A Christmas Carol - Marley's Ghost

A

Christmas Carol

by Charles Dickens Retold by Kieran McGovern

2. Marley’s Ghost 1. Humbug!

Scrooge has finally left his office on the evening of Christmas Eve. It is the seventh anniversary of the death of his business partner, Jacob Marley.

Home

Scrooge ate his melancholy dinner in his usual melancholy tavern. After reading all the newspapers, he spent the rest of the evening working on his accounts. Then he went home to bed.

He lived a gloomy suite of rooms, in a gloomy old building that had once belonged to his dead partner. Nobody lived there but Scrooge. The other rooms were let out as offices and there was also a wine cellar below Fog and frost surrounded the black old gateway of the house. The yard was very dark and gloomy. Even Scrooge, who knew its every stone, had to grope with his hands, to find his way to the front door.

Scrooge put his key in the lock. As he did so, the knocker suddenly became Marley's face.

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Marley's face.

Marley’s face! There was a dismal light about it, like a bad lobster in a dark cellar, but was not angry or ferocious.

It looked at Scrooge as Marley used to look: with ghostly spectacles turned up on its ghostly forehead. Though the eyes were wide open, they were perfectly motionless As Scrooge at this stared at this horrible apparition, it became a knocker again.

Startled but resolute, Scrooge turned the key firmly. He walked in, and lit his candle.

He did pause before he shut the door. And he did look behind it first, as if half-expecting to see Marley's pigtail sticking out into the hall.

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But there was nothing on the back of the door, except the screws and nuts that held the knocker on.

'Bah!' said Scrooge and closed it with a bang. Â The sound echoed through the house like thunder.

Scrooge was not a man to be frightened by echoes. He walked across the hall and slowly up the stairs.

Up Scrooge went, not caring about the poor light given by his candle. Darkness is cheap, and Scrooge liked it.

But before he shut his heavy door, he walked through his rooms to see that all was right.

Double Locked He looked in the sitting-room and the bedroom.

Everything was normal. Nobody was under the table. Nobody was under the sofa. A small fire was in the grate.

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On the table his spoon and basin were ready. There was also a little saucepan of gruel upon the hob.

Nobody was under the bed or in the closet.

Nobody was in his dressing-gown, which was hanging up against the wall. Everything was as usual.

Scrooge closed his door, and double-locked himself in. Feeling safer, he put on his dressinggown, slippers, and nightcap.

Then he sat down before the fire to take his gruel.

It was a very small fire for such a bitter night. He needed to sit close to it, before he could extract any warmth from such a handful of fuel.

He tried not to think about Marley.

A ghost?

'Humbug!' said Scrooge; and walked across the room.

After several turns, he sat down again. As he threw his head back in the chair, he glanced 5

at an old unused bell, which hung in the room.

To his great astonishment it began to swing.

It scarcely made a sound at first; but soon it rang out loudly. So did every bell in the house.

This might have lasted half a minute, or a minute, but it seemed an hour. The bells ceased as they had begun, together. They were succeeded by a clanking noise, deep down below.

It sounded like someone was dragging a heavy chain over the casks in the wine-merchant's cellar below.

Then he heard the cellar-door fly open. This was followed by a much louder sound; starting on the floors below; then coming up the stairs; then coming straight towards his door.

'It's humbug still!' said Scrooge. 'I won't believe it.'

His colour changed though, when it came on through the heavy door, and passed into the room before his eyes.

It was Marley's ghost.

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I know him! Marley's ghost!

The same face: the very same. Marley in his usual clothes. A long chain, made of cashboxes, keys and padlocks, wound about him like a tail.

His body was transparent; so that Scrooge, looking through his waistcoat, could see the two buttons on his coat behind.

Was this really Marley? Scrooge saw him standing there before him but did not want to believe his eyes.

'What do you want with me?' said Scrooge, cold as ever.

'Much.'

It was Marley's voice, no doubt about it.

'Who are you?'

'Ask me who I was.'

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'Who were you then?' said Scrooge, raising his voice. 'In life I was your partner, Jacob Marley.'

'Can you-can you sit down?' asked Scrooge, looking doubtfully at him.

'I can.'

'Do it, then.'

"Marley's Ghost."

The ghost sat down on the opposite side of the fireplace.

'You don't believe in me,' said the Ghost.

'I don't,' said Scrooge.

'Why do you doubt what you can see?'

'Because,' said Scrooge, 'a slight disorder of the stomach can play with my mind. You may be an undigested bit of beef or a crumb of cheese. There's more of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are!'

Scrooge did not make many jokes. Nor did he feel, in his heart, like joking now. He did it to calm his terror.

'You see this toothpick.' said Scrooge.

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'I do,' replied the Ghost.

'You are not looking at it,' said Scrooge.

'But I see it,' said the Ghost.

'Humbug, I tell you,' said Scrooge 'Humbug!'

Why are you in chains?

At this the spirit shook its chain and made a terrible noise. Scrooge held on tight to his chair.

To his horror, the ghost was taking off the bandage round its head. Now its lower jaw dropped down upon its breast.

Scrooge fell upon his knees, and held his hands before his face.

'Mercy!' he said. 'Why do you trouble me?'

Do you believe in me or not?' replied the Ghost.

'I do,' said Scrooge. 'I must. But why are you in chains?' ‘It was like this seven Christmas Eves ago.

'Jacob!' said Scrooge. 'Old Jacob Marley. Tell me more! Speak comfort to me, Jacob.'

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'I have none to give,' the Ghost replied. 'I cannot stay. I cannot linger anywhere. I must walk the earth.'

'Seven years dead,' said Scrooge. 'And travelling all the time?'

'The whole time,' said the Ghost. 'No rest, no peace. Incessant torture of remorse.'

'You travel fast?' said Scrooge.

'Like the wind,' replied the Ghost.

'You might have travelled further in seven years,' said Scrooge.

The Ghost made another cry in the dead silence of the night.

Warning 'But you were always a good man of business, Jacob,' said Scrooge.

'Business!' cried the Ghost. 'Mankind was my business. Mercy was my business. The common welfare was my business.’ It held up its chain and flung it heavily upon the ground again.

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'At this time of year,' the spectre said, 'I suffer most. Why did I walk through crowds of fellow-beings with my eyes turned down?'

Scrooge was very unhappy to hear the spectre talking like this. He shivered, and wiped the perspiration from his brow.

'Hear me!' cried the Ghost. 'My time is nearly gone.'

'I will,' said Scrooge. 'But don't be hard upon me, Jacob!'

'I am here to-night to warn you,’ said the ghost. ‘You still have a chance and hope of escaping my fate.'

'You were always a good friend to me,' said Scrooge. 'Thank you.'

'You will be haunted,' resumed the Ghost, 'by Three Spirits.'

Three Spirits Scrooge's face fell.

'Is that the chance and hope you mentioned, Jacob?' he asked.

'It is.'

'I-I think I'd rather not,' said Scrooge.

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'Without their visits,' said the Ghost, 'you cannot avoid the path I tread. Expect the first tomorrow, when the clock strikes one.'

'Couldn't I take them all at once, Jacob?' said Scrooge.

'Expect the second on the next night at the same hour. The third will come the next night on the last stroke of twelve. And remember what has passed between us!'’ The spectre took its bandage from the table.

It bound it round its head, as before. Then it walked backward from him.

At every step it took, the window raised itself a little until it was wide open.

Marley departs The spectre beckoned Scrooge to approach, which he did. When he was within two paces, it held up its hand, warning him to come no nearer. Scrooge stopped.

A terrible wailing sound began. The spectre, after listening for a moment floated out upon the bleak, dark night.

Scrooge went to the window and looked out.

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The air was filled with spectres. Every one of them wore chains like Marley's Ghost.

Eventually the spirit voices faded together; and

the

night became as it had been.

Scrooge closed the window, and examined the door by which the Ghost had entered. It was double-locked, as he had locked it with his own hands. The bolts were undisturbed.

He tried to say 'Humbug!' but stopped.

Instead he went straight to bed, without undressing, and fell asleep upon the instant.

End of Stave 1

Vocabulary Accounts - financial documents Bandage - cloth used to protect wound Beckoned - gesture with hand 13

Casks - large containers for wine Faded - grew softer Flung - throw with force Gloomy/dismal – dark, depressing Gruel – thin poor quality porridge Haunted - visited by a ghost Humbug – rubbish, nonsense Linger - not rush, wait in a place Mercy - forgiveness/kindness Melancholy – joyless, without cheer, gloomy Remorse - regret for doing wrong Resolute - determined to continue Shivered - feel cold or fear Spirit/Spectre/Apparition/Phantom – ghost Startled - shocked, scared, very surprised Strikes - hits, mechanical sound in clock Wailing - like the sound of a baby crying Welfare - looking after the needs of the poor

A glossary, comprehension exercises, key quotes and other learning activities related to this text here: 3: Ghost of Christmas Past

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