Literary Devices

Question

What literary device is used in "The time was to come, when that wine too would be spilled on the street-stones, and when the stain of it would be red upon many there." (A Tale Of Two Cities)

Thanks!

Answer 1

A few that come to mind include ...

Hyperbole (surely a little amount of wine wouldn't literally stain that many)

Symbolism (surely Dickens isn't concerned with spilled wine but, maybe, impending violence that will stain the streets with blood)

Irony (wine is often a symbol of prosperity, wealth, etc. but instead here is symbolic of something negative -- and this would resonate well with a central theme treated by the novel, the tension between social classes, the "haves" and "have-nots")

Symbolism (again) (in that maybe the wine-stained stones represent people who will be blood-stained -- the use of the word "many" here supports that, as that word is often used to connote many people ; think Star Trek: "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one."

Answer 2

The wine is a metaphor for blood, and the stains will be the bloodstains on the people in the coming revolution. It's made quite clear that's the case, when a man on the street dips his finger in the wine spilled in the muddy street, and writes "blood" on a wall.