Though
Ebenezer Scrooge's old partner, Jacob Marley, has been dead for seven years, he does not rest
soundly in his grave. Instead, he has been doomed to wander the world in a ghostly state because
of his miserly ways and his unconcern for the people around him. Scrooge first saw Marley's face
in his door knocker, a "horrible" appearance with its wild hair, wide-open eyes and
"livid colour." Scrooge next heard Marley before he saw him, as his old partner
ascended the stairs with his clanking chains. When Scrooge first witnessed the ghost of his old
friend, he saw the same face as he had seen in his door-knocker:
... the very same. Marley in his pig-tail, usual waistcoat, tights, and boots; the
tassels on the latter bristling, like his pig-tail, and his coat-skirts, and the hair upon his
head. 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 wrought in steel. His body was transparent: so that Scrooge, observing
him, and looking through his waistcoat, could see the two buttons on his coat behind.
Marley had no bowels, and Scrooge could see right through him, and
he could feel "the chilling influence of its death-cold eyes." When Scrooge asks
Marley's ghost why he must carry the chain, the "Shade" responds that
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. Is its pattern strange to you?
The ghost is allowed no rest nor peace, only torture and remorse.
When Scrooge asks for comfort, Marley's ghost tells him that
I have none to give, the Ghost replied. It comes from other regions, Ebenezer
Scrooge, and is conveyed by other ministers to other kinds of men... I cannot rest, I cannot
stay, I cannot linger anywhere... and weary journeys lie before me!
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