“Marley was dead, to begin with. In 1843 Charles Dickens sat down to his desk, pen in hand and began to write: ‘Marley was dead: to begin with.....’ and so began one of the greatest, most enduring, most retold works of literature the world has ever seen. There is no doubt that Marley was dead. “Tell me why?”, “I wear the chain I forged in life,” replied the Ghost. You’re poor enough.”, “Come, then,” returned the nephew gaily. Stave 1: Marley's Ghost Marley was dead: to begin with. “A poor excuse for picking a man’s pocket every twenty-fifth of December!” said Scrooge, buttoning his great-coat to the chin. 0000006022 00000 n Dickens isn't generally known as a writer of the fantastic or magical. The fireplace was an old one, built by some Dutch merchant long ago, and paved all round with quaint Dutch tiles, designed to illustrate the Scriptures. That, and its livid colour, made it horrible; but its horror seemed to be in spite of the face and beyond its control, rather than a part of its own expression. “But you were always a good man of business, Jacob,” faltered Scrooge, who now began to apply this to himself. Some would blame the C.I.A. Nesta Robert Marley was born on February 6, 1945, in rural St. Ann Parish, Jamaica, the son of a middle-aged white Jamaican Marine officer and an 18-year-old black Jamaican girl. The opening establishes not just the friendship between Marley and Scrooge but also Scrooge's fundamental aloneness—it's not just that they are friends; they are each other's only friends. Much good it has ever done you!”, “There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I have not profited, I dare say,” returned the nephew. To see the dingy cloud come drooping down, obscuring everything, one might have thought that Nature lived hard by, and was brewing on a large scale. Marley in his pigtail, usual waistcoat, tights and boots; the tassels on the latter bristling, like his pigtail, and his coat-skirts, and the hair upon his head. Scrooge followed to the window: desperate in his curiosity. Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail. I was inspired by the Bag End Storybook idea that … His nephew left the room without an angry word, notwithstanding. 0000005788 00000 n There is no doubt whatever about that. But before he shut his heavy door, he walked through his rooms to see that all was right. There is no doubt whatever about that. My spirit never walked beyond our counting-house—mark me!—in life my spirit never roved beyond the narrow limits of our money-changing hole; and weary journeys lie before me!”. “Marley was dead: to begin with.” So goes the first sentence of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. Scrooge’s mean and harsh nature is described. Published 12/21/2014 Well, Marley might be dead, but Krita ain’t!So, here’s what’ll be the last beta build of Krita before the festive season really breaks lose. There is no doubt whatever about that. “I—I think I’d rather not,” said Scrooge. “Old Jacob Marley, tell me more. The heaviest rain, and snow, and hail, and sleet, could boast of the advantage over him in only one respect. But re-read that passage in A Christmas Carol where Marley … He carried his own low temperature always about with him; he iced his office in the dog-days; and didn’t thaw it one degree at Christmas. The owner of one scant young nose, gnawed and mumbled by the hungry cold as bones are gnawed by dogs, stooped down at Scrooge’s keyhole to regale him with a Christmas carol: but at the first sound of, “God bless you, merry gentleman! Not to know that no space of regret can make amends for one life’s opportunity misused! He also advised to make a slash at the bottom of the foot first before doing anything at all to the corpse to make sure the subject really was dead since being buried alive was a real possibility in those days. Speak comfort to me, Jacob!”, “I have none to give,” the Ghost replied. How could it be otherwise? such was I!”. “You’re particular, for a shade.” He was going to say “to a shade,” but substituted this, as more appropriate. This amazing one-man show has become an annual tradition for a number of schools, civic organizations, and even private Christmas parties. Scrooge closed the window, and examined the door by which the Ghost had entered. Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail. “What else can I be,” returned the uncle, “when I live in such a world of fools as this? And by beginning in the way he does, Dickens accomplishes more than merely weirding out his readers—though he does do that. This amazing one-man show has become an annual tradition for a number of schools, civic organizations, and even private Christmas So A Merry Christmas, uncle!”. Marley was filled with anguish and regret, and yet he was not beyond redemption. There was plenty of width for that, and room to spare; which is perhaps the reason why Scrooge thought he saw a locomotive hearse going on before him in the gloom. Every room above, and every cask in the wine-merchant’s cellars below, appeared to have a separate peal of echoes of its own. The Christmas Gospel, the Christmas message, begins with this announcement: “We were dead, to begin with.” Perhaps that seems to you a preposterous and unbelievable claim. “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. Scrooge’s countenance fell almost as low as the Ghost’s had done. 0000037009 00000 n Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail. Foul weather didn’t know where to have him. Stave One: Summary * Chapter One opens with the reader being informed that Jacob Marley, Ebenezer Scrooge's old business partner, is dead. Scrooge signed it. (Heck of a way to start a cheery holiday tale, eh?) Why give it as a reason for not coming now?”, “I want nothing from you; I ask nothing of you; why cannot we be friends?”, “I am sorry, with all my heart, to find you so resolute. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. “At this festive season of the year, Mr. Scrooge,” said the gentleman, taking up a pen, “it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the Poor and destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. As he threw his head back in the chair, his glance happened to rest upon a bell, a disused bell, that hung in the room, and communicated for some purpose now forgotten with a chamber in the highest story of the building. Overview. Charles Dickens begins A Christmas Carol with Stave 1 “Marley’s Ghost” where the first sentence is “MARLEY WAS DEAD: to begin with” (Dickens, 1). Marley and Jamie's relationship fell apart due to her inability to become pregnant. 0000003002 00000 n The Lord Mayor, in the stronghold of the mighty Mansion House, gave orders to his fifty cooks and butlers to keep Christmas as a Lord Mayor’s household should; and even the little tailor, whom he had fined five shillings on the previous Monday for being drunk and bloodthirsty in the streets, stirred up to-morrow’s pudding in his garret, while his lean wife and the baby sallied out to buy the beef. Now, it is a fact, that there was nothing at all particular about the knocker on the door, except that it was very large. There is no doubt whatever about that. Nobody under the table, nobody under the sofa; a small fire in the grate; spoon and basin ready; and the little saucepan of gruel (Scrooge had a cold in his head) upon the hob. External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. Only Scrooge, and he wasn't even very sad. Scrooge had often heard it said that Marley had no bowels, but he had never believed it until now. Marley was dead: to begin with. “Is that the chance and hope you mentioned, Jacob?” he demanded, in a faltering voice. Marley was dead: to begin with. “The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?” said Scrooge. And being, from the emotion he had undergone, or the fatigues of the day, or his glimpse of the Invisible World, or the dull conversation of the Ghost, or the lateness of the hour, much in need of repose; went straight to bed, without undressing, and fell asleep upon the instant. The same face: the very same. You have laboured on it, since. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. 0 This is an example of the figurative language Charles Dickens uses in his works, here using the literary technique of hyperbole (exaggerated language) in the form of a simile to compare the long-dead Jacob Marley to an inanimate object, a door-nail. �e��yi��UA�gk{;���S��l�䞗�S�;L2��͸��nS���,��@'Y\\. Though he looked the phantom through and through, and saw it standing before him; though he felt the chilling influence of its death-cold eyes; and marked the very texture of the folded kerchief bound about its head and chin, which wrapper he had not observed before; he was still incredulous, and fought against his senses. The misery with them all was, clearly, that they sought to interfere, for good, in human matters, and had lost the power for ever. He should!”, “Nephew!” returned the uncle sternly, “keep Christmas in your own way, and let me keep it in mine.”, “Keep it!” repeated Scrooge’s nephew. What else do you learn about Marley in the opening paragraphs? Not just the death of some old money-lender named Marley. If I could work my will,” said Scrooge indignantly, “every idiot who goes about with ‘Merry Christmas’ on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart.