Marley's Ghost visits Scrooge

Marley's Ghost visits Scrooge is the pivotal supernatural event that initiates Ebenezer Scrooge's moral transformation, as the seven-years-dead partner appears in Scrooge's chambers on Christmas Eve to warn him of his impending doom and announce the coming of three Spirits.

Prelude and Setting

On a cold, bleak, biting Christmas Eve, Scrooge returns to his gloomy chambers—a suite that had once belonged to his deceased partner, Jacob Marley. The yard is so dark that even Scrooge, who knows every stone, must grope with his hands; the fog and frost hang about the black old gateway as if the Genius of the Weather sat in mournful meditation on the threshold. As Scrooge puts his key in the lock, he sees in the door knocker—without any intermediate process of change—Marley's face. It is not angry or ferocious, but looks at Scrooge as Marley used to look, with ghostly spectacles turned up on its ghostly forehead; the hair is curiously stirred as if by breath of hot air, and though the eyes are wide open they are perfectly motionless. The face vanishes, and the knocker is a knocker again. Scrooge, though startled, turns the key sturdily, walks in, and lights his candle. He double-locks himself in, which is not his custom, and sits down before a very low fire to take his gruel. The fireplace is paved with quaint Dutch tiles illustrating Scripture scenes, but Marley's face, seven years dead, comes like the ancient Prophet's rod and swallows up the whole.

The Ghost's Appearance

A disused bell in the room begins to swing softly, then rings out loudly, followed by every bell in the house. They are succeeded by a clanking noise deep below, as if someone were dragging a heavy chain over the casks in the wine merchant's cellar. The cellar door flies open with a booming sound, and the noise comes up the stairs and straight towards Scrooge's door. Though Scrooge cries "Humbug!" and declares he will not believe it, his colour changes when the phantom passes through the heavy door and into the room. The dying flame leaps up as if it cried "I know him! Marley's Ghost!" and falls again. Marley appears in his pigtail, usual waistcoat, tights, and boots, with tassels bristling. The chain he draws is clasped about his middle—long, wound about him like a tail, and made of cash-boxes, keys, padlocks, ledgers, deeds, and heavy purses wrought in steel. His body is transparent, so that Scrooge, looking through his waistcoat, can see the two buttons on his coat behind. Scrooge has often heard it said that Marley had no bowels, but he has never believed it until now.

The Confrontation and Warning

Scrooge, caustic and cold as ever, demands what the ghost wants. Marley identifies himself: "In life I was your partner, Jacob Marley." Scrooge tries to dismiss the apparition as an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato—but the spectre raises a frightful cry and shakes its chain with such a dismal noise that Scrooge holds tight to his chair to save himself from falling in a swoon. When the phantom takes off the bandage round its head, its lower jaw drops down upon its breast. Scrooge falls upon his knees and clasps his hands before his face, begging for mercy. Marley explains that the spirit within every man must walk abroad among his fellow-men; if it goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death, doomed to wander and witness what it cannot share. He wears the chain he forged in life, link by link, yard by yard, of his own free-will. Scrooge, trembling, learns that his own chain is already as heavy and long as Marley's was seven Christmas Eves ago, and that he has laboured on it since. Marley declares that mankind was his business—the common welfare, charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence were all his business—and that the dealings of his trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of his business.

The Annunciation of the Three Spirits

Marley reveals that he is present to warn Scrooge that he yet has a chance and hope of escaping his fate—a chance and hope of Marley's procuring. Scrooge will be haunted by Three Spirits. Scrooge's countenance falls almost as low as the Ghost's had done; he asks if that is the chance and hope, and when told it is, he says he would rather not. But Marley insists: without their visits, Scrooge cannot hope to shun the path he treads. The first Spirit will come when the bell tolls One tomorrow, the second on the next night at the same hour, and the third upon the next night when the last stroke of Twelve has ceased to vibrate. The spectre then binds its wrapper round its head again, walks backward to the window, and floats out upon the bleak, dark night. Scrooge follows to the window and sees the air filled with phantoms wandering in restless haste, every one wearing chains like Marley's Ghost; many had been personally known to him in their lives. The misery with them all is that they seek to interfere for good in human matters and have lost the power for ever.

Aftermath and Significance

Scrooge closes the window, examines the door—still double-locked as he had locked it with his own hands—and tries to say "Humbug!" but stops at the first syllable. Being much in need of repose, he goes straight to bed without undressing and falls asleep upon the instant. The visitation leaves him profoundly shaken; when he awakes, Marley's Ghost bothers him exceedingly, and every time he resolves that it was all a dream, his mind flies back to the same problem: "Was it a dream or not?" The event establishes the supernatural framework of the entire story, introduces the central metaphor of the chain forged in life, and sets in motion the three ghostly visitations that will ultimately lead to Scrooge's redemption. It also reveals the story's moral theology: that the spirit must walk abroad among fellow-men, that neglect of human connection is a sin punished by eternal wandering, and that change is possible through confronting one's past, present, and future.