Examples Of Foreshadowing In A Tale Of Two Cities

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.” (Dickens 2). This notable quote started off the novel, with lots of meaning behind it. It compares the two major cities in the novel, London, and Paris, but also compares one of the major themes throughout the book, the rise of the revolution. Charles Dickens was a unique writer in the sense that he would use lots of foreshadowing to create the major plot in the novel. In The Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens uses dynamic and thought provoking events of

The chapter shifted to Saint Antoine, a poor suburb of Paris. A wine cask spilled into the street, consequently making everyone to drop to their knees to get a sip off the street. It showed the sheer desperation of the people, but also alluded to the coming of the revolution. “Those who had been greedy with the staves of the cask, had acquired a tigerish smear about the mouth; and one tall joker so besmirched, his head more out of a long squalid bag of a night-cap than in it, scrawled upon a wall with his finger dipped in muddy wine-lees—blood.” You didn’t fully realize the meaning behind this until the revolution was in full force, where instead of the street being filled with wine, it was filled with the blood of the

Toward the end of book two, Manette was starting to have a relapse when talking to Charles Darnay on the day of his daughter’s wedding. The two were talking about who Darnay “really was.” Earlier mentioned in the book, Manette insisted that he can wait to tell him until the day of his wedding. "My present name, though but slightly changed from my mother's, is not, as you will remember, my own. I wish to tell you what that is, and why I am in England. . . You shall tell me on your marriage morning." (Dickens 136). In addition, Doctor Manette began to go into his anxiety attack; going back to his old ways of being a prisoner in the Bastille. He wasn’t acting like his normal self and began to go back to his shoemaking bench. This whole event revolved all around the true name of Charles Darnay, which revealed that he is actually related to the evermondes, which was the man that put Doctor Manette in prison! We were revealed to this in Charles Darnay’s second trial, when a letter is discovered that was written by Dr. Manette while he was in prison, denouncing Charles' family. Dickens purposely included Doctor Manette’s relapse after hearing Darnay’s name, so the reader could foreshadow that Darnay had a connection with his