"Marley's Ghost" by Sol Eytinge, Jr.,: fifth woodcut for "A Christmas Carol" (1869)

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Marley's Ghost

Sol Eytinge

Wood engraving

12.5 high x 9.4 cm

Fifth full-page Illustration for Dickens's A Christmas Carol in Prose: being a ghost story of Christmas in the Ticknor and Fields (Boston), 1869, edition.

Throughout the time that Ebenezer Scrooge has been occupying the house that formerly belonged to his business partner, the shade of Jacob Marley has been accustomed to sit opposite him, but now, for the first time, Scrooge actually sees him — and is terrified. [Continued below.]

Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

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The scene was first realized in Hablot Knight Browne's title-page "half-title" vignette for the 1859 Library Edition of A Christmas Carol. However, whereas Phiz showed the pair sitting opposite one another across a table from the perspective of the fireplace, Eytinge has included the fireplace, complete with kettle on the hob, in his composition, which is lit not by the light of the feeble fire but by that of the single candle that burns on the table with barley-cane-twist legs adjacent to the ghost. In both plates, one can see through the ghost; however, whereas Phiz's ghost wags a reproving finger at Scrooge, Eytinge's shrieks at his unrepentant former partner, thereby clearly indicating that the passage realized immediately follows Scrooge's summarizing his disbelief in terms of his favourite expression for his scorn of the unseen and the emotional as mere "Humbug":

At this, the spirit raised a frightful cry, and shook its chain with such dismal and appalling noise, that Scrooge held on tight to his chair, to save himself from falling in a swoon. But how much greater was his horror, when the phantom taking off the bandage round its head, as if it were too warm to wear in-doors, its lower jaw dropped down upon its breast! [Stave One, "Marley's Ghost"]

The philanthropists' having addressed Scrooge as "Marley" has possibly served as a suggestion to Scrooge's subconscious since it seems to have led to his seeing the ghost of a man whom he has not even thought about for nearly seven years. The vision of the knocker transformed has served as a memento mori for the miser, impressing upon him the need to connect with the family of man upon whom he has turned his back in pursuit of wealth. Having fallen asleep in front of the fire, he has entered the dream vision, receiving a visitation which prepares him for the visits of the three Christmas Spirits. Because Marley is Scrooge's psychological double, Eytinge has based the figure of the dead partner on that of the living partner (compare his hair style here to Scrooge's in "The Philanthropists"), but has equipped him with the pigtail that the text mentions as Scrooge looks behind the door after seeing the face of his dead partner. The scene realized by Sol Eytinge in 1868 continues from the moment realized by John Leech in the 1843 hand-tinted steel engraving "Marley's Ghost", as the spectre has seated himself "on the opposite side of the fireplace, as if he were quite used to it" at Ebenezer Scrooge's request.

Bibliography

Dickens, Charles. A Christmas Carol in Prose: being a Ghost Story of Christmas. Il. Sol Eytinge, Jr. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1868.

Hearne, Michael Patrick, ed. The Annotated Christmas Carol. New York: Avenel, 1989.

Last modified 28 August 2011