Original artwork, not a still
A Christmas Carol • 1843
I wear the chain I forged in life.
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
Marley's chain is the best image in the book: hell as the sum of your own choices, built out of the very things you valued instead of people. It is why the line is quoted about greed, habit and self-made traps, and why every adaptation lets the chain clank. The terror is that Scrooge can see it is also his.
Context reviewed
In context
Spoilers for A Christmas CarolShow the scene
In Stave One, on Christmas Eve, the ghost of Scrooge's dead partner Jacob Marley comes through the door of his rooms, dragging a long chain of cash-boxes, keys, padlocks and ledgers. Scrooge, trembling, asks why he is fettered. Marley replies that he made the chain link by link and yard by yard, and put it on of his own free will. He then asks whether its pattern is strange to Scrooge, and goes on to warn him that three spirits are coming.
Sources (1)
- A Christmas Carol (Project Gutenberg text)Stave I, Marley's GhostReference checked
Context reviewed
