who was marley in a christmas carol

The character Marley is a key figure in the story A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. He is Ebenezer Scrooge's business partner and former friend who has died and is now a ghost. Marley appears to Scrooge as a warning of his own impending death if he continues to lead a miserable life, and he also guides Scrooge through the various stages of his past, present, and future. Marley's ghostly appearance is often depicted as a skeletal figure with chains wrapped around his body, symbolizing the weight of his past misdeeds and the chains of his own conscience.