Gods_Will_Have_Blood_-_Book_Review

The Impact of the Jacobin Phase to the French Public (Shown throughout The Gods Will Have Blood) The Gods Will Have Blood was set during the Jacobin Phase of the French Revolution, in which the French people were being impacted both positively and negatively. A food shortage is a wide spread scarcity of food, to execute is to kill as a punishment, and a mind-set is a mental attitude towards situations. The French citizens were impacted negiatively from the Jacobin Phase of the French Revolution by having a shortage of food, as well as being executed for no reason, yet were also impacted positively by having a new mind-set. During the Jacobin Phase, the French citizens were faced with the disadvantage of a shortage of food. An example of what extent this had grown to, was that the people were fighting over even the smallest amounts of food, which was expressed in the book by a girl claiming ‘you risk your life just to get three eggs and a quarter pound of butter’. Another example of the food shortage expressed in the book was when Citizenss Dumonteil said she hadn’t even seen butter in three months, which showed how scarce the food had become. Furthermore, the prices had gone up so much from the Jacobins that it caused lots of commotion such as shown when Anatole writes of the women cursing and screaming at the prices and scarcity of food as well as alarming stories that Royalists were trying to exterminate the Paris citizens. Another example of the food shortage shown in The Gods Will Have Blood, was a quote from the book, “In every household, the Revolution had emptied the cooking pot”. All of these instances shown in The Gods Will Have Blood were based on the French lower classes facing food shortages. Another disadvantage faced by the French citizens during the Jacobin Phase was being executed for little to no reason. This was shown throughout the book, and one example would be where Evariste goes ‘What did it really matter whether this soldier was innocent or guilty!’ showing that he would execute him none-the-less. Another example of this would be in a trial where Gamelin declares that a poor old woman deserved death for simply showing Royalist emotion, and Gamelin goes on to say “If reserved only for the aristocrats, the guillotine would have appeared to him as a sort of iniquitous privlege” Even another instance was the case of Jacques Maubel, in which Maubel was sentenced to death by a solid majority for simply having dried carnation petals and not explaning where they’d come from. These instances all showed a negative impact from the Jacobi Phase , being punished for no reason. An advantage to the French citizens from the Jacobin Phase was being able to develop a new mind-set or outlook on life. An example of this was by the character Gamelin, when his mindset changes and he begins to loathe the old artistic style of pre-revolutionary France, which is shown where it states “He recognized in them the degrading effects of the monarchy and the shameful corruptive influences of the Courts”. Another example would be that Mesour Evariste Gamelin started out as a honorable artist in training, then through the Jacobin Phase, his mindset changed and he ended up becoming a seemingly paranoid magistrate. Even another example, was shown in Widow Gamelin, by how she went from detesting the revolution, such as complaining about the calenders being changed, to admiring the judges and revolution itself, shown where the book states ‘the Revolutionary Tribunal appeared to her every bit as majestic as the time-hounered jurisdictions she’d been taught to revere’. The French citizens had to face disadvantages from the Jacobin Phase of the French Revolution, such as having a shortage of food and being executed for no reason, yet also faced an advantage such as having a new mind-set. The disadvantage of a shortage of food had caused much fighting and commotion, as well as causing many to be without much food. The problem of being executed for no reason had led to innocent men and women killed. Then, the French citizens began to develop new mindsets. The Jacobin phase of the French Revolution strongly affected the French citizens and this was strongly shown in The Gods Will Have Blood.