Why can Scrooge see Marley that night, when Marley had "sat invisible beside (him) many and many a day"?

A THREAD

First of all. Marley was dead. Dickens makes that very clear. He also makes clear that no good can come of what Dickens is about to relay if it is not distinctly understood that Marley was dead.

And so, let any man explain to me, if he will, how Scrooge came to see Marley. 1/

Well! Even Marley does not have the answer to such a question: "I have sat invisible beside you many and many a day".

2/

In St.1,Scrooge goes home with a head-cold& sips gruel on account of this fact.A common misconception among students is that he does this as he is too cheap to spend money on food.This is untrue.He, in fact, eats dinner at his usual tavern (all be it a 'melancholy' one). 2/

So he was rather unwell. Possibly unwell enough to create his (clearly hyperbolised) 'low temperature' & 'frosty rime' in Dickens' intitial descriptions. Coupled with the thin blue lips & presence of bells, could it be that he was dying? 3/

The gruff bell of an ancient clock tower peeped slyly down at him in the street, & then a bell rings quite spontaneously in his home, followed by the ringing of every bell in his house.

Is this a knell for Scrooge? 4/

Is Scrooge, now at death's door, so close to his own mortal end that he is able to see and connect with the spirit world? Is this his last chance at living a happy & fulfilled life, an opportunity that (if not taken) will end his physical life? 5/

In Stave 4, Caroline & her husband express relief at the death of Scrooge, & her husband relays that a half-drunk woman had told him that Scrooge had been not only very ill but dying.... 6/

Could this be an extension of Scrooge'a ignorance? His ignorance towards the plight of the poor; his ignorance towards his own nephew (he says that Fred is poor yet Fred has a maid); and now his ignorance towards his own poor health - - what is obvious to everyone else... 7/

is nuts to Scrooge, & passed off as a head-cold?

Has he been so deeply-buried in his darkness (his oyster shell) that he has been unable to see what is right in front of his eyes?

That this is his last chance at life: he must die in ignorance, or be reborn a new man. 8/

Scrooge sees Marley as he makes his way into the afterlife, with one last chance at redemption.... 9/9