Analyzing Jacob Marley and the Ghost of Christmas Past in Dickens' Classic

hi everyone welcome back to my channel in today's video we will be analyzing two of the ghosts in A Christmas Carol

Jacob Marley and the Ghost of Christmas Past if you've read this Novella you'll know

that the author Charles Dickens makes heavy use of the supernatural throughout the story in order to guide the miserly

protagonist Ebenezer Scrooge towards his eventual transformation into a Kind and Generous man

if you need a quick catch up on the plot of A Christmas Carol check out my seven minute summary video listed in the

description below let's jump straight into our analysis of Marley which begins at the very

beginning the first words of the text Marley was dead to begin with there is no doubt whatever about that old Marley

was dead as a doornail this seems like quite an Abrupt and morbid way to begin a book especially

one about Christmas but just to drive this point home even further Dickens refers to Marley's death again just a

few paragraphs down this reference to Hamlet is significant because Hamlet's father appears to him

as a ghost at the beginning of the play and this implies to the reader right away that Marley will appear to Scrooge

as a ghost at some point as well now this might seem like kind of a spoiler so early on in the novella but

it is there for a reason first of all it immediately captures the attention of the reader which was important in

Dickens time because interested buyers would usually read the first page of a book to determine whether or not they

wanted to purchase it and just from the opening paragraphs we can already assume that this will likely be a story

involving ghosts and the Redemption of the miserly protagonist it also creates an instant impression in

the reader's mind of the importance of Marley to the plot of the story and his relationship with Scrooge

this is one of the main questions we are trying to uncover with our analysis why is the appearance of Marley in

particular so important to Scrooge's Redemption why Marley and not his sister or father

well their relationship is made very clear from the beginning when Dickens writes

Scrooge and he were partners for I don't know how many years Scrooge was his sole executor his sole

administrator his solo sign his soul residuary Legacy his soul friend and soul mourner

the a synthetic listing of Scrooge's roles in Marley's life and death as well as the repetition of Soul highlights

that Marley is the only person that Scrooge can be considered close to note that the first four roles are all

business related rather than personal and we can therefore assume that this is the order in which Scrooge prioritizes

their relationship Dickens specifically wrote this character to be a business partner to

Scrooge rather than a family member or spouse although the relationship is almost like a marriage in the sense that

they spent nearly every day together and Scrooge eventually becomes almost indistinguishable from his partner

Scrooge never painted out old Marley's name sometimes people new to the business called Scrooge Scrooge and

sometimes Marley but he answered to both names it was all the same to him the fact that Scrooge chose to keep

Marley's name on the door and answer to both names it's not just because he's lazy it shows that deep down he does not

want to forget about him Scrooge chose Marley to be his only companion in life which is a very

significant decision for a man like him to make clearly he admired Marley's obsession

with business and money which is why he behaved so much like him now Marley is the older version of Scrooge

and this connection means that he is probably the only person in the world that Scrooge will listen to and is

therefore a crucial factor in his transformation another interesting thing about Marley

is his fascination with doors he's often mentioned in relation to one in this novella the first description of course

is that he is as dead as a doornail and his first appearance to Scrooge is in a door knocker later that night Marley

appears to Scrooge for a second time passing right through the bolted door an absolutely terrifying him

so what is the point of all these doors when we think of doors as a symbol they usually mean the start of a new chapter

in life or new possibilities all of which are relatable in this scenario for Scrooge Marley's appearance therefore

symbolizes the beginning of Scrooge's transformation as he is the Catalyst for his dramatic change

let's read how Dickens describes Marley's physical appearance Marley and his pigtail usual waistcoat

tights and Boots the tassels on the latter bristling like his pigtail and his code skirts and the hair upon his

head the idea of pigtails tights boots and tassels might seem strange to us

particularly for businessmen but to a reader in Dickens time it would have been quite easily recognizable as an

older style of fashion kind of like how we associate leg warmers leotards and shoulder pads with the 80s

this confirms that Marley is older than Scrooge and therefore has probably influenced the way Scrooge behaves now

during the years that they are partners he also carries a long chain with him which is described like this

the chain he drew was clasped about his middle it was long and wound about him like a tail and it was made for Scrooge

observed it closely of cash boxes Keys padlocks ledgers deeds and heavy purses rotten Steel

because Marley is a money lender his chain is made up of the tools of his trade and reinforces his obsession with

money making during his life in order to conduct his business he would have had to take advantage of

people who were poor and likely to get into debt the simile wound about him like a tail

gives him an almost animalistic quality which dehumanizes him clearly money lenders were not much liked by Dickens

Marley then goes on to say I wear the chain I forged in life replied the ghost I made it link by link

and yard by yard I girded it on of my own free will and of my own free will I wore it the fact that Marley's suffering

as a result of his exploitation of the poor makes it hard to sympathize with him despite his pitiful state

he appears to be in a sort of purgatory an in-between Place Between Heaven and Hell where the souls of Sinners were

sent to suffer until they repented Marley's particular form of penance is to travel endlessly on the wings of the

wind and to observe the actions of his fellow man his message to Scrooge's extremely

rhythmic and poetic using lots of phrase of repetition and asynetic listing for example I cannot rest I cannot stay I

cannot linger anywhere this gives it more impact because it is different to how Scrooge and the other

characters speak and almost sounds like it has been prepared as you would a speech or sermon which makes sense as he

says to Scrooge that he is such invisible beside you many and many a day he has had a long time to think about

the error of his ways and now has only a few minutes to deliver this warning to his former partner

business cried the ghost wringing its hand again mankind was my business the common

welfare was my business charity Mercy forbearance and benevolence were all my business the dealings of my trade were

but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business the repetition of business shows the

dangers of seeking money over everything else and ignoring the welfare of others Marley's main purpose in this book is to

remind the readers that it is our moral duty as humans to be kind and look after each other it also reinforces the

Christian idea that our actions in life have consequences in the afterlife although Marley has no hope for himself

as he suffers in the state of purgatory he is finally doing something unselfish by coming back to help his partner and

his friend Scrooge somehow Marley has gotten a higher power to give Scrooge a second chance which

means that not only is he a catalyst for Scrooge's transformation he is the only reason that he is getting this chance at

all in the final Stave we are reminded of Marley's integral role in Scrooge's

Journey when he says oh Jacob Marley Heaven and the Christmas time be praised for this I say it on my knees old Jacob

on my knees if you found this video helpful so far please give it a like it really helps

out the channel let's move on now to the Ghost of Christmas Past who is the first of three

spirits to guide Scrooge on his path to Redemption after Marley's creepy appearance and

ominous message we might expect this ghost to have a similarly scary vibe so the description of it is a surprising

one it was a strange figure like a child you're not so like a child as like an

old man its hair was white as if with age and yet the face had not a wrinkle in it and the tenderest bloom was on the

skin it held a branch of fresh green Holly in its hand and in singular contradiction of that wintry emblem had

its dress trimmed with summer flowers but the strangest thing about it was that from the crown of its head there

sprung a bright clear jet of light this is a very interesting description that is full of contradictory statements

which I've underlined here the ghost has no clear age or gender and has a comforting appearance almost

Angelic even due to the white tunic it wears and the light streaming out of its head

white is often a symbol of Purity and innocence and in this case it might represent the innocence of Youth which

many of us lose as we become adults it is unclear whether the spirit is old or young and in fact seems to be both

which illustrates that our past is not only consist of our childhood but our entire lives right up until the last

second you just experienced Dickens writes that the ghost has a clear jet of light emanating from its

head and an extinguisher for a cap which immediately makes us picture a candle candles have been used in literature as

a metaphor for the briefness of life which is certainly relevant for this ghost right from the start Scrooge seems

to have an aversion to the light the ghost gives off which may be because light is a symbol of Truth which the

ghost is about to show him a lot of it could also be another representation of the Innocence and purity of Youth

that Scrooge lost both in himself and through the death of his sister along their journey through Scrooge's

childhood the Ghost of Christmas Past leads Scrooge to reach certain conclusions by making some very

calculated comments along the way a small matter said the ghost to make these silly folks so full of gratitude

small echoed Scrooge what is the matter ask the ghost nothing particular said Scrooge

something I think the ghost insisted no said Scrooge no I should like to be

able to say a word or two to my clock just now that's all by constantly questioning him and

provoking him with these remarks Scrooge is forced to reflect on his recent behavior and compare it with how he was

treated during his life this is already a massive step forward in his transformation and we can start

to see the first signs of Hope for his character peeking through however this is just the first part of

his Redemption journey and by no means is he a fully changed man just yet he still challenges The Ghost and tries

to remain in control of what he is seeing especially when it comes to his former fiance Belle

this resistance to the ghost continues to build until the scene where Scrooge sees Belle's family and husband and

realizes that he has wasted his life in the pursuit of money and sacrificed his personal happiness instead

this is the last straw for Scrooge and This Moment of clarity is so painful that he's actually driven to physically

try and extinguish The Ghost and its light in the struggle if that can be called a struggle in which the ghost

with no visible resistance on its own part was undisturbed by any effort of its adversary Scrooge sees the

extinguisher cap and by a sudden action pressed it down upon its head but those Scrooge pressed it down with all his

Force he could not hide the light which streamed from under it in an unbroken flood upon the ground

this act is driven by a psychological reason of course by trying to hide the light of the ghost he is trying to fight

against the truth that he is being shown but as hard as he tries to fight it he cannot hide the light which tells us

that in the end good will prevail and Scrooge will be redeemed the Ghost of Christmas Past plays an

important role in this story which is to show us a different side to Scrooge than the crotchety old Miser we have seen

thus far witnessing his childhood and the events that shaped his life helps readers to

understand why he is the way he is and to empathize with him more his Redemption becomes more plausible

because he was once just a child like all of us who experience loneliness and abandonment that caused him to make the

wrong choices in life later on if you would like an in-depth character analysis of Scrooge check out this video

through the Ghost of Christmas Past Dickens is trying to make the point that Scrooge has to reflect on his past to

understand his present and the same applies to the readers if we try to block out painful memories of our past

rather than resolve them they will come back to haunt us later on thanks for watching guys stay tuned for

follow-up analysis videos soon to come see you next time [Music]

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