However eerie and unpleasant Scrooge's midnight adventures have been, they are all fun and games until the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come shows up. This thing isn't even called a ghost any more—Dickens changes the terminology and starts referring to this super menacing cloaked figure as a "phantom."
The text doesn't really explain this word change, but we're guessing it has something to do with the fact that the other two Christmas ghosts were a lot more human in their behaviour than this mutely pointing dude. The phantom's exit is a little more predictable than that of the other two ghosts. Sure, it's stressful when the thing disappears without telling Scrooge whether he'll get a do-over, but, hey, at least it's not birthing claw-footed babies in front him. It's the little things. Here is how the good-bye goes down:
"Are these the shadows of the things that Will be, or are they shadows of things that May be, only? […] Why show me this, if I am past all hope! […] Assure me that I yet may change these shadows you have shown me, by an altered life!" […]
In his agony, [Scrooge] caught the spectral hand. It sought to free itself, but he was strong in his entreaty, and detained it. The Spirit, stronger yet, repulsed him.
Holding up his hands in a last prayer to have his fate reversed, he saw an alteration in the Phantom's hood and dress. It shrunk, collapsed, and dwindled down into a bedpost. (4.151-166)
Scrooge has gone from fighting the ghosts off to trying desperately to hold onto them and not go back to his own reality. That's a pretty startling change, no? Again, is this a sign that he really has undergone some fundamental shift in his ability to empathize with others?
It was a little more marked during his good-bye with the Ghost of Christmas Present, when instead of losing it at the sight of the ghost-babies, Scrooge is instead worried about whether the ghost is okay.
But here, there is a clear difference as well—Scrooge is making an appeal to the phantom's sense of mercy and asking it to just have some pity on him and tell him the deal. Rather than attacking it, like he did with the Ghost of Christmas Past, Scrooge tries to find the emotional humanity in a startlingly inhuman figure.
This seems like a pretty big departure, and a mirror of what has happened to Scrooge himself. He has rediscovered his own humanity under all that cold that was prevalent in Stave 1.

The Phantom slowly, gravely, silently approached. When it came, Scrooge bent down upon his knee; for in the very air through which this Spirit moved it seemed to scatter gloom and mystery.
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. 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.
He felt that it was tall and stately when it came beside him, and that its mysterious presence filled him with a solemn dread. He knew no more, for the Spirit neither spoke nor moved.

This is the start of Stave 4.

Reread the description above. Why do you think that the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is presented in this way?

Highlight all of the words and phrases which describe the appearance of the ghost and also the way it moves.

What overall impression do you get of the ghost based on the highlighted words and phrases which you have chosen? Remember to use PEEL to help you structure your answer.