Description
Cursed and eternally fettered, the specter of Jacob Marley wears the chains he forged in life. Each link is a sin that he committed against his fellow man. A reminder of opportunities lost, of chances to lift up and assist a person in need that he squandered in his blind greed. To many, the Ghost of Jacob Marley is a bit player in the story of A Christmas Carol. After all, he only really appears in one scene where he meets Scrooge in the old miser’s bed chambers. Yet, if we look deeper, we realize that none of the events of this story would have been possible without Jacob Marley.
When the Ghost of Marley appears to Scrooge, he explains that his old partner has “a chance and hope of escaping” his fate. He then goes on to mention that it is a chance and hope that he procured for Ebenezer himself! What deals did old Marley strike in the afterlife to allow his “sole friend” a chance at redemption? Was this “good man of business”, as Ebenezer described him, brokering deals with the spirits even as he dragged around the heavy burden of his own sinful life? Whatever the case may be, Scrooge’s second chance, and all of the events of this holiday tale, were because of the work of Jacob Marley.
When Scrooge finally awakens after a night amongst the spirits to realize he has indeed been given time so that he may change his ways, he exclaims “I will live in the Past, Present, and the Future! Oh Jacob Marley, Heaven and the Christmastime be praised for this! I say it on my knees, old Jacob, on my knees!”
So this man who was once a “tight-fisted hand at the grindstone” is saved, and he recognizes who is to thank for that second chance. Scrooge becomes as good a man as the old city knew – all because of the intervention and the dealings of his old partner.
Charles Dickens’ story does not tell what becomes of the Ghost of Jacob Marley. We do not learn if, perhaps, by saving the soul of Ebenezer Scrooge, he too earns his penance, or if he continues to travel the world dragging his chains behind him. Whatever his fate, it is safe to assume that he now understands that mankind is, and always should have been, his business – that Charity, Mercy, Forbearance, and Benevolence are all our business at this festive time of the year, and at all other times as well.
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