Empire of Silence

Hadrian’s signet ring symbolizes his connection to the Marlowe family’s genetic lineage, but it is also connected to his shame and guilt over his palatine upbringing even as he uses the bauble as a safety when his life becomes increasingly difficult. The signet ring therefore carries a complex blend of contradictory meanings, simultaneously representing Hadrian’s ambivalent feelings about his family and his reliance upon his social status. Similarly, it reminds him of how deeply he despises the despotism of the Marlowe house even as he paradoxically retains the cultural pride of his palatine identity.

In practical terms, a signet ring contains a palatine’s “identity,” “genetic history,” “titles,” and “the deeds to his personal holdings” (66). Thus, even as Hadrian denounces his lineage and attempts to escape his family, he refuses to fully relinquish the identity that his ring represents. His insistence upon keeping the ring at all costs thus reflects his knowledge that he can invoke his lineage at any time to save his own life. He explicitly acknowledges his reliance on this safety net after he learns that his father has officially disavowed him. As Hadrian muses, “Before, when I was destitute in the streets of Borosevo, I’d had the private dignity of my hidden station and what holdings were tied, however tenuously, to my name and rank. But now I was truly destitute” (526). Thus, his father’s disavowal destroys the ring’s symbolic power, and only then does Hadrian finally throw it away.