What Charles Dickens shows in stave 5 of A Christmas Carol is the culmination and the manifestation of Scrooge's redemption: the joyful "Merry Christmas," the "prize turkey" for the Cratchits, the charitable donation, Bob Cratchit's raise. However, Scrooge's redemption occurred gradually (almost imperceptibly) throughout the preceding staves. The final stave represents the ultimate result.
In stave 2, the Ghost of Christmas Past takes Scrooge to the boarding school that Scrooge attended as a boy:
They went, the Ghost and Scrooge, across the hall, to a door at the back of the house. It opened before them, and disclosed a long, bare, melancholy room, made barer still by lines of plain deal forms and desks. At one of these a lonely boy was reading near a feeble fire; and Scrooge sat down upon a form, and wept to see his poor forgotten self as he used to be. . . .
Then, with a rapidity of transition very foreign to his usual character, he said, in pity for his former self, "Poor boy!" and cried again.
"I wish," Scrooge muttered, putting his hand in his pocket, and looking about him, after drying his eyes with his cuff: "but it's too late now."
"What is the matter?" asked the Spirit.
"Nothing," said Scrooge. "Nothing. There was a boy singing a Christmas Carol at my door last night. I should like to have given him something: that's all."
Later in the same stave, Scrooge is rescued from the boarding school by his sister, Fan:
"Always a delicate creature, whom a breath might have withered," said the Ghost. "But she had a large heart!"
"So she had," cried Scrooge. "You're right. I will not gainsay it, Spirit. God forbid!"
"She died a woman," said the Ghost, "and had, as I think, children."
"One child," Scrooge returned.
"True," said the Ghost. "Your nephew!"
Scrooge seemed uneasy in his mind; and answered briefly, "Yes."
The Ghost also shows Scrooge the warehouse where he used to work, and the kindness of Old Fezziwig:
The Spirit signed to him to listen to the two apprentices, who were pouring out their hearts in praise of Fezziwig: and when he had done so, said . . .
"He has the power to render us happy or unhappy; to make our service light or burdensome; a pleasure or a toil. Say that his power lies in words and looks; in things so slight and insignificant that it is impossible to add and count 'em up: what then? The happiness he gives, is quite as great as if it cost a fortune."
He felt the Spirit's glance, and stopped.
"What is the matter?" asked the Ghost.
"Nothing particular," said Scrooge.
"Something, I think?" the Ghost insisted.
"No," said Scrooge, "No. I should like to be able to say a word or two to my clerk just now. That’s all."
The Spirit shows Scrooge his one true love, Belle, as a young woman and then with children of her own, and Scrooge is overcome with remorse and loneliness. Belle's husband remarks, after passing Scrooge's counting house:
"I passed his office window; and as it was not shut up, and he had a candle inside, I could scarcely help seeing him. His partner lies upon the point of death, I hear; and there he sat alone. Quite alone in the world, I do believe."
"Spirit!" said Scrooge in a broken voice, "remove me from this place . . . I cannot bear it!"
In stave 3, the Ghost of Christmas Present takes Scrooge to the Cratchit's home at Christmastime, where Scrooge observes Tiny Tim:
"Spirit," said Scrooge, with an interest he had never felt before, "tell me if Tiny Tim will live."
"I see a vacant seat," replied the Ghost, "in the poor chimney-corner, and a crutch without an owner, carefully preserved. If these shadows remain unaltered by the Future, the child will die."
"No, no," said Scrooge. "Oh, no, kind Spirit! say he will be spared."
Later, the Spirit shows him the children who have been hiding under his robe and reminds Scrooge of his own intolerance:
"This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. . . ."
"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?"
In stave 4, the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come shows Scrooge what he can expect at the end of his life. He shows him the Cratchit's home, this time without Tiny Tim. And he shows Scrooge his own untended grave—the symbol of his wasted life:
"Spirit!" he cried, tight clutching at its robe, "hear me! I am not the man I was. I will not be the man I must have been but for this intercourse. Why show me this, if I am past all hope!"
For the first time the hand appeared to shake.
"Good Spirit," he pursued, as down upon the ground he fell before it: "Your nature intercedes for me, and pities me. Assure me that I yet may change these shadows you have shown me, by an altered life!"
The kind hand trembled.
"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."
By stave 5, Scrooge's redemption is complete. Scrooge is a changed man, and he sets about making good on his promise he made to the Phantom in stave 4.
Dickens presents Scrooge's redemption in stave 5 by describing his words and actions, which are suddenly quite different than they had been throughout the story. Like any good writer, Dickens shows, rather than tells, how Scrooge has changed.
One way he does this is to simply describe what Scrooge does in response to his tumultuous night visits from the three spirits. He notes that Scrooge puts his clothes on upside down, and turns them inside out, as he rushes around his bedroom in a giddy stupor. He dances around the room until he runs out of breath. His hands shake with joy as he shaves. He dresses in fine clothes, goes outside, smiles at people, pats children's heads. All these actions are wildly out of character with his actions until this point in the story.
Even more astonishing are the words Scrooge now speaks. Instead of dismissing Christmas with the "Bah! Humbug!" of earlier staves, Scrooge now openly wishes strangers, "Merry Christmas!" He buys a large turkey, and takes it to the home of his employee, Bob Cratchett, for Christmas dinner. He finds the men to whom he had refused a charitable solicitation the previous day, and pledges a large donation that includes back pay. He describes himself as "a baby," because he feels reborn. It is not until the very end of the story that Dickens tells the readers what happened the rest of Scrooge's life. For most of stave 5, he paints a picture of a redeemed man through Scrooge's actions and words on a single day: Christmas.
http://www.stormfax.com/5dickens.htm
Scrooge's redemption in stave 5 is the natural endpoint of his development as a character. He starts off in the story being a miserable, grasping old miser spreading gloom to all who know him. He cordially loathes Christmas, thinking it nothing more than complete humbug. For Scrooge, all that matters is making money, and he deeply resents having to close his business on Christmas Day when there are profits to be made.
By stave 5, however, Scrooge has undergone a complete change in character. Thanks to the visits of the three spirits, he has finally seen the error of his ways. He's also been able to see that Christmas is a wonderful time of year in which people can be happy and enjoy themselves. Scrooge's view of humanity has also changed; now he has a heart for the poor and needy, especially the family of his faithful employee, Bob Cratchit.
Scrooge's redemption is illustrated by a number of generous acts: he sends a giant turkey to the Cratchit family; he gives Bob a large raise when he comes into work the next day; and he attends the Christmas party of his nephew, an astonishing transformation being as how he'd previously turned down his invitation so rudely. Scrooge has saved himself as the ghost of Jacob Marley pleaded with him to do and in so doing has redeemed his soul from eternal damnation.
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