In the Dickens story, A Christmas Carol, why does Jacob Marley have his head tied up as though he has a tooth ache?
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Kardamom (
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December 21st, 2017
I’ve read the Charles Dickens book, A Christmas Carol, and have seen many different movie versions over the years and I always wondered why Jacob Marley had that bandage tied around his head. I don’t recall anything about him having a tooth ache.
I have seen many movie versions of A Christmas Carol where the character of Jacob Marley unties the bandage and his mouth drops open and he screams. That scene/image always scared the beejezus out of me when I was younger, even in the cartoon versions, but I could never figure out the reason why he was wearing the bandage, or why he untied it.
I haven’t read the book in many years, is there an explanation?
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7 Answers
No toothache. He’s dead. His jaw is tied up because it’s gone slack, as a corpse’s does. But he has to untie it to speak.
(We won’t demand too much logic or fidelity to real life when it comes to ghosts.)
Was it common, back in the 1800’s to tie up dead people’s heads? It just seems weird. I’ve never seen anything like that (regarding ghosts, or corpses).
As far as I know, it’s still done. Just not tied. The muscles of the jaw still relax at death, in most cases, and the mouth still falls open, just as it did in the 1800s. As far as I know, an elastic band is used, and it goes right around the head as the bandage or kerchief did for Marley. Once rigor mortis sets in, it isn’t needed.
Do I have that right? That’s my understanding. Someone else may have more current knowledge or more professional language than mine.
I’ve also never been too clear on what a bandage does for a toothache.
From the story:
“Though he looked the phantom through and through, and saw it standing before him; though he felt the chilling influence of its death-cold eyes; and marked the very texture of the folded kerchief bound about its head and chin, which wrapper he had not observed before; he was still incredulous, and fought against his senses.”
The illustrator of the first edition depicted Marley with the kerchief, and apparently so has everyone done since.
Oh, yeah. Thanks. (And after all the detective stories I’ve read.) Well, anyway, that doesn’t appear to have been Marley’s problem.
In the afterlife he has lost his ability to keep his mouth shut. Most unbecoming! @Jeruba I think you have a proper grasp of his situation.
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