Marley

• 'I wear the chains I forged in life'


  -Chain implies self-imposed restriction. Poor are restricted in workhouses making it ironic that this is Scrooge's fate.

  -Warns reader and Scrooge that life's actions have an impact on the eternal afterlife (relevant as a highly religious society)

  -Present tense wear makes the punishment seem ongoing
• Long, and wound about him like a tail


  -Simile dehumanises Marley

  -produces reptilian imagery, making the reader unable to sympathise with him

  -Sins are suffocating him and destroying his humanity
• Mankind was my business


  -Reflects dickens ideas on social responsibility (helping others)

  -Reminds audience of when scrooge implied that charity was not his 'business'

  -Dickens highlights the importance of social consciousness as only in death is Marley realising, he should've focused on mankind rather than finance.
• No rest, no peace. Incessant torture of remorse


  -Create a sense of tension by speeding up the pace

  -Mirrors the claustrophobic feelings marley feels in purgatory, trapped between two extremes

  -Subverts rule of three, making the sentence feel unfinished, causing discomfort, mirroring scrooges discomfort making them sympathise with him

  -Could also mirror the unfinished work of redemption Marley should've completed
• Cash boxes, keys, padlocks, ledgers, deeds


  -Marley is still followed by his lack of sympathy and preference for business over people, even in purgatory.

  -he has made these chains, he must suffer the consequences of his actions