Online Exhibition: Character Sketches from the World of Charles Dickens
This exhibition celebrates one of the most enduring legacies of Charles Dickens's genius: the unforgettable characters he brought to life.
“Bob Cratchit went down a slide on Cornhill, at the end of a lane of boys, twenty times, in honour of its being Christmas Eve.” Cornhill is one of London’s main streets.
Jacob Marley plagues his former partner, Scrooge, in many ways. At the beginning of the story, his face appears in place of Scrooge's door-knocker as Scrooge approaches his house.
"’How now?’ said Scrooge. ‘What do you want with me?’” Scrooge is startled by the ghost of his deceased business partner, Jacob Marley.
Marley's ghost leads Scrooge to the window before his departure, where he sees the ghosts of those who failed to act on behalf of the unfortunate while they were alive and are unable to do so now that they are dead.
Jacob Marley tells Scrooge that he travels fast "on the wings of the wind" and ultimately exclaims, "Why did I walk through crowds of fellow-beings with my eyes turned down, and never raise them to that blessed Star which led the Wise Men to a poor abode?"
Scrooge travels with the Ghost of Christmas Future to a shabby part of town. Stopping in a store where a group of people pick over a dead man's possessions, Scrooge remarks that his own life might turn out to be like that of the dead man's.