More handpicked essays just for you.
Most important characters in the tale of two cities
Elements of violence in literature
Violence in a tale of two cities
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Lucy Chai
Mrs. Lebeda
English 2CP
Oct.3rd 2014
Violence and Fury of French Peasantry
In A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens describes a story in the French Revolution, which portray a scene of the angry French peasantry. This novel shows a group of people who rise up against the nobility because of the injustice. The reactions of the peasants review that they also become violent leaders, which end up with people they against for. Also Dickens uses many events to show the violence and fury of the French peasantry, which happened in the preparation and process of the French Revolution. The guillotine is the symbol, which helped the angry peasants to kill ”guilty” people. The most representative event of showing the violence and fury of the
…show more content…
It killed a lot of nobility who used to oppress the peasantry. The peasantries use the guillotine killed “Twenty-two friends of high public mark, twenty one living and one dead, if had lopped the heads off, in one morning, in as many minutes”(Dickens 324). Dickens’s description of the death of the nobility is breezy, which alludes the violence of the peasantry. Although they have a lot of ways to revenge, they still choose to use the guillotine to revenge, as they want to use this way to express their feelings, which can show the violence and fury of the peasantry. They start to change their mind and become extreme and cruel. They killed a lot of innocent people include a young seamstress who complained that “Though the just Heaven knows I am innocent of any. Is it likely? Who would think of plotting with a poor little weak creature like me” (Dickens 418). Everyone knows this young weak girl can’t do anything against the revolution, but they still kill her, which can show the merciless of the leader of the revolution. Guillotine witnessed the peasantry became the sovereign they used to against …show more content…
Madame Defarge who is the leader of the female peasantry, has spiteful hatred towards the Monique, which led the thought of killing Lucie Darnay and Charles Darnay who have relationship with the Monique. Her thoughts and actions represents that the violence and fury controlled most of peasants. The angry peasantry also used Guillotine as a equipment to kill not only guilty people but also some innocent people which portray the violence and unbelieving of the leader in the revolution. At the Storming the Bastille, peasants express their angry by killing the guard of the Bastille and the nobility who used to treat them bed, they even though cut their head and hung under the lamp, which indicated the violence and insane of the peasantry. The violence and fury of the leaders and peasantry led the unsuccessful revolution, as they not only have the foreign armies to deal with, but also enemies in
Madame Defarge tries to kill and hurt everyone who opposes her in Tale of Two Cities. Her only hobby is knitting, and she knits as a way to show anger and bring fear to her enemies. She knits a list of people who die in the revolution. The essay shows how Madame Defarge has motives for her killings, her allies, and if the behavior is justified.
The guillotine was one of the fastest and most painless ways to kill people. Before that though there were a lot more painful and torturous ways to execute people. For example, they used to hang people but they would also torture them, to make their death even more painful. During the Enlightment, people favored human rights and their well being, so they didn’t torture people as bad as before. During the Enlightment, people got more rights so they couldn’t be tortured as much like former executions. The guillotine made execution a lot better. The guillotine was an enlightened way to execute people.
A Tale of Two Cities clearly portrays very distinct divisions in the behavior of men. The aristocrats, or upperclassmen, rule and control all of France. The members of the aristocracy never have to undergo hardships; they always have everything presented to them on a silver platter. They do whatever they want with total disregard for the peasants. On the other hand, the peasants always have to work hard for everything in life. Due to the aristocracy, the peasants are constantly starving, enough as to drink spilt wine from a filthy street (24-26). They loathe the wealthy people who have created these horrible living conditions. This drives the peasants to revolution, and the decapitation of the aristocrats via the guillotine. They have a mob mentality and kill everyone who they believe is the enemy. Neither the aristocrats nor the peasants show any compassion toward the other social class.
Madame Defarge, on the other hand, does not just hate Lucie, but she hates the Manettes and all the Evremondes. One would think that such a strongly fueled hatred would permit Madame Defarge to overpower Miss Pross, but, as the reader finds out, Miss Pross' determination to keep her darling "Ladybird" safe, from any harm that might come to her or her family, allows her to overpower and kill her enemy. This time, the power of good overcomes the power of evil due to Miss Pross' true love and dedication to Lucie. Another struggle between love and hate can be found within Monsieur Defarge. In this particular case, it is evil that eventually triumphs.
A guillotine is a decapitation device that quickly chops off it’s victims head in the blink of an eye. According to document F, About 16,000 people were believed to have died at the hands of it. No matter how small or petty a crime was, people would have been executed for it. Even Marie Antoinette and King Louis XVI, the leaders of France before the Revolution, were decapitated by one, as was the leader of the Reign of Terror, Maximilien Robespierre. Another method to weed out the counter revolutionaries was a network of spies that watched out for anyone who spoke out against the government, “A careless word of criticism spoken against the government could put one in prison or worse” (Document E). The punishment for a crime as small as ththis was more often than not
...pierre’s fellow members of the Committee for public safety felt it would be their own lives at stake, they took action to get rid of Robespierre. He was executed in the same manner as those he had himself condemned to be killed- the guillotine.
Charles Dickens writes this book explaining the French Revolution, in which the social and economic systems in France had huge changes and the French monarchy collapsed. This causes high taxes, unfair laws, and the poor being mistreated. Charles Dickens shows that cruelty of other people will lead to a revolution and in addition to the revolution more cruelty will occur. He explores the idea of justice and violence through the use of ambiguous characters with positive and negative qualities, meaning that they have to different sides to them; for example, Charles Darnay, Sydney Carton, and Dr. Manette. Throughout the story of A Tale of Two Cities, Charles dickens uses ambiguous characters to shows how violence and cruelty can be stopped through the power of true sacrifice.
The French Revolution was a period of radical social and political upheaval, lead by the lower class of France, which began the decline of powerful monarchies in France and the rise of nationalism and democracy. In A Tale Of Two Cities, written by Charles Dickens, he highlights these aspects of the war between classes and makes them personal to the reader. Throughout the novel, Dickens’ establishes and develops several symbols in order to help the reader better understand the Revolution and the way people acted during this time. He shows that while emotion, desperation, and irrationality run high, humanity, justice, and morality are scarce. The blue flies, Madame Defarge’s knitting, and the sea are three of Dickens’ symbols that develop his theme of man’s inhumanity to his fellow man throughout the novel.
The French Revolution was a time when many people sacrificed their lives for their beliefs. As the French Revolution moved on, more people joined the movement and risked their lives. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens is set during this time. Many people who sacrificed their lives for the Revolution felt like it was their fate to do this. This idea of fate is described many times in Dickens’ novel to magnify the story. The theme of fate is prevalent in the novel through the lives of many characters. This theme is used to show how a person is unable to escape their fate because it is already decided. The metaphors and symbols in the novel are greatly used to contribute to the theme of fate through the symbols of knitting, the fountain and water, and the wine.
During a time of conflicting warfare, a person’s social position and temperament play a significant role in the ideals of society. A Tale of Two Cities manifests society’s response to the French Revolution. Times like this result in two options, either to keep moving on with life, or give in to the vengeance. Charles Dickens portrays both sides of humanity through his characterization. Madame Defarge is the most prominent character that represents the inability to resist violence during the Revolution. In Madame Defarge’s quest for revenge, her continuous knitting and dominance prompt her character development, establishing her character as the antagonist.
(Doc E) The guillotine became one of the most powerful symbols of the French Revolution and killed an estimated 20,000 to 40,000 people during the Reign of Terror. (Doc F) The guillotine was a sharp, angled blade that quickly killed the most deadly and feared method of invoking fear during the revolution. (Doc F)
The revolution emphasized the ideals of “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” and was characterized by the strong will of the French people who stood up for what they believed in. It was also an extremely bloody time, which saw the rise of the guillotine, a contraption used for public executions and to instill a sense of fear in those opposed to the revolution. The revolution saw the public execution of the King and Queen, Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette as well as thousands of others. The upper class feared for their lives.
Charles Dickens’s voice varies from being sympathetic with the revolutionaries, to a feeling of discord with their method of revolting. A Tale of Two Cities revolves around the French revolution and the tension in England. Dickens gives the tale of a family caught in the conflict between the French aristocracy and radicals. In the course of the book, the family handles extreme difficulty and obscurity. Dickens’s neutrality, though sometimes wavering from side to side, is apparent throughout each book in the novel.
A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens, is a story set in the year 1775 and through the turbulent time of the French Revolution. It is of people living in love and betrayal, murder and joy, peril and safety, hate and fondness, misery and happiness, gentle actions and ferocious crowds. The novel surrounds a drunken man, Sydney Carton, who performs a heroic deed for his beloved, Lucie Manette, while Monsieur and Madame Defarge, ruthless revolutionaries, seek revenge against the nobles of France. Research suggests that through Dickens’ portrayal of the revolutionaries and nobles of the war, he gives accurate insight to the era of the Revolution.
The French Revolution and the legacy of A Tale of Two Cities & nbsp; It is a commonplace of Dickensian criticism that the writer was influenced by Carlyle's The French Revolution in A Tale of Two Cities. Taking Dickens's comment that he read Carlyle's history "five hundred times" (I. Collins 46) as a starting point, many critics have discussed Carlyle's influence on several aspects of the novel, such as the narrative technique (Friedman 481-5), the imagery associated with the Revolution (I. Collins 52; Baumgarten 166; Lodge 131-2), and the narration of the historical episodes (Lodge 134; Friedman 489). And yet, Dickens's outlook on revolutionary violence differed significantly from that of Carlyle. As Irene Collins points out, Dickens "dislikes the violence of the revolutionaries, both in its popular form (the mob) and in its institutionalised form (the Terror). Unlike Carlyle, he can no longer see justice in the violence" (53).