Jacob Marley isn't dead as a doornail. 'Wicked'-style stories redeem Christmas Carol icon

“Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that,” is our introduction to Jacob Marley, whose ghost helps former business partner Ebenezer Scrooge find redemption in the enduring holiday classic, “A Christmas Carol.”

Charles Dickens’ 1843 tale is a reliable presence throughout Christmas, along with Christmas trees, gifts, and endless TV specials. We commonly use “Scrooge” to describe someone who is greedy, grasping or miserly.

We’re familiar with Ebenezer Scrooge, but — if the armfuls of books published over the past 20 years are any testament — we’ve become fascinated with Jacob Marley, who was "as dead as a doornail."

The Marley stories are character treatments similar to those of the blockbuster “Wicked” series by Gregory Maguire. His books, and the movie and musical, retell the Wizard of Oz from the viewpoint of the Wicked Witch of the West. The first book was published in 1995.

Can't see our graphics? Click here.

Has it been a while since you've read “A Christmas Carol”? The book is a 92-page novel about Scrooge, a miserly man transformed into a better person after the ghost of Marley, his former partner, and three Spirits visit him on Christmas Eve and show him his past, present, and future.

The story was written in the autumn of 1843 "as a reaction to the suffering of poor children," according to the Charles Dickens Museum in London.

His nine-page appearance notwithstanding, Marley is a pivotal figure in the story.

"I wouldn't call Marley a minor character," says Dickens scholar Natalie McKnight, dean and professor of humanities at Boston University. "He launches Scrooge's transformation. His appearance and references to his backstory offer enticing tidbits to generate interest."

Marley gives Scrooge the chance "to review his life and see its consequences," says Robert Patten, the Lynette S. Autrey professor emeritus in humanities and emeritus professor of English at Rice University.

"As he does, he's enabled to transform himself from a miser into someone who loves his fellows and does good things for them," Patten says. "It's powerfully effective for the rest of his life."

His ghostly warning to Scrooge — mind you, even the scene in Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol cartoon TV special from 1962 is kinda scary — has enticed readers into wanting to learn more about Marley.

Accordingly, dozens of authors have endeavored, like Dickens, to pen their own "ghostly little books."

What tales do the Jacob Marley books tell?

Most stories relate Marley's life before, during, and after his partnership with Scrooge. They detail how Marley lived his life and ended up as a ghost. His path to redemption is a key focus.

Some mimic the language and style of "A Christmas Carol." A few are meant for children, but most are written for adults. One or two examine the possibility of an intimate relationship between Marley and Scrooge.

A sample of Marley-centered books from 2000 to the present, including some Kindle publications, are here:

'Minor characters' take center stage in new stories

Authors have paid homage to other novels by Dickens. "Demon Copperhead" by Barbara Kingsolver in 2022 retells "David Copperfield" using Appalachia as a setting. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 2023.

But like the “Wicked” series and others, Marley has become part of a phenomenon known as “minor character elaboration.” That's when supporting players in a major novel later become the stars of their own stories.

Minor character elaboration "is a popular form that trades on the prestige of the traditional literary canon while accommodating 'voices' from the margins," says Jeremy Rosen in his 2016 book "Minor Characters Have Their Day: Genre and the Contemporary Literary Marketplace."

Examples of minor characters getting their own stories include:

◾ "Wide Sargasso Sea" by Jean Rhys (1966), a prequel to "Jane Eyre" and told through Antoinette Cosway, a Creole heiress.

◾ "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead," a play by Tom Stoppard (1966) using two characters from Shakespeare's Hamlet.

◾ "The Wind Done Gone" by Alice Randall (2001), a story drawn from "Gone with the Wind" and told through Cynara, an enslaved woman who is a half-sister to Scarlett O'Hara.

◾ "The Penelopiad" by Margaret Atwood (2005), a retelling of the Odyssey from the viewpoint of the maid Penelope.

◾ "Wednesday," a Netflix TV show (2022) featuring Wednesday Addams from the Addams Family cartoons by Charles Addams, the 1960s network TV show, and later motion pictures.

Explorations of classic literature are more than just new stories. Doctors, for example, have endeavored to diagnose the illness of Tiny Tim in "A Christmas Carol."

One 2012 study that appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association postulated that Tim could have had several conditions, including "tuberculosis, rickets, malnutrition, cerebral palsy, spinal dysraphism, or renal tubular acidosis."

Why does Jacob Marley fascinate us?

"We know that Marley was on the same path as Scrooge, but did not get a chance to redeem himself," McKnight says. "That's what's apparently motivating him to haunt Scrooge, in the hope of helping him to change direction in life.

"If he was a miser like Scrooge when alive, his afterlife has clearly been enough of a punishment to change his perspective," she says. Marley is now motivated to do good, which he didn't do when he was alive.

"I think that’s one of the most poignant parts of "the Carol," McKnight says. "The idea that the afterlife's real torture is looking at suffering you could have eased when alive but did not. Now, you no longer have any power to change."

Marley helps us understand Scrooge

"Marley is (or was) human, like us, and he's unlike the spirits who come later in the story," says Joel J. Brattin, an English professor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

"Second, he is like Scrooge — so much so that Scrooge doesn’t bother taking his name off the door and answers to Marley’s name. He's an alternative version of Scrooge. He is what Scrooge may come to if Scrooge doesn’t change his ways. 

"We're interested in Marley as a reflection of the main character," Brattin says.

In other examples of minor character elaboration, books have been written about several figures in "A Christmas Carol."

You can find stories about Bob Cratchit, Tiny Tim, Fezziwig, and others — including Jacob Marley — at your local library, bookstore or online.

SOURCE USA TODAY Network reporting and research; Reuters; "Minor Characters Have Their Day: Genre and the Contemporary Literary Marketplace" by Jeremy Rosen, 2016; "The Annotated Christmas Carol: A Christmas Carol in Prose" edited by Michael Patrick Hearn, 2004; The Charles Dickens Museum