A Christmas Carol

02The Dragging Chains of Jacob Marley

Sometimes, the past refuses to stay quietly buried, arriving instead with a heavy, inescapable weight that forces us to confront the reality of our choices. For a man like Scrooge, who has spent his entire adult life entirely focused on the tangible, the calculable, and the purely material, a disruption of his reality must be both deeply personal and profoundly terrifying. Scrooge’s evening routine is a testament to his joyless existence. He takes his melancholy dinner in his usual melancholy tavern, carefully reading all the newspapers and spending the rest of the evening poring over his banker’s book. His home is a dark, gloomy suite of rooms in a lowering pile of a building up a yard, a place so isolated and out of place that one might easily imagine it had run there when it was a young house, playing hide-and-seek with other houses, and forgotten the way out. The building formerly belonged to his deceased partner, Jacob Marley. The fog and frost hang so heavily around the black old gateway of the house that it seems as if the Genius of the Weather is sitting in mournful meditation on the threshold. As Scrooge approaches his door in the pitch-black night, something impossible happens. The heavy iron door knocker, which he has looked at every day for years without a second thought, suddenly alters its appearance. It is no longer a knocker; it is the face of Jacob Marley. It is not fully in shadow like the rest of the door, but glows with a dismal, livid light, like a bad lobster in a dark cellar. The hair moves strangely, as if blown by hot breath, and though the eyes are wide open, they are perfectly motionless. As Scrooge stares in shock, the face transforms back into a simple door knocker. Though deeply unnerved, Scrooge’s lifelong habit of rationalization immediately kicks in. He refuses to be frightened by an optical illusion. He unlocks the door, lights his candle, and walks in. Yet, the atmosphere of the house has fundamentally changed. As he climbs the wide, dark staircase, he half-expects to see Marley’s pigtail sticking out into the hall. He carefully searches his rooms, checking under the bed, looking into the closets, and inspecting the heavy curtains. Finding nothing but his own dreary belongings, he double-locks his door, an unusual precaution that betrays his lingering fear. Scrooge sits down in his dressing gown and nightcap before a very low fire. The fireplace is framed by old Dutch tiles depicting scenes from the Scriptures, but as he stares at them, every single smooth tile suddenly transforms into the face of Jacob Marley. Desperate to regain control of his reality, Scrooge mutters his favorite word of dismissal: "Humbug!" But the universe has decided that his time for dismissal is over. A bell in the room, an old disused bell that connects to the highest story of the building, begins to swing. At first, it swings so softly it barely makes a sound, but soon it rings out loudly, and every bell in the house joins in. The terrifying clamor lasts for only a minute, but to Scrooge, it feels like an eternity. When the bells cease, they are immediately replaced by a sound far worse: a heavy, clanking noise coming from deep down in the cellar, like someone dragging a massive chain over wine merchant's casks. The sound begins to ascend the stairs. It comes closer and closer, moving straight toward his double-locked door. Scrooge still tries to deny it, proclaiming he won't believe it. But then, an apparition passes right through the heavy oak door and stands before him. It is Jacob Marley. He looks exactly as he did in life, wearing his usual waistcoat, tights, and boots. But wrapped heavily around his waist and dragging on the floor is a massive, incredibly long chain. When Scrooge looks closely, he sees that this chain is forged of cashboxes, keys, padlocks, ledgers, deeds, and heavy purses wrought in steel. The ghost's body is entirely transparent. Even now, face to face with the supernatural, Scrooge attempts to fight his own senses. He argues with the ghost, suggesting that this vision is merely a product of indigestion, an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, or a fragment of an underdone potato. He tries to be witty to keep his terror at bay. In response to this mockery, the spirit raises a frightful cry and shakes its heavy chain with such a dismal and appalling noise that Scrooge is forced to grip the arms of his chair to keep from swooning. Then, the ghost unties the bandage around its head, and its lower jaw drops completely down to its chest. Scrooge falls to his knees, finally broken and terrified. The ensuing conversation strikes at the very core of human existence. Scrooge asks why spirits walk the earth and why this ghost wears such a terrible chain. Marley explains the tragic truth that forms the moral center of the story: it is required of every man that his spirit should walk abroad among his fellow men and travel far and wide. If a spirit does not do this in life, it is condemned to do so after death. It is doomed to wander through the world and witness the suffering and the joy it can no longer share or alleviate. When Scrooge asks about the chain, Marley’s answer is devastating. He says, "I wear the chain I forged in life. 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." He then points out a terrifying reality for Scrooge: the chain Scrooge himself has been forging was already as heavy and long as Marley’s seven years ago, and he has labored on it continuously ever since. Scrooge’s chain is now unimaginably massive. Scrooge tries to comfort his old friend, pointing out that Marley was always a good man of business. The ghost wrings its hands in anguish and delivers a passionate, heartbreaking cry: "Business! 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!" Marley reveals the purpose of his visit. He has intervened to offer Scrooge a chance at redemption, a chance to escape this eternal, agonizing fate. He warns Scrooge that he will be haunted by Three Spirits. Without their visits, Scrooge cannot hope to avoid the path Marley treads. As the ghost backs away toward the window, it beckons Scrooge to follow. Looking out into the dark, foggy night, Scrooge sees that the air is filled with phantoms, wandering hither and thither in restless haste, and moaning piteously. Every one of them wears a chain. Scrooge recognizes many of them from his life—wealthy men, politicians, hardened businessmen. Their eternal misery stems from a singular, heartbreaking realization: they now desperately wish to intervene for good in human matters, but they have permanently lost the power to do so. As the fog rolls in and conceals the spirits, Scrooge closes the window, thoroughly exhausted by the emotional and psychological toll of the encounter. He throws himself onto his bed without undressing and instantly falls into a deep, death-like sleep.

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