The novel A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens begins in the year 1775, 14 years prior to the French revolution in the cities of Paris and London. The story follows the lives of three families: the Manettes, the Evermondes, and the Defarges, along with people close in relation to them, and tells of each person’s contribution to the rise of the revolution. Dickens writes of the social injustices in the two cities, describing how the poor scramble and fight for mere loaves of bread, while the rich overindulge in their wealth.
William Butler Yates, in his poem “The Second Coming” writes:
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned.
The poem metaphorically suggests the theme of the tendency toward violence and oppression in revolutionaries after being so wrongfully treated by the aristocracy. Dickens supports this theme by finding immense fault in the social structure of society, the judicial system during that time period, and the lunacy of the revolution.
Throughout the novel, Dickens approaches the revolution with ambivalence. He provides layers of perspective, for while he supports the revolutionary cause, he often gestures to the evil of the revolutionaries themselves. Dickens often conveys his deep sympathy towards the plight of the French peasantry and accentuates their need for liberation. The first fault that Dickens addresses in the social structure of society is the difference in classes between the aristocrats and peasantry. In the chapters including the Marquis Evrémonde or Monseigneur successfully portray how the nobilities abuse their power in society by shamelessly exploiting and oppres...
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...pilled blood.
When the emotional turmoil caused by the aristocracies’ cruel oppression rose amongst the poor, it caused them to undertake the same horrendous actions of the aristocracies that they once despised. The author cleverly conveys to the reader how although the initial motive for the French Revolution may have been justified, quickly became just as corrupt as the system they were fighting against. Dickens’s most concise and relevant view of revolution comes in the final chapter, in which he notes the slippery slope down from the oppressed to the oppressor: “Sow the same seed of rapacious license and oppression over again, and it will surely yield the same fruit according to its kind.” Though Dickens sees the French Revolution as a great symbol of transformation and resurrection, he emphasizes that its violent means were ultimately antithetical to its end.
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.
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 caused 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 happen. He explores the idea of justice and violence through the use of characters that are ambiguous, 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 shows the ambiguous characters through the power of true sacrifice.
The blue flies, Madame Defarge’s knitting, and the sea are just three of Dickens’ many symbols that develop the theme of man’s inhumanity to his fellow man in A Tale of Two Cities. Although Revolutions are not particularly humane in themselves, the individual characters and the majority of the peasantry in this book took inhumane to its extreme. Because the revolutionaries follow their ruthless leader, Madame Defarge, they do not question the humanity or morality of the massacre of the aristocracy. In a Revolution meant to free peasants, peasants should be last on the list of those being murdered, and this injustice should be realized. In the French Revolution as well as A Tale of Two Cities, the oppressed become the oppressors and the main cause behind the revolution is lost.
Dickens states that Jacques sees “a beautiful city“this beautiful city is Paris France before the French revolutionary war. Once the war came the city turned dark and dreary. “In their struggles to be truly free“, this line shows that even normal people were trying to have the freedom that they deserved.
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
Through the whirlpool, the storm, and the sea, Dickens portrays the image of revenge effectively and memorably. Each symbol exhibits the wrath and ferocity of the revolutionaries. They displayed a power and determination that is while very frightening, quite admirable in the sense that they would stop at nothing to exact their revenge. The symbols have a common thread; they were powerful, destructive, and yet effective. The book makes the reader question if he or she would go this far for revenge. It is human nature to seek revenge for wrongdoing and Dickens accurately illustrates the lengths any revolutionary let alone human would go to, to get revenge for such heinous crimes committed by the aristocracy or anyone.
Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities follows the cruelties of the French Revolution. Mobs in France relentlessly imprison and kill citizens, including the novel’s main character, Doctor Manette, who stays in prison for 18 years before Lucie retrieves him. Only Lucie, can keep him young and free from his past. Doctor Manette and Lucie testify at the trial of Charles Darnay, defended by the lazy alcoholic, Sydney Carton. Both Darnay and Carton love Lucie, but Darnay ultimately wins her, and Carton never stops loving her. Meanwhile in Saint Antoine, Defarge and his wife plan the French Revolution. Darnay goes back to France, and Parisians immediately throw him in prison for being an Evrémonde. The novel ends with Carton sacrificing himself to save Darnay to show Lucie he loves her. Dickens creates chaotic and deadly crowds in A Tale of Two Cities in order to convey the theme of mob mentality’s destructiveness.
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens was published in 1859 as weekly issues. The story takes place in London and Paris during the French Revolution. The French Revolution can be described as a liberating, exhilarating, and bloodthirsty event in history. Dickens has captured these moments of the French Revolution in a very complex form using many literary elements such as symbols and metaphors to develop and enhance the story. In particular, three beautifully constructed symbols that relate to a common theme of fate and coincidence are the wine, echoing footsteps, and the shadow.
The French Revolution, beginning in 1789, served as a force for exposing man’s inhumanity to man because of the unjust actions that arose in all aspects of human existence during this time period. Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities examines the extent to which man will travel to achieve what he believes is essential to life. A look into every aspect of this epoch in both France and England reveals the faults that enable man to overlook the value of another individual’s life. Throughout the novel, Dickens analyzes the concept of man’s inhumanity to his fellow man as a force motivated by inordinate greed, destructive power, and conspicuous injustice.
“Republic One and Indivisible, Liberty, Fraternity, Equality or Death!” This was the phrase that resounded through the streets of France in the momentous, intense book by Charles Dickens: A Tale of Two Cities. Yet though these Revolutionaries who attempted successfully to over throw the former aristocratic government held this phrase as their catchphrase, the actions they performed ran ironically in contradiction. From their excusable version of a Republic formed by elitism, to their frightful example of liberty in needless dictatorship, Dickens captures the terrible irony of the French Revolution through this classic book.
Charles Dickens’ novels criticize the injustices of his time, especially the brutal treatment of the poor in a society sharply divided by differences of wealth. He lived through that world at an early age; he saw the bitter side of the social class system and had wanted it to be exposed, so people could see the exploitation that the system rests on. But he presents these criticisms through the lives of characters, Pip and Magwitch.
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.
During the 1800s, the aristocracy of England and France lived in luxury and possessed an enormous amount of power in the society while peasants live in poverty. Dickens links the two countries with the theme of how history repeats itself. Dickens compares the social rankings, rulers, and events of the two countries and warns how if the English aristocracy did not change their ways, what happens in France would happen to them. In the novel, Dickens portrays the character, Monseigneur as an individual character as well as a social class of France. Monseigneur is a character who Dickens portrays as the entire class of the French aristocracy in the way of which he abuses his power. Dickens describes how the Monseigneur was having chocolate prepared for him by four men who are wearing gold watches as peasants were starving and dying. Dickens uses the actions of the Monseigneur to represent the entire population of the aristocrats in the city of St. Antoine. Another way in which Dickens shows how the Monseigneur was corrupt was how he appointed people to be officials not by their skill but by the way they would appraise him or by their status. Dickens foreshadows how France would become corrupt over time from the action...
At the beginning of A Tale of Two Cities (1859), Dickens once again expresses his concern. The novel opens in 1775, with a comparison of England and pre-revolutionary France. While drawing parallels between the two countries, Dickens also alludes to his own time: "the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only" (1; bk. 1, ch. 1). The rest of the chapter shows that Dickens regarded the condition to be an 'evil' one, since he depicts both countries as rife with poverty, injustice, and violence due to the irresponsibility of the ruling elite (1-3; bk. 1, ch. 1). As the novel unfolds, however, England becomes a safe haven for those escaping the violence perpetrated by the French Revolution. In this paper, I shall argue that A Tale of Two Cities reflects the popular confidence in the stability of England in the eighteen-fifties, despite Dickens's suggestions at the beginning. A Tale of Two Cities thus becomes a novel about the England and the English of Dickens's time. And yet, many people today would believe that the novel is essentially about the French Revolution, which brings me to my second point. If in the nineteenth century the novel served to affirm the stability of Britain, in this century it has been greatly influential in the formation of the popular image of the French Revolution, mainly thanks to film and television adaptations. The purpose of this paper is to look at the popular reception of the novel from the time of its first publication in 1859 to the nineteen-nineties.
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.