a-christmas-carol-marvelously-captured-the-holidays-victorian-spirit-and-inspired-new-traditions-for-centuries-to-come-180985649/) |
## Character and appearance
The ghost appears in Stave Four, "The Last of the Spirits."[3](https://www.gutenberg.org/files/46/46-h/46-h.htm) SparkNotes describes it as unlike the first two spirits: a silent figure clad in a hooded black robe, almost indistinguishable from the surrounding darkness, as mysterious and unknowable as the future itself.[1](https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/christmascarol/character/the-ghost-of-christmas-yet-to-come/) It communicates nonverbally, pointing with its hand to draw Scrooge's attention to the scenes of the future.[1](https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/christmascarol/character/the-ghost-of-christmas-yet-to-come/)
The literary critic Harry Stone, writing in 1979, described the ghost as a hooded and shrouded Death that bears implacable witness to the fatal course Scrooge has been pursuing, each of the three spirits enacting a role and presiding over scenes that befit its representation.[5](https://www.enotes.com/topics/christmas-carol/criticism/criticism/harry-stone-essay-date-1979) Teaching material on the novella likewise lists the spirit's descriptors as phantom, ominous, silent, grim reaper, and deathly.[6](https://www.hartschool.org.uk/_site/data/files/users/cu_curriculum-overviews/english/5DE23522162650E412DA226130D40FDC.pdf)
## The visions in Stave Four
The ghost shows Scrooge a sequence of scenes linked to an unnamed man's death.[8](https://www.oasisacademybrightstowe.org/uploaded/Brightstowe/Learning/Curriculum/English/Knowledge_Organisers/a-christmas-carol-knowledge-organiser.pdf) These include the Cratchit household mourning the death of [Tiny Tim](https://www.edgepedia.org/tiny-tim-a-christmas-carol), and the death of a despised, solitary businessman whose corpse is unattended, unaccompanied to the grave, and unmourned, unnamed except by his tombstone.[9](https://www.litcharts.com/lit/a-christmas-carol/characters/the-ghost-of-christmas-yet-to-come) • [10](https://www.english.upenn.edu/sites/default/files/articles/Representations%2098--Christmas%20Yet%20To%20Come.pdf) When Scrooge asks whether this figure is himself, the ghost leads him to a graveyard and points to a headstone bearing Scrooge's own name.[11](https://apnews.com/article/279d36d4f7158c19cc169f92db474c3b)
The spirit gives no indication whether Scrooge's fate is alterable. Scrooge intuits that the pointing hand has begun to shake, trembling as if in empathy as he begs for a second chance, and he vows to change his ways.[1](https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/christmascarol/character/the-ghost-of-christmas-yet-to-come/) SparkNotes reads the silent, reaper-like figure as representing the fear of death, which completes the lessons about memory, empathy, and generosity delivered by the earlier spirits.[1](https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/christmascarol/character/the-ghost-of-christmas-yet-to-come/) In the story's structure, the pre-vision connects Scrooge's own death to that of the child of his poor clerk, Bob Cratchit.[12](https://victorianweb.org/victorian/authors/dickens/xmas/pva13.html)
## Origin and context
The ghost appears in *A Christmas Carol*, which Dickens wrote in six weeks beginning in October 1843 and which was published on 19 December 1843, selling out its first run of 6,000 copies by [Christmas Eve](https://www.edgepedia.org/christmas-eve).[7](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/a-christmas-carol-marvelously-captured-the-holidays-victorian-spirit-and-inspired-new-traditions-for-centuries-to-come-180985649/) The first edition was illustrated by the *Punch* artist John Leech, whose plates include one titled "The Last of the Spirits" depicting the hooded figure with Scrooge at the gravestone.[3](https://www.gutenberg.org/files/46/46-h/46-h.htm) • [12](https://victorianweb.org/victorian/authors/dickens/xmas/pva13.html)
The critic Philip V. Allingham, Professor Emeritus at Lakehead University, notes a structural background: the tale draws on Dickens's earlier Christmas ghost story "The Story of the Goblins who stole a Sexton" in *The Pickwick Papers*, whose misanthropic grave-digger Gabriel Grub is a prototype of Scrooge, and Edgar Johnson identified the three Christmas spirits as personifications of memory, example, and fear, the last of these being the Yet to Come.[12](https://victorianweb.org/victorian/authors/dickens/xmas/pva13.html)
## Adaptations
The ghost's silence and shrouded design have made it a consistent fixture of the many screen and stage adaptations of the novella. In *The Muppet Christmas Carol* (1992), it is the last of three ghosts that haunts Scrooge, portrayed as a tall specter robed in darkened clothing with a hood.[13](https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/The_Ghost_of_Christmas_Yet_to_Come_%28The_Muppet_Christmas_Carol%29) In the 1984 film starring [George C. Scott](https://www.edgepedia.org/george-c-scott), the ghost brushes snow from a gravestone that reveals Scrooge's name in a cemetery; the prop tombstone used in that production was left in place at St. Chad's Church in [Shrewsbury](https://www.edgepedia.org/shrewsbury), England, became a tourist attraction, and was broken by vandals in November 2024.[11](https://apnews.com/article/279d36d4f7158c19cc169f92db474c3b)
The story's simple structure, with the ghosts guiding Scrooge through the past, present, and future, has allowed it to be adapted endlessly, from the 1988 film *Scrooged* with [Bill Murray](https://www.edgepedia.org/bill-murray) to *The Muppet Christmas Carol* and numerous stage versions.[14](https://time.com/6235153/spirited-a-christmas-carol-history/)
## Interpretation
A scholarly reading in *Representations* takes the ghost's visions as an object lesson in "the strangeness of the dead and the deadness of the stranger": the dead man finally identified as the future remains of Scrooge's present self is unattended in death, unmourned, and unnamed except by his tombstone, a feast for rats and worms rather than a revealer at life's feast.[10](https://www.english.upenn.edu/sites/default/files/articles/Representations%2098--Christmas%20Yet%20To%20Come.pdf) SparkNotes frames the spirit's function in moral terms: it seals the story's lesson by showing that Scrooge's death would be mourned by no one, which solidifies his intention to change.[1](https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/christmascarol/character/the-ghost-of-christmas-yet-to-come/) Because the ghost never confirms whether the future it shows is fixed, the scene leaves open the possibility of change on which the novella's ending turns.[1](https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/christmascarol/character/the-ghost-of-christmas-yet-to-come/)
## References
1. [The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come Character Analysis in A Christmas Carol, SparkNotes](https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/christmascarol/character/the-ghost-of-christmas-yet-to-come/)
2. [A Christmas Carol Revision Guide, Bourne Grammar School](https://www.bourne.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/A-Christmas-Carol-Revision-Guide.pdf)
3. [A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens, Project Gutenberg eBook #46](https://www.gutenberg.org/files/46/46-h/46-h.htm)
4. [A Christmas Carol Character List, SuperSummary](https://www.supersummary.com/a-christmas-carol/character-list/)
5. [Harry Stone (1979), Fairy-Tale Form in A Christmas Carol, eNotes](https://www.enotes.com/topics/christmas-carol/criticism/criticism/harry-stone-essay-date-1979)
6. [A Christmas Carol teaching resource, Hart School](https://www.hartschool.org.uk/_site/data/files/users/cu_curriculum-overviews/english/5DE23522162650E412DA226130D40FDC.pdf)
7. ['A Christmas Carol' Marvelously Captured the Holiday's Victorian Spirit, Smithsonian Magazine](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/a-christmas-carol-marvelously-captured-the-holidays-victorian-spirit-and-inspired-new-traditions-for-centuries-to-come-180985649/)
8. [A Christmas Carol Knowledge Organiser, Oasis Academy Brightstowe](https://www.oasisacademybrightstowe.org/uploaded/Brightstowe/Learning/Curriculum/English/Knowledge_Organisers/a-christmas-carol-knowledge-organiser.pdf)
9. [The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come Character Analysis, LitCharts](https://www.litcharts.com/lit/a-christmas-carol/characters/the-ghost-of-christmas-yet-to-come)
10. [Christmas Yet To Come, Representations 98, University of Pennsylvania](https://www.english.upenn.edu/sites/default/files/articles/Representations%2098--Christmas%20Yet%20To%20Come.pdf)
11. [Bah, humbug! Vandal smashes Ebenezer Scrooge's tombstone used in 'A Christmas Carol' movie, AP News](https://apnews.com/article/279d36d4f7158c19cc169f92db474c3b)
12. [Philip V. Allingham, Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol (1843): An Introduction, Victorian Web](https://victorianweb.org/victorian/authors/dickens/xmas/pva13.html)
13. [The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come (The Muppet Christmas Carol), Disney Wiki](https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/The_Ghost_of_Christmas_Yet_to_Come_%28The_Muppet_Christmas_Carol%29)
14. [How Spirited Continues a Long Legacy of Christmas Carol Adaptations, Time](https://time.com/6235153/spirited-a-christmas-carol-history/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Literature and written works › Creative written works and worlds › Adaptations, tie-ins, and fictional worlds › Fictional universes, characters, and places › Characters from individual novels › Characters from 19th-century novels*
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