What does the broken wine cask symbolise?
A Tale of Two Cities is a notable literary work by Charles Dickens. A complete discussion of this literary work is given, which will help you enhance your literary skills and prepare for the exam. Read the Main texts, Key info, Summary, Themes, Characters, Literary devices, Quotations, Notes, and various study materials of A Tale of Two Cities.
Answer
What does the broken wine cask symbolize?
The broken wine cask is one of the most powerful symbols in A Tale of Two Cities (1859) by Charles Dickens (1812–1870). It appears in Book One, Chapter V, in the streets of Saint Antoine, Paris. A large wine cask falls and breaks outside Defarge’s wine shop. The poor people rush to the street to drink the spilled wine.
Injustice and Inequality: This scene shows the huge difference between the rich and the poor. The nobles live in luxury, while the poor are so hungry that they drink wine mixed with mud. Dickens writes:
“The wine was red wine, and had stained the ground of the narrow street…” Book One, Chapter V
Desperation and Dehumanization: The people act like starving animals. They’re scraping the ground to get every drop. Dickens describes some of them as being like
“a tigerish smear about the mouth”. Book One, Chapter V
Here, Charles Dickens describes the poor as behaving like hungry wild animals. Wine stains show on their faces like blood, caused by poverty.
Foreshadowing of Revolution: The red wine becomes a symbol of blood. Dickens warns like this:
“The time was to come, when that wine too would be spilled on the street-stones.” Book One, Chapter V
This predicts the bloodshed of the French Revolution.
Waste and Excess: The spilled wine also shows the waste of the upper class. While the poor fight for drops, the rich waste resources without care.
In short, the broken wine cask is not just about wine. It shows hunger, injustice, and anger. It warns of the violent revolution ahead. It criticizes both the cruelty of the aristocracy and the blind rage of the mob.