Jacob Marley

Jacob Marley is an important character in A Christmas Carol and acts as a harbinger to Scrooge and a striking warning of the inevitable price that a life of evil can have on a man's very soul. In life Jacob was the business partner of Ebenezer Scrooge and both men became successful bankers, stockholders and directors of at least one major association: however much of their wealth came from unfair taxing of the poor and vulnerable. Jacob Marley had died seven years prior to the beginning of the story and was so disliked by his fellow men that his sole mourner was said to be Scrooge himself. However come one fateful Christmas Eve the ghost of Jacob Marley returns to haunt Scrooge and warn him of the horrors that await him in the afterlife due to his wicked ways. Jacob Marley's own punishment is depicted vividly as having to carry the chains of his own sin for all eternity while being tormented forevermore in an afterlife heavily implied to be either Purgatory or Hell. At first Scrooge refuses to believe Marley is real but this simply causes Jacob to emit a terrible howl that puts Scrooge on his knees, begging forgiveness - however Jacob simply tells him that he will be visited by three ghosts before the night is done. Then the tormented spirit of Jacob Marley flies out of the window, accompanied by several other spirits, all chained in eternal torment as they vanish back into the abyss.