The Chain I Forged in Life

I have a long-standing affection for "A Christmas Carol," by Charles Dickens. I've read it a several times and seen probably more than a dozen incarnations of it on the big and small screens, not counting thinly veiled or overt allusions to it as a scene or subplot in a movie or television show.

I have a couple of old radio-play adaptations with Sir Lawrence Olivier or Orson Welles and Lionel Barrymore.

And, on my commute, I recently listened to the audiobook of Jim Dale reading (performing) the unabridged work.

The images of Jacob Marley's ghost, come to visit Scrooge and sway him from the path he walks, were often the most harrowing to me -- and the most riveting. Without fail, the cinematic incarnations of Marley included a large cloth strapped under his chin and tied atop his head. When seeing "A Christmas Carol" films as a child, I always figured old Marley had some spectral toothache that was part of his purgatorial punishment. You know: tote these heavy chains for penance...and suffer this dental agony while you're at it.

Once I actually read the tale, I learned that the bandage was functional. It helped keep Marley's mouth from falling open.

The story pivots on the meeting and interaction of Scrooge and Marley (or, I should say, the entity that was Marley in life).


"It is required of every man," the Ghost returned,
"that the spirit within him should walk abroad
among his fellowmen, and travel far and wide; and
if that spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned
to do so after death. It is doomed to wander through
the world -- oh, woe is me! -- and witness what it
cannot share, but might have shared on earth, and
turned to happiness!"

Again the spectre raised a cry, and shook its chain
and wrung its shadowy hands.

"You are fettered," said Scrooge, trembling.
"Tell me why?"

"I wear the chain I forged in life," replied the Ghost.
"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. Is its pattern strange to you?"

-- Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol