Wine Spill or War?

In Chapter 5 of A Tale of Two Cities, wine is spilt onto the poor streets of Paris and people in the surrounding area rush towards the mess. The way these events occur and the way the author describes the situation foreshadows a war that is to come. The first sentence in this chapter reads, “A large cask of wine had been dropped and broken, in the street” (Dickens 20). The cask of wine resembles the peace and trust between countries being shattered, resulting in disaster. The quote that symbolizes a war to come says, “All the people within reach suspended their business, or their idleness, to run to the spot and drink the wine” (Dickens 20). The people suspending what they are busy with resemble people that drop everything they having going in their everyday life and go to war. As the wine is running short because of all the people drinking it in the streets, it leaves a stain on the ground of the city. Dickens writes, “The wine was red wine, and had stained the ground of the narrow street in the suburb of Saint Antoine, in Paris, where it was spilled” (Dickens 21). This shows how the war will leave an undying impression on the city. Though a war may be a little more complex than a wine spill, the two resemble each other greatly in this situation.