How Is Jacob Marley Presented In A Christmas Carol

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How does Dickens present the character of Jacob Marley? In a Christmas Carol, Jacob Marley is the first apparition that appears to Scrooge. He warns Scrooge that if he does not change his ways, he too will experience the damning consequences of his sinful behaviour in the afterlife. At the beginning of the play, Dickens establishes Jacob Marley and Scrooge’s friendship. The relationship between these two characters is the only relationship of Marley’s that the reader is made aware of. In the quote “Scrooge was his sole executor, his sole, his sole administrator, his sole assign, his sole residuary legatee, his sole friend and his sole mourner”, the repetition of ‘sole’ highlights Marley’s isolation but also his dependence on Scrooge. The possessive pronoun ‘his’ illustrates how Marley was equally as important to Scrooge, emphasising how vital their companionship was to one another. From this, it can be inferred that Dickens may be trying to portray the idea that …show more content…

Marley explains that during his life on Earth, he created the chain that can be seen holding him down by his own actions: “I wear the chains I forged in life”. DIckens uses imagery of supernatural chains as a metaphor for mental imprisonment and torture in the afterlife.Marley is noticed to be in purgatory - a place of ‘incessant torture’. Marley is having to suffer in purgatory with these chains holding him down as a consequence of his attitude towards people during his life. Marley has clearly caused his own suffering, which causes the reader to view his character unsympathetically. This lack of sympathy is furthered by the animalistic imagery when his chain is described as “long and wound about him like a tail”. The simile ‘like a tail’ dehumanises Marley and the reptilian image created is repulsive. Furthermore, it presents the idea that his sins are suffocating him and are having visual detrimental effects on his

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