This is shown throughout the novel. The Guillotine has been around for quite a long time. “Inventors were devising beheading machines at least as early as 1300” Lienhard “On the top of the gallows is fixed the knife, blade upwards, with its point in the air”. ”On one side of the scaffold were drawn out a sufficient number of carts with large baskets painted red, to receive the heads and bodies of the victims. Those bearing the condemned moved on slowly to the foot of the guillotine”. Their heads were placed in the hole in the base of the guillotine. The weighty knife was then dropped with a heavy fall; and, with incredible dexterity and rapidity, two executioners tossed the body into the basket, while another threw the head after it”. The Guillotine was used as a more “huma
...ne” way of killing in the 1700’s and 1800’s. At first, it was mainly used for the higher class. William the Conqueror brought the guillotine back to England, where it was set aside for nobility. Some of the nobility that were beheaded included people.
The lower classes were only beheaded when it was to finish off a victim who has already been tormented and tortured. Sometimes, the axe-men were horribly inaccurate, so the victims paid them a gold coin in exchange for a clean cut. Joseph Guillotin, who the Guillotine was named after, proposed the use of this machine for death penalties. He got a law passed in 1789 and it stated, “the privilege of decapitation would no longer be confined to nobles, and the process of execution would be as painless as possible” was built, tested o
dead bodies, and turned loose on common criminals in 1792”. This was all occurring during the French Revolution, which started in 1789 and ended in 1799. The Guillotine played a large role in The Revolution. After the Guillotine began to be used on common people, the Guillotine became a common death machine. “Since Guillotin himself was an aristocrat, he narrowly escaped perishing on a guillotin. This is ironic because he proposed the idea of using it on commoners.
After releasing this death machine, it became too easy to kill “counter-revolutionaries…” and this started the Reign of Terror. The Reign of Terror occurred from 1793-1794. It began in Autumn 1793 and went on until mid-Summer 1794. The main instrument of “The Terror” was the Guillotine. The Guillotine had an ugly image across the world. In “Tale of Two Cities”, the Guillotine is sometimes compared to an evil female. “Above all, one hideous figure grew as familiar as if it had been before the general gaze from the foundations of the world- the Guillotine.
This shows the fear of the general public have towards the Guillotine. “all red wine for La Guillotin…”. The red wine is the blood from the people killed by “La Guillotine. By saying red wine, it makes La Guillotine sound like a person. This is saying La Guillotine only likes red wine, or peoples blood. “ it was the National Razor which shaved close: who kissed La Guillotine”. La Guillotine is shaving with “the National Razor”, or the blade of a Guillotine. Dickens is really pushing the thought that “La Guillotine” is a person.
It is a very feared machine and plays an important role in
the novel. Works Cited Dickens, Charles. Tale of Two Cities. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1992. Print. Lienhard, John. "Engines of our Ingenuity: Guillotin/Guillotine. " University of Houston. Web. 03 Mar. 2012. Millingen, John. "The Revolutionary Tribunal's Use of the Guillotine. " Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media. Web. 03 Mar. 2012. Nardo, Don. The French Revolution. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven, 1999. Print.
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