marley

• keywords:

  • Parsimonious (stingy), full of avarice (greed for money), dehumanised, animalised, sempiternal (never-ending duration) punishment, egoism
• Scrooge dismisses the idea of Marley being due to food poisoning as he puts his vision of Marley as:

  • "A slight disorder of the stomach makes them cheats"

  Scrooge is vehemently (forceful, passionate) opposed to the interaction with the supernatural as this means he will be forced to change his rigid and parochial (narrow-minded) views on the world.
• Scrooge is horrified through the gothic supernatural presentation of Marley:

  • "Scrooge fell upon his knees, and clasped his hands before his face"

  Marley is portrayed as conforming to the archetype of a ghost, horrifying in appearance and pained in its suffering, to try to elicit (provoke) a reaction from Scrooge to catalyse a change.
• Scrooge sees his worth as an individual synonymous (having the same meaning as another word/phrase) with his worth and value within business.

  • His ignorant capitalist mindset is shown when he can't understand Marley's suffering:

  "But you were always a good man of business, Jacob,"
• Scrooge: "But you were always a good man of business, Jacob,"

  • The comma after 'business' creates a pause, emulating Scrooge's confusion as to why Marley is suffering despite his immense financial and business contributions.

  Momentarily, this evokes a sense of pity from the reader as they can see that Scrooge cannot see the world without looking at it through a monetary lens.
• Marley is symbolic of the eternal consequences of the pursuit of materialism.

  • In his life on Earth, he shunned poverty, indulging in avarice (greed), thus in his afterlife he experiences spiritual poverty.
• A chain symbolises restriction and entrapment.

  • Through Marley "dragging a heavy chain" his chain is a conceit (extended metaphor) for the restricting and eternal consequences of being parsimonious (stingy).
• "dragging a heavy chain"

  • The tiresome verb "dragging" exacerbates the eternal punishments he is enduring, as it appears he has been carrying these punishments for a long time.

  He is sempiternally (forever) bound to the punishments of his previous life.
• Marley is a physical and metaphorical representation of how if making money and materialism is the main purpose of your life, then it will be the main reason for your eternal suffering:

  • "The chain he drew was clasped about his middle"

  As it was "clasped about his middle" it shows entire being cannot escape this sempiternal torture.
• A dehumanising and animalistic image is painted of Marley as his chain:

  • "was long, and wound about him like a tail"

  The simile "like a tail" implies that his egoism and selfishness has led to his animalistic treatment in hell.

  • His disregard for others in his life has led him to being disregarded as an animal in his afterlife.
• "I wear the chain I forged in life... I made it link by link"

  • As chains are made of links, which are all interconnecting, this is alike to how Marley is warning Scrooge that his infatuation with money and abandonment of compassion for others, is directly connected to his anguish.
• Dickens uses conventional gothic elements of the supernatural within this novel as Victorian Gothic literature was prevalent at the time.

  • He uses it to explore morality in a way intertwined with the supernatural, the uncanny, and the realm of endless possibilities.
• Dickens uses fictional characters such as Marley and Scrooge to indict (formally accuse of) social ills.

  • Most significantly the misanthropic nature of the upper class.
• Interestingly, Dickens uses conventional gothic elements, paired with humour and fiction, to carry his allegorical tale (story with a hidden deeper message).

  • This is to perhaps make his key criticisms of society seem simple and easy to comprehend.
• Through using fictional gothic characters to carry his indictment about the misers that pervaded the upper class,

  • It allows the reader to immerse themselves in a fictional world filled with the supernatural, whilst also being scornful of the character's immoral traits.
• Dickens uses Marley as a mouthpiece to explore the need for a collective social conscience.

  • Marley tells Scrooge: "Mankind was my business"
• Dickens uses Marley to explore the desperate need for the upper class to realise their neglection of the poor is exacerbating poverty, squalor (dirty and unpleasant as a result of neglect), and mistreatment.