The wine-shop scene is
of immense importance in the novel and paves the path for what is to follow.
The depiction of crowd and its desperation opens up the stage for French
Revolution. The wine is not any other wine but specifically red-wine which has
connotation of blood and once again conveys the idea of bloodshed of the people
that is to follow. In setting up the scene, Dickens very cleverly predict how
hunger, want and anger will transform people into blood thirsty mongers and
give them animal-like characteristics. Dickens does not lose the reader by
using indirect cues but make clever use of language. He calls wine drinkers as
having ‘tigerish smear about the mouth’ and the residents of Saint Antoine have
a ‘hunted air’ and harbor a ‘wild beast thought of the possibility of turning
at bay.’ All the above cues brilliantly set up the tone for the novel.
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