Marley is a character in the novel A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. He is the ghost of Jacob Marley, Scrooge's former business partner. Marley appears as a ghostly figure in Scrooge's bedroom and warns him about his impending fate if he does not change his ways. Scrooge does not believe Marley's warnings and continues to be a selfish and greedy man until he is visited by the three ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future who show him the consequences of his actions.