The artist has portrayed the nobleman as the spider and the peasant as the fly because just as the spider feeds on the fly and fly does hard work for finding food, similarly in 18th century France the nobles fed on the hard word of peasants. Just as a fly works hard for food in the same way peasants used to work hard for their livelihood. But The First and Second Estate exploited the peasants. The peasants had to pay feudal taxes as well as giving their services to the nobles.