supernatural

• "The houses opposite were mere phantoms"

  1. Foreshadowing that supernatural elements of the story are going to come.
• "not a knocker, but Marley's face"

  1. Marley is trying to stop Scrooge from going into the darkness and he wants Scrooge to go into the light (the supernatural)
  2. Saw him on a door, which may suggest an opportunity for a new path in life and for Scrooge to change.
• "Marley's face"

  1. One sentence paragraph - emphasises the speed in which the knocker transforms from Marley's face back into the knocker.
• "The hair was curiously stirred, as if stirred by breath or hot air"

  1. Heat can represent hell
  2. Air was being blown from below (below = hell) so Marley came from hell.
• "It was long and wound about him like a tail."

  • The chain symbolises his bad deeds in life
  • "long - adjective - shows how it was a great burden he was carrying - a lot of deeds he's committed for a very long time.
  • "like a tail" - simile - all his bad deeds are trailing behind him - animals have tails(follows them) - wealthy people are animalistic. => Marley can't get rid of his tail of bad deeds as they are following him everywhere. he cannot get away from it - form of punishment that is dehumanising him.
• "it was made of cash-boxes, keys, padlocks, ledgers, deeds, and heavy purses wrought in steel"

  • "made" - Marley was the who created it - craftmanship
  • asyndetic list of items - these things were precious to marley but now he's restrained by them - all attached to him - semantic field of money.
  • "steel" - heavy duty - Marley is now trapped with it - he cannot escape from it.
• "Is its pattern strange to you?"


  Ironic because Marley is suggesting that Scrooge should be familiar with this chain because of his sins - he may egt one if he doesn't change.
• " I wear the chain I forged in life"

  • Marley is taking responsibility of his own actions
  • chain is symbolic of all his sins and actions.
• "Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business ; charity, mercy... and benevolence were all my business." The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business"

  • asyndetic list - emphasises how much he's overlooked in life- money wasn't important. message to scrooge that he should be focused on the things in the asyndetic list.
  • metaphor about the ocean - shows the business' insignificance - even if you removed a drop of water from the vast ocean, it would go unnoticed because it isn't important at all.
• "The air was filled with phantoms... and... every one of them wore chains like Marley's Ghost"

  • Marley isn't alone in this torment, thousands of other are too.
  • The message Dickens is trying to say is for the readers - if Scrooge doesn't change, he's going to end up like Marley and the thousand of other ghosts.
• "Many had been personally known to Scrooge in their lives"

  • highlights the type of people that go through this torment - people like Scrooge : rapacious and miserly.