Scrooge ran to the window. Outside, the air was full of spirits, all wearing chains like Marley's ghost, all crying miserably as they realized, too late, the terrible mistakes that they had made in their lives.
And even if the rebellion failed, he predicted that it would lead to a civil war between the North and the South. Should there be a war, he said, the North would break the chains of black slaves.
As the edge of the seafloor sinks into the mantle, it pulls on the plate behind it, the same way a chain dangling further and further off a table will eventually start to slide.
Home to Rhett! At this realization it was as though chains fell away from her and with them the fear which had haunted her dreams since the night she stumbled to Tara to find the world ended.
In their own lives and observations they also saw the cruelty of science and the bleaker aspects of inheritance: the madness, the sorrow, the chained ape's pained, silent gaze.