A Christmas Carol

I'm pretty sure this is my first time reading/listening to it. Perhaps my expectation was different (I thought this story was more satire/playful); so when Scrooge was pretty much threatened with his death at the end, I was like "wow that got really dark" lol;; ) gotta love a good haunting I guess. I hope he didn't merely change to avoid his death, but rather had a pure change of heart to do good and respect all. I think the way it was written wasn't for me, so I'm curious to see how productions have adapted this classic into films/movies!