Jacob Marley
Jacob Marley is a fictional character created by Charles Dickens for his 1843 novella A Christmas Carol. Marley was a greedy businessman and a friend and partner of Ebenezer Scrooge. After Marley died his ghost haunted Scrooge and explained that since he never helped anyone when he was alive he had to fix that by helping people from the afterlife so he wouldn’t be chained up in contracts and ledgers for eternity. Marley’s ghost tries to scare Scrooge into becoming a better person so that Scrooge won’t have to suffer in the afterlife. When that doesn’t work, Marley decides to have three spirits come to Scrooge for him, the Ghost of Christmas Past, the Ghost of Christmas Present and the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come.
Jacob Marley Media
Ebenezer Scrooge encounters the ghost of Jacob Marley in Dickens's novella, A Christmas Carol – illustration by John Leech (1843)
Dickens portrait by Margaret Gillies (1843), painted during the period when he was writing A Christmas Carol.
Chained costume for Marley's Ghost from The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017) – displayed at the Charles Dickens Museum, London.
Athenodorus encounters the chained ghost.
