Jacob's ladder

[Rollercoaster1]

What does 'Jacob's ladder' mean in the title of chapter 13 of 'The Prisoner of Zenda'?

https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Prisoner_of_Zenda/Chapter_13

 

[Tdol]

It's a biblical reference, which makes the person's sense of improvement the greater.

 

[jutfrank]

He's referring to the pipe.

 

[Rollercoaster1]

He's referring to the pipe.

But why does the writer relate it to the pipe?

 

[GoesStation]

But why does the writer relate it to the pipe?

Have you read the biblical story of Jacob's Ladder? It's an extremely long ladder that leads from Earth to Heaven.

Where does the pipe lead?

 

[jutfrank]

GoesStation has pointed you on the right lines, but I'll spell it out for you. Jacob's Ladder is something that leads from the domain below (Earth) to the domain above (Heaven). The pipe in question does the same: it leads from where they are in the basement, out and up to the surface.

 

[Phaedrus]

"The Stairs were such as whereon Jacob saw
Angels ascending and descending, bands
Of Guardians bright, when he from Esau fled
To Padan-Aram in the field of Luz,
Dreaming by night under the open Skie,
And waking cri'd, This is the Gate of Heav'n."

- John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667), Book III, lines 510-515

 

[Rollercoaster1]

Nope, the opening of the pipe is adjacent to the window in the basement and leading outside, bending downward to the surface of the moat.