Marley

• Marley: '"dragging a heavy chain"'
• Chain


  • Symbolises restriction and entrapment
  • Represents the restricting and eternal consequences of being parsimonious (stingy)
• Marley: '"The chain he drew was clasped about his middle."'
• Marley is symbolic of the eternal consequences of the pursuit of materialism
• In his life on earth he shunned poverty, indulging in his avarice (greed)
• In his afterlife he experiences spiritual poverty
• Marley is a physical and metaphorical representation for how if making money and materialism is the main purpose to your life, then it will be the main reason for your eternal suffering
• Marley is symbolic of the eternal consequences of the pursuit of materialism- in his life on earth he shunned poverty, indulging in his avarice (greed), thus in his afterlife he experiences spiritual poverty.

  Dickens utilises Marley as his mouthpiece to be scathing of the pervasive social ills of society and to challenge the upper class notion that materialism can replace genuine community.
• Dickens' use of gothic elements


  • Supernatural
  • Morality intertwined with supernatural, uncanny and realm of endless possibilities
• Victorian Gothic literature


  Prevalent at the time
• Dickens' use of fictional characters

  • Marley
  • Scrooge
• Dickens' use of fictional characters

  To indict social ills, most significantly the misanthropic nature of the upper class
• Dickens' use of gothic elements, humour and fiction


  • To carry his allegorical tale (story with a hidden deeper message)
• Dickens' use of gothic elements, humour and fiction


  To make his key criticisms of society seem simple and easy to comprehend