Orison Swett Marden, an author known for his works in philosophy once wrote, “You will be modified, shaped, molded by your surroundings, by the character of the people with whom you come in contact”. Using these words, Marden summarizes what factors influence humans and shape how they turn out. A similar scenario appears in Charles Dicken’s A Tale of Two Cities, where two characters are initially driven by their love for different people, but soon turn into complete opposites. Madame DeFarge, fueled by love, turns evil, while Sydney Carton, a lazy alcoholic, takes charge of his life after being motivated by love. The factor that separates their paths is their surroundings: Madame DeFarge lives in France, while Sydney Carton resides in England. Although their stories both begin with love, Madame DeFarge and Sydney Carton develop in opposite ways due to differences in their surroundings ;ultimately suggesting that Dickens argues for England’s superiority over France because of how Carton’s surroundings improve him, while Mme. Defarge’s surroundings encourage her brutality.
Love is initially a big motivator for both Madame Defarge and Mr. Carton’s actions because of its impact on their lives, however, their surroundings and the revolution are prominent in defining them. Around the end of the book, Madame Defarge reveals that her family had been mistreated by the Evrémonde brothers because they killed her sister and her little brother (3.12.351-352). Madame DeFarge finishes her sentence by saying, “tell the Wind and Fire to stop, but don’t tell me” (3.12.352). She is angry at the Evrémonde brothers because the family that she loved so much was killed by them, but at the end of her sentence, her tone indicates an emotio...
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...reason Carton is able to let go of his laziness. It is their surroundings that make the difference even though they start at love. Madame DeFarge witnesses constant brutality and transforms herself into an angry and vengeful woman because she is living in the heart of the French revolution, where brutality is accepted. In contrast, Carton is surrounded by benign people in the relatively calm England, where he learns to add meaning to his life. Dickens uses Madame DeFarge’s sinking into the abyss as a way to argue that France was not as good as England. In addition, using the judicial system comparison and the fact that Carton not only improved his life, but became the hero of the novel because of how England and its people shaped him, Dickens heavily leans towards England being more superior to France.
Works Cited
A Tale of Two Cities- Charles 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
To most, Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities is that book about the poor people and the French Revolution that isn’t Les Miserables where he ravages the rich people, calling them “tigerish,” (Dickens 33) following the lord “ignorancem” (Dickens 33) and saying that they “held life as of no account,” (Dickens 221) right? Wrong. Yes, A Tale of Two Cities is a book by Dickens mostly about the poor people and the French Revolution (that isn’t Les Miserables) wherein he makes metaphorically eviscerates the rich people, but these are all references to the poor, the downtrodden, the little guy, in short, the people we and Dickens are supposed to root for. Dickens, for a genuine friend of the poor, as shown in his books A Christmas Carol, Great Expectations, and Oliver Twist, and as someone who wrote to the masses, disparages the poor quite a bit in A Tale of Two Cities. In the words of Frederick Busch “[Dickens] fears revolution, … the downtrodden in revolt become, to Dickens, downright revolting.” It is not that the gentry in A Tale of Two Cities are the protagonists; rather, that the poor are antagonists as well. To sum, when blood rains from the sky, no one’s hands are clean.
Another struggle between love and hate can be found within Monsieur Defarge. In this particular case, it is evil that eventually triumphs. Monsieur Defarge can be considered a true revolutionary, as his actions prove throughout the novel: "… and still Defarge of the wine - shop at his gun, grown doubly hot by the service of four fierce hours" (p. 215). Monsieur Defarge tirelessly works alongside his fellow revolutionaries to defeat the aristocracy that has treated his countrymen so harshly.
Out of a selfless love, Miss Pross, Lucie’s caretaker and mother figure, is willing to sacrifice herself for Lucie’s safety. Madame Defarge, one of the leaders in the peasant revolt of the Revolution, hates and wants to kill all of the Evrémonde family as revenge for the murder of her entire family. Since Darnay, Lucie’s husband, is an Evrémonde, Madame Defarge craves to kill him as well as his family, including Lucie. She has already captured Darnay, who is soon to be beheaded. Therefore, all she needs is to kill Lucie and her daughter and the Evrémonde family will be eliminate...
...to revenge. She turned into this cold killer to kill the entire Evermonde family for what they had done to her family. She uses her power in the revolution to take revenge on the Evermonde family. Madame Defarge loses her true self and becomes someone who disregards the lives of people include hers. Dickens’s theme of how history repeats itself appears again when Madame Defarge kills innocent people similar to what the Marquis of Evermonde did.
The characters in Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, despite the criticism of others, are fully developed at the completion of the novel. At the beginning of A Tale of Two Cities, the characters are somewhat nebulous, not really formed, and it is often hard to see how these characters could possibly play pivotal roles in the novels. For example, Sydney Carton the resident town drunk and wastrel, was illustrated quite negatively at the beginning of the novel, “this one man sat leaning back, with his torn gown half off him, his untidy wig put on just as it happened to light on his head after its removal, his hands in his pockets, and his eyes on the ceiling as they had been all day. Something especially reckless in his demeanor, not only gave him a disreputable look…” (57). However, at the end of the novel Sydney is held as the quintessential human, after all, “man hath no greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friend.” The critics most likely have a problem with the way Dickens brings a character to the forefront, only for them to slip away from view and return a hun...
A Tale of Two Cities In every great novel, there is a theme that is constant throughout the story. One of the better known themes portrays the fight of good verses evil. Different authors portray this in different ways. Some use colors, while others use seasons to show the contrast. Still, others go for the obvious and use characters.
...remonde bloodline, most of which is innocent, must be exterminated to compensate for the deaths of her two siblings. The distinctions between the two women are especially evident when they engage in battle over the Evremonde family because they are speaking in different languages. Neither can understand the other linguistically, nor on a moral level. The message Dickens is attempting to convey through these characters is that of the many applications of passion, such zeal is best employed “with the vigorous tenacity of love [because it is] always so much stronger than hate” (365). In a decision between using one’s energy for love or hate, it is more productive and personally satisfying to choose the path of love because it is able to overcome that of hate.
A Tale of Two Cities takes place in England and France, during the time of the French Revolution. A Tale of Two Cities is a classic novel, where Charles Dickens presents to the reader archetypal main characters. From the beginning of the novel, the reader can know whether the characters are evil or not. In the novel, the main character, Sydney Carton, also contributes a lot to the theme of the novel-every individual should have both moral and physical courage, and should be able to sacrifice everything in the name of love.
Throughout the novel, Dickens employs imagery to make the readers pity the peasants, have compassion for the innocent nobles being punished, and even better understand the antagonist and her motives. His use of personified hunger and description of the poor’s straits made the reader pity them for the situation caused by the overlord nobles. However, Dickens then uses the same literary device to alight sympathy for the nobles, albeit the innocent ones! Then, he uses imagery to make the reader better understand and perhaps even feel empathy for Madame Defarge, the book’s murderous villainess. Through skillful but swaying use of imagery, Dickens truly affects the readers’ sympathies.
In A Tale of Two Cities author Charles Dickens uses literary techniques throughout the novel such as doubling and repetition. One way Dickens utilizes doubling is through the characters such as Lucie Manette and Madame Defarge who are complete opposites. Dickens choice to create doubling among characters not only creates opposites throughout the novel, it also reveals many hidden patterns the eventually unravel to readers as the novel progresses. An example of these hidden connections is revealed with Madame Defarge’s vengeance towards Darnay and his family.
When people are motivated by love, they can do anything. In the book A Tale Of Two Cities by Charles Dickens a common theme is that love drives people to do extreme things. Many characters show love in their own ways, such as Miss. Pross and Madame Defarge. Miss. Pross - Lucie Manette’s caretaker since she was young - and Madame Defarge - the main antagonist - show love in the most unique way. They both show that love is the most powerful emotion through their feelings about the Manettes, motivations for their actions, and how love gives them strength.
My favorite scene in A Tale of Two Cities is one of the last scenes, when Sydney Carton is about to go to the guillotine. It takes place in Paris, near a prison, and many people have gathered to watch french aristocrats be beheaded. The atmosphere is tense and chaotic; Sydney, however, remains calm, even though he is about to be killed. Sydney is holding the hand of a young girl who is given no name other than a "poor little seamstress". Sydney and the seamstress, who are both being wrongfully killed, comfort each other just before they reach the guillotine, and they seem to have an instant romantic connection with each other. I loved this scene because it showed that Sydney Carton had finally found someone who could love him, as he could love them, but it saddened me that he had found her just before their deaths.
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens is a classic novel written in the 1850’s by Charles Dickens. The novel is set in London and France during the French Revolution. The novel features an amazing use of themes as well as sensational development of characters. Charles Dickens and his feature style of the poor character who does something great is very evident in Sydney Carton, a drunken lawyer who becomes the hero of the book.
Exemplifying the theme of sacrifice for others, Charles Darnay, Mrs. Pross, and Sydney Carton’s selfless acts enhance the plot of the novel. Carton says “Remember these words to-morrow: change the course, or delay in it – for any reason – and no life can possibly be saved, and many lives must inevitably be sacrificed.” (268) alluding to the fact that innocent lives are destined to be sacrificed, but are done for the good of others and in the name of love. Sacrifices are pursued and achieved in the name of love, as seen in Mrs. Pross’ sacrifice. Love triggers people to help others and risk anything for who they love or even give their own lives in Sydney Carton’s case. A Tale of Two Cities is a great novel that exhibits selfless acts in the name of love for other people.