In this excerpt from "a wedding gift," the scene is

A.an example of situational irony because Berthe behaves in a surprising way

citizens are given 25 years of life to prove their worth to society; if they fail to do great things

chapter i -- paris: september, 1792

a surging, seething, murmuring crowd of beings that are human only in name, for to the eye and ear they seem naught but savage creatures, animated by vile passions and by the lust of vengeance and of hate.

during the greater part of the day the guillotine had been kept busy at its ghastly work: all that france had boasted of in the past centuries, of ancient names, and blue blood, had paid toll to her desire for liberty and for fraternity.

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