The main conflict is the underlying real-life struggle of the poor in England, especially the industrial cities since A Christmas Carol is allegorical.
As a social reformer, Charles Dickens presents Scrooge as the embodiment of the cold-hearted and aloof wealthy in London and other industrial cities of the mid-nineteenth century. While these cities were flooded with people from rural areas where farm machinery replaced them as they sought employment in the new factories of the urban area, the plight of these people living in squalid conditions was ignored. Debtor prisoners and workhouses were instituted to remove some of the poor from the streets, but these were squalid places, too, and many starved and died. Disease spread and children were orphaned.
When the Ghost of Christmas Present carries Scrooge as symbolic of the callousness and disconnect of the frivolous upper class and owners of factories, he shows Scrooge how his unconcern for other Londoners affects them, especially by using Scrooge's own words against him. At the end of Stave Three, the Ghost reveals two children named Ignorance and Want. When Scrooge, who has witnessed love in homes and merriment in the streets as people celebrate Christmas, is now disturbed by these wretched creature. He asks the Ghost, "Have they no refuge or resource?" to which the Ghost retorts pointedly in Scrooge's words, "Are there no prisons? No workhouses?" and Scrooge is ashamed.
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