"As these ruffians turned and turned, their matted locks now flung forward over their eyes, now flung backwards over their necks, some women held wine to their mouths that they might drink; and what with dripping blood, and what with dropping wine, and what with the stream of sparks struck out of the stone, all their wicked atmosphere seemed gore and fire. The eye could not detect one creature in the group free from the smear of blood" (267).
In this passage, both wine and blood have a negative connotation. The peasants are murdering the prisoners (the nobility). Dickens paints this as a very gory, gruesome scene. You can almost envision the red of the blood and anger which the peasants are feeling. The wine is a part of the mob mentality. Individually, I am sure these peasants would not be comfortable murdering lots of prisoners just because they were nobles. However, once they are drinking and in a mob like setting, their behavior changes completely. Every single peasant had blood smeared on them, and I took this to mean that they were all individually guilty for what they were doing to these prisoners. We are taught to like Darnay, but we sympathize for the peasants too, therefore the passage is confusing and passionate.
In this passage, the drunkeness is meant to resemble the crowds and how out of control and inhumane the public has become in its rage.
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