Charles Dickens establishes the tone of A Christmas Carol in the very first paragraph. He begins by emphatically establishing that “Marley is dead.” The next few paragraphs further emphasize this point and make the first few pages of this novella one of the most morbid in the language. There are some very good reasons why Dickens associates Scrooge with death; it’s his main point, in fact.
We learn that the sign for Scrooge’s business with his old partner, Marley, has never been changed and still reads “Scrooge and Marley.” This leads some who do not know him well to address him as Marley; Scrooge, in turn, answers to either Marley or Scrooge. Dickens thus establishes that Scrooge, in his own way, is dead to the world. He does not care if
We learn that the sign for Scrooge’s business with his old partner, Marley, has never been changed and still reads “Scrooge and Marley.” This leads some who do not know him well to address him as Marley; Scrooge, in turn, answers to either Marley or Scrooge. Dickens thus establishes that Scrooge, in his own way, is dead to the world. He does not care if