In Stave One of "A Christmas Carol," Scrooge returns home from his office to find something peculiar has happened to the knocker on his front door. At first, the knocker appears the same as it has every other day:
There was nothing at all particular about the knocker on the door, except that it was very large.
But, once Scrooge puts the key into the lock of the door, the knocker is suddenly transformed into the face of Marley, his deceased business partner. It has a "dismal light about it," for example, and Marley's eyes are "wide open," though "motionless." Then, as Scrooge stares at Marley's face, it turns back into the ordinary knocker.
The transformation of the door knocker foreshadows the supernatural events which will take place in the story. That Dickens chose Marley to introduce these events is significant because he is the only person with whom Scrooge had any sort of personal relationship in his later life. Scrooge is far more likely to spurn human contact, as we see in his treatment of others in Stave One, but Marley is a man who Scrooge spent time with and respected (in business), making him the ideal messenger.
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