Why does Jacob Marley have a cloth tied around his mouth?

Answer 1

It is because in Dickensian times they would tie a bandage around the head/mouth of a fresh corpse to keep the mouth shut (stop it coming open) later in history they started stitching the mouth shut after death (the sticking hidden inside mouth and nose).

Answer 2

In Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," Jacob Marley's ghost has a cloth tied around his mouth to symbolize the silence imposed on him as punishment for his past deeds. It also serves to depict his inability to communicate verbally with Ebenezer Scrooge in the afterlife.