Tuesday, February 10, 2009

In A Christmas Carol, did Marley have a lot of friends?

When the ghost of Jacob Marley visits Ebenezer Scrooge on Christmas Eve, it is clear that, like Ebenezer, Marley did not have friends.  While Ebenezer praises Marley as being a good man of business, Marley counters that the fate of his fellow citizens should have been the "business" he made his life about.  As Marley did not help nor care about others, he is doomed to walk the afterlife burdened with chains made from money purses and the other detritus of his former life.  In reaching out to Scrooge, and in presenting Scrooge with the three ghosts, Marley is, in fact, trying to help Scrooge and trying to keep Scrooge from ending up the same way.  Marley has seen the error of his heartless ways too late, and is trying to keep Scrooge from the same fate.

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