Marley's intercession with some higher Power, so that Scrooge will not share Marley's fate, is provided as the explanation for the supernatural visitors who are to follow. His presence in the story is to provide a warning in Stave One concerning the miserliness and misanthropy of Scrooge and to act as a herald for the three Ghosts of Christmas who are to come. Other than that, Scrooge and Marley had been business partners in their counting house for many years and that the two men were alike in their greed, Dickens provides little background information about Jacob Marley. Marley tells Scrooge that he will not see him again and leaves the room through the open window where he joins other souls in limbo outside who are tormented by their inability to help the poor and needy in death, as they should have done in life. Marley warns Scrooge to expect the first Spirit when the clock tolls one, the second upon the next night at the same hour, and the third upon the third night when the clock has reached the last stroke of twelve. Scrooge's chain is now ponderous and to avoid an eternity of purgatory, Scrooge must change his life and show penance to assist him with this, Marley has interceded for Scrooge to be visited by three Spirits who will offer him the chance of escaping the same fate. Marley warns Scrooge that his own chain was as full and heavy as Marley's seven years ago, and that he has been working on it since owing to his indifference to the poor. His body was transparent so that Scrooge, observing him, and looking through his waistcoat, could see the two buttons on his coat behind.' Marley appears to Scrooge – illustration by Fred Barnard (1878). It was long and wound about him like a tail and it was made (for Scrooge observed it closely) of cash-boxes, keys, padlocks, ledgers, deeds, and heavy purses wrought in steel. The chain he drew was clasped about his middle. Marley in his pig-tail, usual waistcoat, tights, and boots the tassels on the latter bristling like his pig-tail, and his coat-skirts, and the hair upon his head. ![]() ![]() On the seventh anniversary of his death on Christmas Eve, the ghost of Jacob Marley, in his torment, appears to Scrooge in his rooms: While it appears that Marley had died without being punished in life for his lack of social responsibility and his indifference to the well-being of his fellow Man, unbeknown to Scrooge after death Marley is forced to roam the earth in Purgatory, fettered in chains, cash boxes and ledger books, desperately wanting to help the poor and needy but unable to do so. In the novella, Marley and Scrooge 'were partners for I don't know how many years' and were indistinguishable, both being 'good men of business', grasping of money and unconcerned about the well-being of their 'fellow travellers to the grave'. The ghost of Jacob Marley in Stave One becomes a mouthpiece for part of Dickens's message regarding these. Originally intending to write a political pamphlet titled, An Appeal to the People of England, on behalf of the Poor Man's Child, he changed his mind and instead wrote A Christmas Carol which voiced his social concerns about poverty and injustice. Importance to the story Dickens portrait by Margaret Gillies (1843), painted during the period when he was writing A Christmas Carol.īy early 1843, Dickens had been affected by the treatment of the poor, and in particular the treatment of the children of the poor after witnessing children working in appalling conditions in a tin mine and following a visit to a ragged school. However, the spirits will offer a chance of redemption. Marley tells Scrooge that he has a single chance to avoid the same fate: he will be visited by three spirits and must listen or be cursed to carry much heavier chains of his own. ![]() On Christmas Eve, Scrooge is visited at home by Marley's ghost, who wanders the Earth entwined by heavy chains and money boxes forged during a lifetime of greed and selfishness. ![]() Jacob Marley is a fictional character in Charles Dickens's 1843 novella A Christmas Carol, a former business partner of the miser Ebenezer Scrooge, who has been dead for seven years. Ebenezer Scrooge encounters the ghost of Jacob Marley in Dickens's novella, A Christmas Carol – illustration by John Leech (1843)
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |