The Girondins is a political group of moderate republicans in the French Revolution, so called the Brissotins (named after their initial leader, Jacques-Pierre Brissot de Warville). Girondist leaders advocated continental war; they supported Liberty, but opposed Equality. They were representatives of the educated, provincial middle class of the provinces; they were lawyers, journalists, and merchants who desired a constitutional government. In the Revolutionary assembly, the Convention, they engaged in personal rivalry against Robespierre, Georges Danton, and Jean Paul Marat—leaders of the opposition, known as the Jacobin-influenced Montagnards. The Girondists championed the provinces against Paris, and in particular against the commune. They were unable to prevent the trial of King Louis XVI, or his death sentence. The leftist Mountain became dominant in the Convention. The treason of Dumouriez, who defected to the Austrians (Mar., 1793), further weakened the position of the Girondists, who also aroused popular hostility in Paris by opposing workers' demands for economic controls. On May 31 an armed crowd organized by the Paris sections surrounded the Convention and demanded the arrest of the Girondists. The Convention at first resisted, but continued popular pressure forced it to order the arrest of 29 Girondists on June 2. Brissot, Vergniaud, and other leaders were subsequently executed. The fall of the Girondists assured complete control by the Mountain.
So long as it was a question of overthrowing the old régime of absolute monarchy, the Girondins were in the front rank. High-spirited, fearless poets imbued with admiration for the republics of antiquity, and desirous of power at the same time --- how could they adapt themselves to the old régime?
Therefore, while the peasants were burning the châteaux of the landlords and their tax-registers, while the people were demolishing the relics of feudal servitude, the Girondins were busy chiefly with establishing the new political forms of government. They saw themselves already in power, masters of the destiny of France, sending forth armies to carry Liberty into the four quarters of the earth.
The Girondins, though advocating their belief in liberty and agreeing with the Jacobin views of independence and overthrowing the monarchy, promoted such principles through conservatism, which antagonizes equality—as opposed to the Jacobins’ radical ways; this political group can therefore be compared to the above picture.
This photograph depicts a rather disparate, yet distinguishable, take on the classic tale of Snow White, wherein it is widely known that the apples contain such a poison able to put one into deep cursed sleep. The idea of having such power within reach could tempt anyone, even Snow White, as shown by a number of apples she has bitten on.
One might argue that the Girondists’ true concealed motive was merely the replacement of the government to their supporters and their leaders. They wanted the Revolution to come to a cease the moment the existing monarch had been dethroned; they saw themselves as the new leaders—the new government—and they defied the idea of equality, for “order” must be systematized. When the potential right to rule—the conceivable power—was within their grasp, the Girondins were overcome by greed for considerable omnipotence, resulting in their desire to achieve dominance.
The poison that the apple contains consequently symbolizes power for it can be regarded as a figurative bane that corrupts one’s mind to bring out an array of desperation or hostility to contend with or satisfy one’s avidity: the thirst for apples (or what they bring about) that the girl in the photograph displays is equivalent to the hunger for power of the Girondists, unstoppable to the last until their execution and expulsion.
This image, while embodying the Girondins, also signifies a relevant theme of the novel, A Tale of Two Cities, that the most exiguous amount of power can undermine the purest innocence, demoralizing one that is under its influence.
