which is Doom, unless the writing be erased. Deny it!” cried the Spirit, stretching out its hand towards the city. “Slander those who tell it ye! Admit it for your factious purposes, and make it worse. And bide the end!”

“Have they no refuge or resource?” cried Scrooge.

“Are there no prisons?” said the Spirit, turning on him for the last time with his own words. “Are there no workhouses?”

Of the two children, Ignorance is designated as the more dangerous because ignorance of the misery of the poor—willful or not—only prolongs the social problem of poverty. Want can be relieved, even if only temporarily, but ignorance requires more vigilance to overcome because it requires a lasting change of heart on the part of those who are more privileged. By forcing the needy into workhouses and prisons, the problem itself is not solved, and the cycle of poverty only perpetuates itself.

That Ignorance and Want cling to the Ghost of Christmas Present is especially significant. By tethering these figures to the present moment rather than to the past or future (both of which cannot be accessed), Dickens is emphasizing to his audience that there are children living in poverty right now as the reader is perusing Scrooge's story. There is no room for regret or waiting. No excuses can be made for not helping them, as Scrooge comes to find out. Now that he has a face attached to the general mass of poor people he has so often ignored, Scrooge realizes the callousness of his earlier opinions on how those at society's margins should be treated.

Ignorance and Want represent society’s abandonment of the poor and the consequences of that abandonment.

Above all else, A Christmas Carol is allegorical.  Dickens was a strong proponent of taking care of society’s poor and downtrodden, and this is why he chose to represent them in children.  Most people will have more sympathy for children than adults.  Dickens wanted to make the case that the adults we see as criminals started out as poor and abused children.

This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree; but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased. (Stave 3)

Ultimately, the little boys will turn into pickpockets and thieves (like Oliver Twist), and the girls will turn into prostitutes (like Nancy).  Unlike most high and might Christians of the Victorian era, Dickens did not look down on the poor.  He even started a charity house for prostitutes, because he recognized that these were the people that society threw away.

Dickens tells us to beware ignorance more than want.  This is telling, because it demonstrates the root of the problem.  If our poor are not educated, they have no chance to escape the cycle of poverty.  Want, or hunger and need, is important.  It comes from ignorance though.  We need to educate and take care of our young people so that they don't have children that are just as badly off as they are.

The children represent those who were living in poverty, with no hope of improving their lot due to lack of education and lack of opportunity. The Ghost of Christmas Present was sheltering them as representatives of all those who were discounted and decried by Scrooge. Instead of contributing to charitable organizations that could help improve their lot, Scrooge's action was to ask "Are there no prisons?...Are there no workhouses?"

The Ghost reminds Scrooge of his unfeeling words after warning him of the consequences to all of Scrooge's society if the children, and the life conditions that they came from, continued to be unaddressed.

Beware of them both,...but most of all beware this boy (Ignorance), for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased.

When Ignorance and Want make their appearance huddling beneath the robes of the Ghost of Christmas Present, they make a startling impression:

They were a boy and girl. Yellow, meagre, 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. Where angels might have sat enthroned, devils lurked, and glared out menacing. No change, no degradation, no perversion of humanity, in any grade, through all the mysteries of wonderful creation, has monsters half so horrible and dread.

Author Charles Dickens emphasizes how ragged, dangerous, and desperate they look rather than offering some cute, sanitized portrait of poverty. The uncanniness of their appearance is highlighted by how haggard they are as well, subverting the usual sentimental emotions children in literature tend to arouse. They are haggard, underfed, and pale, resembling those of an advanced age more than hale, healthy children. The sight of them terrifies the materialistic, unfeeling Scrooge, who does not seem to view them as quite human when he first sees them.

By making Ignorance and Want so frightening to look at, Dickens intends to hammer home how much of a problem poverty is in society. Most people ignore the poor, seeing their troubles as unrelated to themselves. Some even believe the poor deserve all the suffering they get. Dickens is showing that poverty, crime, and other such miseries are more of a cycle, rooted in experiencing ignorance and want in childhood. By presenting Ignorance and Want as children, he hopes to have the reader automatically feel more urgency and pity for the poor, since children tend to inspire sympathy more easily than adults do.

Ignorance and Want represent mankind’s need to take care of children.

When Scrooge is visited by two men asking for money for charity, he scoffs at the idea.  He suggests that he already takes care of the poor by paying taxes that fund prisons and workhouses.  He sends the men off without giving them anything.

Scrooge attends many events from his past, and begins to get more reflective.  By the time he has finished viewing what is going on around him in the present and how he influences people’s lives, he is starting to regret his negligence in doing his duty to help the poor.  The ghost finally confronts him with two skeletally thin children.  He asks who they belong to, and the Ghost of Christmas Present tells him that they belong to mankind.

“And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree; but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased. …” (Stave 2)

Scrooge’s reaction to the two children is completely different than how he reacted to the poor in the first chapter.  He is no longer thinking of himself, and the thought of the children going to a workhouse is now repellent to him.  When he asks about the children, the ghost throws his words back at him with vehemence.

“Have they no refuge or resource?” cried Scrooge.

“Are there no prisons?” said the Spirit, turning on him for the last time with his own words. “Are there no workhouses?” (Stave 2)

Scrooge is a different person now than when he said those words.  He cared about Tiny Tim, and he cares about these children too.  He is already transforming into the Scrooge who cares about other people.  One of the first things he does when he wakes up in his own present again is find the men he denied gifts too and promise them an enormous sum for their fund.

Dickens wrote this book in order to remind people not to just walk past the needy on the street.  It worked.  When people saw beggars in the street, they thought about Tiny Tim.  Eventually, laws were passed providing funds for public education and ending the workhouse system.  Scrooge showed people that they are responsible for the children of their society.

By the time that Ignorance and Want show up near the end of Stave Three, Scrooge has already seen many things that will help him to change his selfish, greedy ways.  The Ghost of Christmas Past reminded him of his childhood loneliness and love for his sister, and the Ghost of Christmas Present has shown him how others, including Scrooge's nephew Fred, the Cratchits, and many others near and far keep and celebrate Christmas, whether their means are meager or many.  However, when Scrooge noticed the small foot (or claw, as he is initially unsure) sticking out from underneath the robe of the Ghost of Christmas Present, he experiences firsthand a manifestation of Mankind's selfishness and greed.  Up to this point in the story, the grand majority of children that Scrooge has seen have been vibrant, joyful, and full of life.  Even Tiny Tim resonates with the joy and selflessness of the season.  However, the boy and the girl that appear are "[y]ellow, meagre, ragged, scowling, wolfish; but prostate, too, in their humility."  They are unlike any children that Scrooge has encountered.  As youths, they should be vibrant and full of energy, but instead "a stale and shrivelled hand, like that of age, had pinched, and twisted them, and pulled them into shreds."  Scrooge is appalled at the sight of them.  He has made a life of looking the other way, of ignoring those around him who want.  Now he is forced to face the effects of his choices, and those of other greedy people like him.  The two children both emit and absorb the misery of the world, and are so terrifying that Scrooge asks "[h]ave they no refuge or resource?" To this, the spirit throws Scrooge's own words back in his face one final time by asking "[a]re there no prisons? [...] Are there no workhouses?"  Before Scrooge can even attempt to respond, the bell strikes midnight and the final phantom appears "draped and hooded, coming, like a mist along the ground, towards him."

While Fan and Fezziwig help Scrooge to see the effects of generosity, Ignorance and Want force Scrooge to confront his own worldview in a way that he has never had to.  Instead of simply moving past with blinders on, as he has done every moment up to now, he has to face the truth of the world.  Dickens was a major proponent of social reform, and Ignorance and Want work to make Scrooge (and his real world counterparts) think about how harmful a life of self-absorption can be.  The effects of this encounter terrify Scrooge, and his terror continues through the final part of his journey with the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come.

In Stave three, Scrooge meets with the Ghost of Christmas Present. This ghost, as his name implies, shows him what is happening now in Scrooge's world, such as the meager Christmas the Cratchit family is celebrating on Bob Cratchit's poor wages.

As Scrooge and the ghost are parting from each other, Scrooge sees two figures clinging to the robes of the spirit. He asks what they are. The ghost fully reveals these two children. They are ugly, shriveled, yellowed, angry and mean because they have seldom been shown any kindness or had their needs met, and also abject (humble) because they have been degraded and told they are worthless. The ghost calls them Ignorance and Want. They are ignorant because they have never been provided with any kind of education that would allow to get ahead or know right from wrong. They are wanting because they "want" or lack the basic necessities of life, such as enough food and adequate shelter. The ghost warns that they are a danger and will spell doom for Scrooge's society if their needs aren't better met.

Scrooge's newly awakened heart is appalled and filled with pity, and he asks if there isn't anything that can be done for these poor children. The ghost throws Scrooge's harsh words about prisons to house the poor back at him, implying that it is up to wealthy people like Scrooge to use their good fortune to help these children.

The children Scrooge sees, Ignorance and Want, stand for all the millions of children in Victorian Great Britain who, in the days before a social safety net, didn't have the basic necessities of life. Dickens describes them as follows:

Yellow, meagre, 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 shrivelled hand, like that of age, had pinched, and twisted them, and pulled them into shreds. Where angels might have sat enthroned, devils lurked, and glared out menacing.

Dickens was very angry at the social injustices in his society and much beloved by many readers for pointing them out. He did not, however, believe in the wholesale changing of the system as much as he did in inspiring people to greater compassion and generosity in their charitable giving.

In Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, Ignorance and Want represent the misery of humanity but also Scrooge's own misery, a misery he does not even realize he is experiencing until his adventure on Christmas Eve. Let's explore this in more detail.

Scrooge has almost finished his journey with the Ghost of Christmas Present. The Ghost opens his outer robe and shows Scrooge two ragged children. They are "wretched, abject, frightful, hideous, miserable." The Ghost identifies them as the boy Ignorance and the girl Want. They represent human misery, a misery caused by a lack of education and by extreme poverty. They cling to the Ghost, for they have nowhere else to go.

The Ghost tells Scrooge to beware of them both but especially of the boy Ignorance. Scrooge himself is, in fact, ignorant, or he has been until this very night. Scrooge has been ignorant of human suffering and human need, but his ignorance is deliberate. He has not wanted to find out about such things because he has felt that they do not affect him. He relies on the prisons and workhouses to hide such people from his eyes so he can remain “ignorantly” focused on his business.

Scrooge, even with all his wealth, is also experiencing Want. He lacks compassion for human beings. He lacks a sense of moral responsibility. He is spiritually extremely poor.

Yet Scrooge is growing through his experiences. He asks the Ghost if these children have "no refuge or resource." He feels pity for them, perhaps for the first time. The Ghost reminds him of his questions about prisons and workhouses, and Scrooge realizes how bitingly ignorant he has been.

In Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, the miserly Scrooge is set upon by spirits who show him the error of his ways. The Ghost of Christmas Present, a rapidly aging, corpulent spirit, opens his robe revealing two starving, monstrous children:

And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased.

Dickens is arguing that Ignorance and Want, working in tandem, are the two largest obstacles to societal progress. They take the form of orphaned children because 1) Dickens was extremely moved by the plight of orphans, 2) Scrooge denied an orphanage asking for donations earlier in the novel, and 3) Ignorance and Want are issues that nobody wants to take care of or adequately deal with.

The Ghost of Christmas Present is especially wary of Ignorance, because without Ignorance, society would be able to deal with Want. Even if there is ample food, supplies, and resources, however, an ignorant person or society will still not know what to do with them. On a personal level, the Ghost of Christmas Present draws Scrooge towards Ignorance because Scrooge is a wealthy man who wants for nothing; it is his ignorance that stops him from being happy and fulfilled.

Arguably, it is possible to argue that ignorance is a major theme of this excellent novella. After all, the text begins with Scrooge in a position of ignorance about what others really think about him and self-ignorance about his own past and what he used to be like. What the ghosts actually do to Scrooge is move him from a position of ignorance to a position of knowledge, about both what others think of him and the reality of those who are close to him, such as Bob Cratchit's poverty and how it impacts his family. When confronted finally with his own gravestone and the kind of death he will suffer, the move from ignorance to knowledge that Scrooge undergoes is complete, and he resolves to live a very different kind of life. Note what he pledges to do to the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come after being confronted with his gravestone:

I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach.

Ignorance then is presented as a key theme in this text. Scrooge's selfishness and avarice is shown to be only possible because of his ignorance of what others truly think about him and also his ignorance of the reality of their lives. What the ghosts do is to expose him to certain truths that he has either suppressed or is ignorant of, making such a position of greed and joyless avarice impossible.

I think that a case can be made for ignorance being one of the major themes of the work.  Scrooge only comes to his revelation after his spiritual visit.  Once this is made clear to him, Scrooge emerges out of ignorance to understand what he must do and what he must avoid.  His ignorance is what kept him in the emotionally frigid state in which he lived.  Dickens' point being that once individuals are aware, they will act in accordance to more elevated notions of the good.  When ignorance appears inside the robes of The Ghost of Christmas Present, a warning is issued, elevating the role of ignorance in the thematic understanding of the text:

This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree; but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased.

The idea that if an individual is aware of the challenges in ignorance and warned against them in the present that they can initiate positive change is a major force in the work.  I think that ignorance can be seen as one of the many themes of the work that speaks to its power and its ultimately redemptive qualities.