Marat / Sade Chapter Summary & Analysis - Act 1, Scenes 10 and 11 Summary

Act 1, Scenes 10 and 11 Summary

Scene 10 - Song and Mime of Corday's Arrival in Paris: The Quartet sings a narrative song telling how Corday arrived in Paris and went shopping for a knife in a neighborhood where there were also stores offering cures for syphilis. As the song continues, inmates portray life on the Paris streets; at first they act in a disciplined manner but later becoming less controlled. Corday comments to The Audience on the despair and debauchery she sees, concluding a long speech with the comment that soon she will be one of them.

Scene 11 - Death's Triumph: As an execution is dramatized in the background, Marat tells The Audience that the life and death witnessed in the streets of Paris is what the Revolution drove people to become. He accuses The Audience (which, it must be remembered, has been endowed with the character of middle class beneficiaries of the Revolution)...
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