Violence in Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities

Marcus Kopp

Mr. Vetter

AP English Literature

24 November 2015

Aristocrats or Revolutionists, Who Is More Violent? In A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, a historical fiction about the two countries of England and France, he tells us some important things going on and also gives us important messages. Arguable one of the most important themes Dickens writes about in this novel is violence. More specifically he writes about the violence in France, a murder of a young child by a careless Marquis, the rape of a young girl by a pair of aristocrat brothers, the death of thousands of aristocrats and aristocrat sympathizers by the guillotine, and the dirty deeds done by Madam Defarge to “exterminate” the aristocrats and their sympathizers. Dickens

A very violent scene given to the reader by Dickens is when he describes the crazed revolutionists sharpening their tools on the grindstone, “The grindstone had a double handle, and, turning at it madly were two men…and their hideous countenances were all bloody and sweaty,” (Dickens 272). Dickens paints in the readers mind that the revolutionists are savages and crazed for blood, they won’t stop killing until the job is done. It is known to the readers that Madam Defarge is the most blood crazed of them all. She and her husband are conversing when Defarge is wondering when it will all stop (the reader can tell that he is starting to feel remorse for what he has started), but Madam Defarge replies with “At extermination,” (Dickens 353). Such a small quote, but it means so much to the novel, it shows that Madam Defarge will not stop what she is doing until all aristocrats have been put to death because of what had happened to her as a young child. This is the point in Dickens’ novel when the reader can tell that Dickens’ point of view on the Revolutionary has changed, it is now evident that he believes that the Revolutionists are taking what they are doing too far. It’s important to the novel as a whole because it helps to picture the unjust of how far the revolutionists go to “get back” at the