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Chains symbolize the anguish the jester Hop-Frog experiences in his captivity. After Hop-Frog is forced to drink wine and his companion Trippetta is struck by the king, the jester plots revenge, aiming to subject the king to the same sadistic treatment. Hop-Frog’s plan involves burning his tormentors alive while they are dressed in flammable costumes. His use of chains is fitting; his captors are shackled to their extreme punishment, just as he was bound to his profound suffering.
At the end of the story, Hop-Frog ascends a chain to safety, emancipating himself using a tool that once bound him. In this sense, though the chains symbolize Hop-Frog’s captivity and anguish, they also symbolize a clear route to liberation; Hop-Frog breaks out of his figurative chains and turn the tables on his captors at the end of the story, liberating himself and exacting revenge in a single act.
Chains Quotes in Hop-Frog
The Hop-Frog quotes below all refer to the symbol of Chains. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Hop-Frog
Quotes
Soon after this, the king and his seven friends having reeled about the hall in all directions, found themselves, at length, in its centre, and, of course, in immediate contact with the chain. […] The dwarf, who had followed noiselessly at their heels, inciting them to keep up the commotion, took hold of their own chain at the intersection of the two portions which crossed the circle diametrically and at right angles. Here, with the rapidity of thought, he inserted the hook from which the chandelier had been wont to depend[.]
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Chains Symbol Timeline in Hop-Frog
The timeline below shows where the symbol Chains appears in Hop-Frog. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Hop-Frog
...instead of feathers, in order to represent the beasts’ hair. Finally, he ties a long chain around the king’s waist and chains him to an adjacent minister, before doing the same...
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...guests’ clothes. Counterbalanced by some other weight outside the room, it normally hangs from a chain that descends from a skylight. The king and ministers, dressed as orangutans, wait until midnight...
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During this commotion, the chain that normally holds the chandelier descends to three feet off the ground. The king and...
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...group, pretending to examine their features. He then produces a shrill whistle, and the chandelier chain is violently pulled upward again, leaving the eight masked men suspended in mid-air.
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...a fierce blaze while the horrified guests stare and shriek. Hop-Frog climbs higher on the chain, so as to avoid the flames that are now spreading. The crowd once again falls...
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