Get A Christmas Carol, By Charles Dickens; Stave 1: Marley's Ghost...

Marley is described as having a pigtail and a waistcoat, tights, and boots. His appearance in life is the same in death except for Scrooge quickly notes the ghost is transparent. The heavy chains he wears are locked around his midsection. In the novel, Marley is a foil for Scrooge.

Lesson Summary Once home, however, he is visited by the ghost of Jacob Marley, his long-dead business partner, wearing a long chain. Marley's Ghost warns Scrooge that he will regret the way he has lived his life if he continues to focus on making money and warns him that three more ghosts will visit him soon.

His Ghost is described as having chains ​“made of cash boxes, keys, padlocks, ledgers, deeds”​, all items connected with his job. Indeed, Dickens clarifies that these are the ​“chains (he) forged in life”​, reinforcing the idea that he is suffering due to his own actions.

The narrator describes Marley's ghost's appearance as he visits Scrooge. Marley looks like he did in life except that he now appears transparent and wears a chain of items related to his business. Scrooge will learn that the chain serves as Marley's punishment.

Suddenly, Scrooge heard a noise, deep down below, as if somebody was dragging a heavy chain. The noise came nearer and nearer, and then Scrooge saw a ghost coming right through the heavy door. It was Marley's ghost, and his chains were long; they were made of cash-boxes, keys and heavy purses.

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.

Stave One: Marley's Ghost It is Christmas Eve and he won't pay to heat the office properly. This means that his clerk, Bob Cratchit, is very cold. Scrooge has four Christmas visitors: his nephew, Fred; two charity collectors; and a carol singer. Scrooge is rude to all of them and sends them away.