Jacob Marley

Scrooge's dead partner. He drags a chain he made from his own greed. He comes back to warn Scrooge.

The quotes

6 quotes by or about Jacob Marley, in the order they happen.

Marley was dead: to begin with.

Narrator · Stave One · the supernatural

The first line. Dickens wants you sure of this, so the ghost later is a real shock.

I wear the chain I forged in life

Marley · Stave One · greed · the supernatural · responsibility

Marley made his own chain. Every greedy thing he did is a link in it.

Mankind was my business.

Marley · Stave One · responsibility · redemption

Scrooge says Marley was a good man of business. Marley says people were his real business. He forgot.

I am here to-night to warn you, that you have yet a chance and hope of escaping my fate

Marley · Stave One · redemption · the supernatural

Marley comes to give Scrooge a way out. Three spirits will come.

There's more of gravy than of grave about you

Scrooge · Stave One · the supernatural

Scrooge jokes that the ghost is just bad food. He is scared and pretending not to be.

The air was filled with phantoms, wandering hither and thither in restless haste, and moaning as they went

Narrator · Stave One · the supernatural · responsibility

Scrooge sees hundreds of ghosts in chains. They want to help the poor but cannot. It is too late for them.