it thrilled him with a vague uncertain horror analysis

She prayed forgiveness the next moment, and was sorry; but the first was the emotion of her heart. We’re all suitable to our calling, we’re well matched. What they wanted in the room of death, and why they were so restless and disturbed, Scrooge did not dare to think. At last she said, and in a steady, cheerful voice, that only faltered once: “I have known him walk with – I have known him walk with Tiny Tim upon his shoulder, very fast indeed.”. Who’s the worse for the loss of a few things like these? “I’m sure he’s a good soul,” said Mrs Cratchit. He knew these men, also, perfectly. The parlour was the space behind the screen of rags. “What do you call wasting of it?” asked old Joe. For the first time the hand appeared to shake. It thrilled him with a vague uncertain horror, to know that behind the dusky shroud, there were ghostly eyes intently fixed upon him, while he, though he stretched his own to the utmost, could see nothing but a spectral hand and one great heap of black. Scrooge crept towards it, trembling as he went; and following the finger, read upon the stone of the neglected grave his own name, EBENEZER SCROOGE. In leaving it, I shall not leave its lesson, trust me. But Scrooge was all the worse for this. Bye, bye.”. Follow @genius on Twitter for updates Scrooge listened again, thinking that the explanation might lie here. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. He hasn’t left it to me. The Spirit stopped; the hand was pointed elsewhere. Walled in by houses; overrun by grass and weeds, the growth of vegetation’s death, not life; choked up with too much burying; fat with repleted appetite. March 14, 2021. It thrilled him with a vague uncertain horror, to know that behind the dusky shroud there were ghostly eyes intently fixed upon him, while he, though he stretched his own to the utmost, could see nothing but a spectral hand and one great heap of black. They have brought him to a rich end, truly. The Ghost conducted him through several streets familiar to his feet; and as they went along, Scrooge looked here and there to find himself, but nowhere was he to be seen. he exclaimed, "I fear you more than any spectre I have seen. Good morning.”. “The house is yonder,” Scrooge exclaimed. “You don’t mean to say you took them down, rings and all, with him lying there?” said Joe. The children’s faces hushed, and clustered round to hear what they so little understood, were brighter; and it was a happier house for this man’s death. Nothing is past hope, if such a miracle has happened.”, “He is past relenting,” said her husband. "Ghost of the Future!" The Spirit pauses a moment, as observing his condition, and giving him time to recover. It was a worthy place. It would have done you good to see how green a place it is. Are these the shadows of the things that Will be, or are they shadows of things that May be, only?”. Charles Dickens, "“Stave IV”," A Christmas Carol, Lit2Go Edition, (1843), accessed March 14, 2021, https://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/160/a-christmas-carol/2828/stave-iv/. The cover was so carelessly adjusted that the slightest raising of it, the motion of a finger upon Scrooge’s part, would have disclosed the face. He frightened every one away from him when he was alive, to profit us when he was dead. Scrooge and the Phantom came into the presence of this man, just as a woman with a heavy bundle slunk into the shop. https://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/160/a-christmas-carol/2828/stave-iv/, Florida Center for Instructional Technology. Sitting in among the wares he dealt in, by a charcoal stove, made of old bricks, was a grey-haired rascal, nearly seventy years of age; who had screened himself from the cold air without, by a frowsy curtaining of miscellaneous tatters, hung upon a line; and smoked his pipe in all the luxury of calm retirement. The Phantom glided on into a street. “And then,” cried one of the girls, “Peter will be keeping company with some one, and setting up for himself.”. They were men of aye business: very wealthy, and of great importance. Lit2Go Edition. . "Ghost of the Future!" The inexorable finger underwent no change. I will not be the man I must have been but for this intercourse. I am not the man I was. Copyright © 2006—2021 by the Florida Center for Instructional Technology, College of Education, University of South Florida. “It’s just as likely as not,” said Bob, “one of these days; though there’s plenty of time for that, my dear. The Spirit answered not, but pointed downward with its hand. “Only hear that, Peter,” said Mrs Cratchit. In his agony, he caught the spectral hand. Its steady hand was pointed to the head. “Cold, isn’t it.”, “Seasonable for Christmas time. She hurried to the door, and met her husband; a man whose face was careworn and depressed, though he was young. We may sleep to-night with light hearts, Caroline.”. If he had been, he’d have had somebody to look after him when he was struck with Death, instead of lying gasping out his last there, alone by himself.”, “It’s the truest word that ever was spoke,” said Mrs Dilber. “Stave IV”. It thrilled him with a vague uncertain horror, to know that behind the dusky shroud there were ghostly eyes intently fixed upon him, while he, though he “Let me see some tenderness connected with a death,” said Scrooge; “or that dark chamber, Spirit, which we left just now, will be for ever present to me.”. If calico an’t good enough for such a purpose, it isn’t good enough for anything. “Putting it on him to be buried in, to be sure,” replied the woman with a laugh. The Phantom was exactly as it had been, but he dreaded that he saw new meaning in its solemn shape. “But I think he’s walked a little slower than he used, these few last evenings, mother.”. We know pretty well that we were helping ourselves, before we met here, I believe. Alleys and archways, like so many cesspools, disgorged their offenses of smell, and dirt, and life, upon the straggling streets; and the whole quarter reeked with crime, with filth, and misery. But Scrooge was all the worse for this. he exclaimed, "I fear you more than any spectre I have seen. Eh?” said old Joe, stopping in his work, and looking up. It was not extensive. Let us go.”. “Bed-curtains.”. There was a chair set close beside the child, and there were signs of some one having been there, lately. Holding up his hands in a last prayer to have his fate aye reversed, he saw an alteration in the Phantom’s hood and dress. And see his good deeds springing from the wound, to sow the world with life immortal! It thrilled him with a vague uncertain horror, to know that behind the dusky shroud there were ghostly eyes intently fixed upon him, while he, though he stretched his own to the utmost, could see nothing but a spectral hand and one great heap of black. A pale light, rising in the outer air, fell straight upon the bed; and on it, plundered and bereft, unwatched, unwept, uncared for, was the body of this man. Quiet. But for this it would have been difficult to detach its figure from the night, and separate it from the darkness by which it was surrounded. “Bed-curtains?”, “Ah!” returned the woman, laughing and leaning forward on her crossed arms. “On which,” said Bob, “for he is the pleasantest-spoken gentleman you ever heard, I told him. It’s no sin. He always did.”, “That’s true, indeed,” said the laundress. Quiet and dark, beside him stood the Phantom, with its outstretched hand. I have not the power.”, “If there is any person in the town, who feels emotion caused by this man’s death,” said Scrooge quite agonised, “show that person to me, Spirit, I beseech you.”. “Let the laundress alone to be the second; and let the undertaker’s man alone to be the third. ... 1876 It thrilled him with a vague uncertain horror, to know that behind the dusky shroud, there were ghostly eyes intently fixed upon him… “I thought he’d never die.”. It is not that the hand is heavy and will fall down when released; it is not that the heart and pulse are still; but that the hand was open, generous, and true; the heart brave, warm, and tender; and the pulse a man’s. The Spirit paused a moment, as observing his condition, and giving him time to recover. “Get along with you!” retorted Peter, grinning. The only emotion that the Ghost could show him, caused by the event, was one of pleasure. "http":"https";t.getElementById(r)||(n=t.createElement(e),n.id=r,n.src=i+"://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js",s.parentNode.insertBefore(n,s))}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); But there they were, in the heart of it; on Change, amongst the merchants; who hurried up and down, and chinked the money in their pockets, and conversed in groups, and looked at their watches, and trifled thoughtfully with their great gold seals; and so forth, as Scrooge had seen them often. Vague definition is - not clearly expressed : stated in indefinite terms. Strike, Shadow, strike. It thrilled him with a vague uncertain horror, to know that behind the dusky shroud, there were ghostly eyes intently fixed upon him, while he, though he stretched his own to the utmost, could see nothing but a spectral hand and one great heap of black. Scrooge listened to this dialogue in horror. Secrets that few would like to scrutinise were bred and hidden in mountains of unseemly rags, masses of corrupted fat, and sepulchres of bones. It thrilled him with a vague uncertain horror, to know that behind the dusky shroud, there were ghostly eyes intently It was an office still, but not his. Come into the parlour. “Spirit,.” he said, “this is a fearful place. He knew no more, for the Spirit neither spoke nor moved. Then the two young Cratchits got upon his knees and laid, each child a little cheek, against his face, as if they said, “Don’t mind it, father. Its finger pointed to two persons meeting. The night is waning fast, and it is precious time to me, I know. He thought, if this man could be raised up now, what would be his foremost thoughts. They would be done long before Sunday, he said. Bob was very cheerful with them, and spoke pleasantly to all the family. It was shrouded in a deep black garment, which concealed its head, its face, its form, and left nothing of it visible save one outstretched hand. A Christmas Carol. He was not only very ill, but dying, then.”, “I don’t know. “You would be surer of it, my dear,” returned Bob, “if you saw and spoke to him. But she had scarcely entered, when another woman, similarly laden, came in too; and she was closely followed by a man in faded black, who was no less startled by the sight of them, than they had been upon the recognition of each other. “They’re better now again,” said Cratchit’s wife. It thrilled him with a vague uncertain horror, to know that behind the dusky shroud, there were ghostly eyes intently fixed upon him, while he, though he stretched his own to the utmost, could see nothing but a spectral hand and one great heap of black. “It’s likely to be a very cheap funeral,” said the same speaker; “for upon my life I don’t know of anybody to go to it. Yes. “I always give too much to ladies. Observing that the hand was pointed to them, Scrooge advanced to listen to their talk. he exclaimed, "I fear you more than any Spectre I have seen. “What has he done with his money?” asked a red-faced gentleman with a pendulous excrescence on the end of his nose, that shook like the gills of a turkey-cock. The Spirit stopped beside one little knot of business men. How to use vague in a sentence. Not another word. He felt that it was tall and stately when it came beside him, and that its mysterious presence filled him with a solemn dread. “It’s a judgment on him.”, “I wish it was a little heavier judgment,” replied the woman; “and it should have been, you may depend upon it, if I could have laid my hands on anything else. Who’s next?”. Indeed, the Spirit did not stay for anything, but went straight on, as to the end just now desired, until besought by Scrooge to tarry for a moment. It thrilled him [Scrooge] with a vague uncertain horror, to know that behind the dusky shroud there were ghostly eyes intently fixed upon him, while he, though he stretched his own to the utmost, could see nothing but a spectral hand and one great heap of black." Scrooge finds the Ghost Of Christmas Future the most fearsome of the Spirits; it appears to Scrooge as a figure entirely muffled in a black hooded cloak, except for a single spectral hand with which it … Tell me what man that was whom we saw lying dead.”. Glossary Mrs Dilber was next. It gave him little surprise, however; for he had been revolving in his mind a change of life, and thought and hoped he saw his new-born resolutions carried out in this. It thrilled him with a vague uncertain horror to know that, behind the dusky shroud, there were ghostly eyes intently fixed upon him, while he, though he stretched his own to the utmost, could see nothing but a spectral hand and one great heap of black. //]]>, Sorry, we have to make sure you're a human before we can show you this page. If he could have helped it, he and his child would have been farther apart perhaps than they were. That was the only answer he received. "Ghost of the Future!" "The Raven" was published in the newspaper The New York Evening Mirror on January 29, 1845 (depending on the source, Poe was paid either $9 or $15 for it). There was a remarkable expression in it now; a kind of serious delight of which he felt ashamed, and which he struggled to repress. A churchyard. After a short period of blank astonishment, in which the old man with the pipe had joined them, they all three burst into a laugh. It shrunk, collapsed, and dwindled down into a bedpost. But surely they were very quiet. “We should hope not.”, “Very well, then!” cried the woman. “Before I draw nearer to that stone to which you point,” said Scrooge, “answer me one question. “Well!” said the first. Why did he not go on? The mother laid her work upon the table, and put her hand up to her face. He looked at the work upon the table, and praised the industry and speed of Mrs Cratchit and the girls. “I see, I see. It thrilled Scrooge with a vague uncertain horror, to know that behind the mask there were eyes staring at him." “I am in the presence of the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come?” said Scrooge. Open the bundle, Joe.”. No voice pronounced these words in Scrooge’s ears, and yet he heard them when he looked upon the bed. It must be near his time.”, “Past it rather,” Peter answered, shutting up his book. “Sunday. Nor could he think of any one immediately connected with himself, to whom he could apply them. The Spirit paused a moment, as observing his condition, and giving him time to recover. “And so have I,” exclaimed another. “Let the charwoman alone to be the first!” cried she who had entered first. “But if the courses be departed from, the ends will change. “I hope they do. But before that time we shall be ready with the money; and even though we were not, it would be a bad fortune indeed to find so merciless a creditor in his successor. It thrilled him [Scrooge] with a vague uncertain horror, to know that behind the dusky shroud there were ghostly eyes intently fixed upon him, while he, though he stretched his own to the utmost, could see nothing but a spectral hand and one great heap of black." The Phantom slowly, gravely, silently approached. “And he took a child, and set him in the midst of them.”. “No man more so.”, “Why then, don’t stand staring as if you was afraid, woman; who’s the wiser? Where had Scrooge heard those words? But Scrooge was all the worse for this. His tea was ready for him on the hob, and they all tried who should help him to it most. Quiet and dark, beside him stood the Phantom, with its outstretched hand. Web. The Phantom pointed as before. “Yes, my dear,” returned Bob. he exclaimed, "I … It gave him no reply. It thrilled him with a vague uncertain horror, to know that behind the dusky shroud, there were ghostly eyes intently fixed upon him, while he, though he stretched his own to the utmost, could see nothing but a spectral hand and one great heap of black. Oh, tell me I may sponge away the writing on this stone!”. As they sat grouped about their spoil, in the scanty light afforded by the old man’s lamp, he viewed them with a detestation and disgust, which could hardly have been greater, though they demons, marketing the corpse itself. //