Jacob Marley is a fictional character in Charles Dickens's 1843 novella A Christmas Carol. Marley is the former business partner of Ebenezer Scrooge, the novella's protagonist; he is seven years deceased at the story's opening. On Christmas Eve, Scrooge is visited by Marley's ghost, who wanders the Earth entwined by heavy chains and money boxes due to a lifetime of greed and selfishness. Marley informs Scrooge that he has a single chance of redemption: he will be visited by three spirits in the hope that he will mend his ways. Otherwise, he will be cursed to carry chains of his own.