A Christmas Carol

On Christmas Eve, Scrooge, a miserly, cold hearted man, is visited by a series of ghosts, starting with his old business partner, Jacob Marley. Marley's spirit has been wandering since he died as punishment for being consumed with business and not caring about people while alive. He has come to warn Scrooge and perhaps save him from the same fate. He tells him Three Spirits will come to him over the next three nights. The first spirit, The Ghost of Christmas Past, shows Scrooge scenes from the past that trace Scrooge's development from a young boy, lonely but with the potential for happiness, to a young man with the first traces of greed that would deny love in his life. Scrooge shows newfound emotion when revisiting these scenes, often crying from identification with his former neglected self. The next spirit, The Ghost of Christmas Present, shows Scrooge several current scenes of Christmas joy and charity, then shows him the Cratchit household. The Ghost informs Scrooge that unless the future is changed, the Cratchit's crippled and good-hearted young son, Tiny Tim, will die. The final spirit, The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, shows Scrooge several scenes of people discussing someone's death. Scrooge does not know, however, who the man is and finally discovers that he is the one who has died and whose death has only pleased people. At the end of the story he is relieved to discover that there is still time for him to change and transforms into a generous and kind-hearted human being.