Ignorance and Want are two street urchin spirits that show up underneath The Ghost of Christmas Present's robes in Disney's A Christmas Carol. Ignorance snarls at Ebenezer Scrooge while Want cowers, a sign that they are ruthless. They are also descriptions on what happened to those who became evil and corrupted by the world. Ignorance is a boy who instantly grows into a thug that resembles Bill Sikes and Want is a girl who instantly grows into a cackling insane woman. This scene is a reference to Oliver Twist and Hard Times, two other Charles Dickens novels that are about social injustice.
After showing Scrooge the joys of Christmas and the living conditions of Bob Cratchit's impoverished family, The Ghost of Christmas Present tells Scrooge about the peril that poor people will end up in if Scrooge does not change his miserly ways. The Christmas ghost shows Scrooge two seemingly timid street urchins named Ignorance and Want who were using his robes as shelter. It is implied that if people have been impoverished at childhood, they would either die at an early age like Tiny Tim or grow up and have a corrupt adulthood. In some cases, most famously the Artful Dodger and Fagin's gang, impoverished children become juvenile criminals. Ignorance is imprisoned in a cage and Want is strapped in a straitjacket and taken to the insane asylum.
Earlier in the movie, Scrooge mentions that he supports prisons and workhouses, believing that anyone badly off financially should go there. Should many of them rather die, Scrooge believes that they had better do it and decrease the surplus population. It is only until he has feelings for Tiny Tim and The Ghost of Christmas Present uses that very phrase against Scrooge that he has doubts about this belief.
