Scrooge In A Christmas Carol

With Scrooge's attitude and nature, he was extremely selfish, miserly, and callous at the start of the novel. However, the spirits are able to change him into a better man, or more like convince him to become better himself. The way that they did this is that they showed him various scenes of Christmas, but sometimes said or showed him things that were a result of his former nature, such as when the Ghost of Christmas says ‘“[...]If he be like to die, he had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.”’(p.53) to remind Scrooge of how earlier he had dismissed the businessmen collecting donations despite his current wish for Tiny Tim to live. In particular, one moment that could be said to be 'cruel' is when the Ghost of Christmas Future points to the grave as a gesture for him.

“Am I that man who lay upon the bed?” he cried, upon his knees.’ (p.79)

However realizing that he was the man there was the final push that Scrooge needed to realize what he was doing and how he was living his life needed to be changed for better. If it weren’t for the Ghost of Christmas future, showing him the future that he'd have if he didn't change, it's highly likely that Scrooge would have eventually fallen back into old habits despite the other spirits’