Dickens’ Dark Warning Ignorance and Want

Added: 2026-05-17

[00:00:00]The ghost's final revelation in his robes are the two figures of ignorance and want. And this quote, "Beware them both, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow is written that which is doom." [clears throat] That is the political message. So, want is poverty.

[00:00:27]Ignorance is a lack of education.

[00:00:29]Dickens is obsessed with the idea that if we educate the poor, they will be able to raise up their own status in society because they will qualify for a greater range of better paid employment.

[00:00:45]If they can do that, they will cease to be poor. They will eradicate want. He is telling us, as he tells Scrooge, that our job is to make sure there is less want, less poverty in society, and that there is more education and less ignorance.