Foil

Character Role Analysis

Marley & Fezziwig

There aren't all that many characters in this novella to really form the kinds of strong foil relationships that Dickens tends to be known for. Seriously, usually this guy is all over the compare and contrast character pairs in his long novels. But we do get an interesting mirror effect in the two other moneylenders we meet (aside from Scrooge himself, that is).

First, we get a load of Jacob Marley, Scrooge's dead partner, who so wasted his life being obsessed with his job and his money that after death he has to actually be bound by a chain made out of the implements of his trade. But, just when we think that the fault is his profession—after all, no one has had anything particularly positive to say about moneylenders—we learn that no, there are other ways of going about performing this fairly crucial economic function.

Case in point? Fezziwig, the man Scrooge apprenticed under, who is thus also some kind of moneylender, but who lives his life with an appetite for fun and games and food and laughter. We get the strong sense that he's not lugging any kind of chains around with him in the afterlife.