In A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, near the end of the second spirit's visit, two children emerge from beneath the folds of his robe. Scrooge asks about them because he sees something under the robe, and the Ghost of Christmas Past reveals them.
"From the foldings of its robe, it brought two children, wretched, abject, frightful, hideous, miserable." (Dickens 85)
Dickens goes on to describe them as a boy and a girl.
"Yellow, meager, ragged, scowling, wolfish; but prostrate, too, in their humility. Where graceful youth should have filled their features out, and touched them with its freshest tints, a stale and shriveled hand, like that of age, had pinched and twisted them, and pulled them into shreds." (Dickens 86)
The children represent "Ignorance and Want." Dickens is bringing home the point that when society does not educate its youth, nor take care of its poorest citizens, society is doomed. When Scrooge asks if they have no help, the Ghost of Christmas Past returns Scrooge's own words to him,
"'Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?" (Dickens 87)
In doing so, he reminds Scrooge that he is part of the problem. Scrooge would rather people be thrown into prison than give them charity.
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