"Saint Antoine's blood was up, and the blood of the tyranny and domination by the iron hand was down -- down on the steps of the Hotel de Ville where the governor's body lay -- down on the sole of the shoe of Madame Defarge where she had trodden on the body to steady it for mutilation" (229).
In this passage, the overall ideas that have occurred are summarized. I interpret this as blood being wine, so if Saint Antoine's blood is up, they have more wine. "The blood of the tyranny and domination by the iron hand" being down means the aristocracy has run out of their wine and their delusion. The people of Saint Antoine are having this bacchanalian revolt and intoxicating themselves with blood. Other people's lives mean nothing to them anymore, as we see with Madame Defarge beheading the governor without any hesitation or regret. Everyone only lives for the next bottle of blood. The "party" is getting out of control and everyone is getting obscenely blood-drunk. The aristocracy has had their time and perhaps regret past actions as they come down from their drunkenness, for they have had their share of peasant blood.
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2 comments:
I totally agree that the aristocrats had been partying and drinking a bit too much given the circumstances and the state of their country. This reminds me of this story that I heard a few weeks ago about the economic crisis. I may be wrong, but I think it was WaMu, the executives of the company were off on some "business trip" in the Bahamas or Hawaii or somewhere like that while their company was losing tons of money and going bankrupt. Given both of the situations, the higher-ups in the society or business should have thought a bit more before they used up their valuable resources that were dwindling elsewhere in their country or company.
Good connection to the economic crisis!
Izzy, I really like what you said about everyone living for the next bottle of wine... they are so dependent on it that its the only thing keeping them going. I also think that as they continue to commit bloody acts, they are becoming thirstier and thirstier for the next cup of wine -- just like the peasants after they burned down Monsiegneur the Marquis's chateau, they were so hungry that they went for Gabelle next.
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