The years of the French Revolution saw a surge of change permanently changing the history of the world. This event has been written on many times over. One such novel, The Gods Will Have Blood by Anatole France, describes this episode in history in a narrative fashion. France has, as a writer, control over the characters personal thoughts and actions. He exploits this control by using the personal interactions of his characters to represent the role of power, as he understood it, and the struggle between good and evil power embodies. The characters Gamlin and Robesierre and their actions are used to personify this notion of power. Anatole France would have concurred; power is a destructive and corrupting force when only few hold it.

Gamlin is, at the start, a powerless yet respectable citizen whom quickly becomes a corrupt individual part of a very limited powerful elite. Gamlin...