Jacob Marley, Scrooge’s dead business partner, is the first Ghost to appear to Scrooge.
From the opening line of the novella, Dickens firmly establishes that Marley is dead: ‘Marley
was dead: to begin with’ comes as a shock to the reader.
These words, which follow the title of the stave, ‘Marley’s Ghost’, promise a supernatural
treat and create anticipation.
More importantly, they introduce the idea of time being turned upside down.
In many ways, ‘A Christmas Carol’ is a story of time-travel.
The moving around from the present to the past, the present to other locations in the
present, the present to the future and then back to the present could be very confusing.
Dickens cleverly manages this through Marley’s visit, in which he explains that there will
be three more Spirits for Scrooge to learn from.Marley’s visit makes the upcoming structure
clear, and this structure is provided by the appearance of each Ghost.
Since both the reader and Scrooge know what to expect, it is a relatively easy structure
to follow.
Dickens also uses repetition to emphasise the fact that Marley has passed away.
Within the first page he repeats this idea several times.
For example, there is repetition of the simile ‘Marley was as dead as a door-nail,’ followed
by a reference to Marley’s funeral and how Scrooge was the ‘sole mourner’.
These references, all within the first four paragraphs of the text, leave the reader in
no doubt that, the first time we see Marley, he will be a ghost.
Dickens develops the theme of the supernatural and begins to create tension when Scrooge
first sees an apparition of Marley’s face on Scrooge’s door knocker.
Although Scrooge dismisses the vision at the time, this event foreshadows the arrival of
Marley’s Ghost later that evening.
Dickens uses listing to describe Marley’s Ghost wearing a chain made of ‘cash-boxes,
keys, padlocks, ledgers, deeds, and heavy purses’.
All these items are related to money and business, so they symbolise his greed during his life.
Marley’s appearance serves as the first warning to Scrooge that he too could be punished
for his greed with money and lack of social responsibility if he fails to change his self-centred
ways.
Dickens hints at religious reasons for Marley’s torment when he says ‘I wear the chain I
forged in life’ and he is ‘doomed to wander through the world’.
The former moneylender is suffering in the afterlife because of his uncaring, money-grabbing
behaviour whilst he was alive.
With this punishment, Dickens references the Catholic belief in Purgatory, a place where
the evil souls of the dead endure great suffering before they are purified and go to heaven.
Dickens’s use of the verb ‘doomed’, however, implies that Marley has in fact been
judged and condemned to ‘wander the world’ and he has no hope of going to Heaven.
The alliteration with ‘wander’ and ’world’ slows down the sentence, almost slowing down
time to emphasise the eternal length of his punishment.
Marley clearly regrets his actions of caring for profit, not people, when he was alive,
and we see this through a range of techniques.
Dickens employs a pun when Marley states ‘Mankind was my business.’
Scrooge has just referred to business in the office; Marley uses the word ‘business’
to tell Scrooge (and, by default, the reader) that we must all look after one another.
Dickens describes Scrooge as Marley’s ‘sole friend’, highlighting how lonely they were
in pursuit of money.
He was also, sadly, the ‘sole mourner’ at Marley’s funeral.
The repetition of the adjective ‘sole’ emphasises the solitary nature of their work
and how Scrooge and Marley were concerned only with their own profits, not with their
relationships with others.
This imagery also echoes the ‘solitary as an oyster’ simile used to describe Scrooge
earlier in the novella.
Unlike the oyster imagery, there is no hidden pearl of redemption for Marley.
This language and imagery serves as a lesson to the reader: don’t be like Marley and
Scrooge, focusing purely on self gain.
Ultimately, Dickens uses Marley as his mouthpiece to emphasise the importance of social responsibility
and the need to look after family, friends and employees.
This is the only way to avoid eternal punishment.
By using the concept of Purgatory, Dickens suggests that it is the Christian duty of
his readers to help others.
This is aptly summarised in ‘The Life of Our Lord’ (1846), which he wrote for his
children:
Remember!
— It is Christianity To Do Good always — even to those who do evil to us.
It is Christianity to love our neighbour as ourself, and to do to all men as we would
have them Do to us.
It is Christianity to be gentle, merciful, and forgiving, and to keep those qualities
quiet in our own hearts, and never make a boast of them, or of our prayers or of our
love of God, but always to shew that we love Him by humbly trying to do right in everything.
Well I hope you found this video useful.
Everything I go through in this video series can be found in the second edition of Mr Bruff’s
Guide to A Christmas Carol.
The links are in the description - you can pick up a copy.
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