Tale Of Two Cities

The neighborhood of the common people, Saint Antoine, is personified to show the universal feelings of rage the peasants feel toward the aristocracy. In the beginning, Saint Antoine is portrayed as just a physical place, but when Foulon is mentioned, it assumes the characteristics of a man. Foulon is an indifferent, awful man, who stood by and watched the commoners suffer, and mocked them by saying they should, “eat grass.” By personifying an entire neighborhood, Dickens illustrates how Foulon outraged the whole population, not just a fraction of the people. Every commoner has a personal vendetta and anger for the French nobility, and thus Saint Antoine is portrayed as one entity. The peasants hold an intense rage toward Foulon, who would make all of their lives insufferable. Foulon is not just attacked by a few commoners, he is attacked by the single entity of Saint Antoine.

During the French Revolution the two social classes, nobles and the peasants, clashed with each other because the peasants felt treated unfairly by the nobles. Dickens tells a story of both sides of the Revolution and emphasizes the fact that both sides endured hardships. Charles Dickens in his novel A Tale of Two Cities gets readers to sympathize with both sides of the revolution through character foils, flashbacks, and the theme of suffering by portraying both sides as victims.

The saying “recalled to life” in Tale of Two Cities (1859) signifies bringing people back from death, but it also reveals the transformation of characters as they face their obstacles.

The literature that came out of the French Revolution often shares common themes of death, rebirth, and destruction. Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens is much the same way. Throughout the novel, Dickens clearly supports the revolution but also depicts the brutality of the revolutionaries. Dickens uses powerful metaphors of a sea to symbolize the revolutionaries destroying old France and the belittling name of “Jacques” to depict the narcissistic views of the French aristocracy to show his support for the revolution.

The French Revolution was difficult to escape on the grounds that the aristocracy abused poor people, making them rebel. Tyranny on a large scale results in anarchy, and anarchy fabricates a police state. One of Dickens' most grounded feelings was that the English individuals would flare up at any time into a mass of bloody revolutionists. It is understandable today that he was wrong, but the idea was firmly planted in his mind, as well as in the minds of his peers. Dickens also feels bad for the poor but he does not agree with the violence that was used during the war.

Charles Dickens writes an exemplary novel about the French Revolution, which follows the lives of those weaving into and out of it. Charles Dickens’ novel A Tale of Two Cities takes place in the late 1700s in France and England. The novel introduces a theme of man’s inhumanity to man, the cruel behaviors people show to each other. Throughout the book, the inhumanity of different characters towards other men slowly becomes more and more prevalent. Dickens uses the Evremonde brothers, Madame Defarge, and the Revolutionaries to show that there is no redemption for man’s inhumanity against man.

During the French Revolution, over 40,000 people died, and over 12,000 of these people did not even have a trial. The French Revolution was over sixty years before A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens was released, but there were still many injustices and inhumane acts that took place in England during his lifetime. The inhumanity Dickens experienced during his lifetime is seen throughout the novel very clearly. Dickens portrays the inhumane people in the novel as successful at first, but they all eventually meet their horrific demise. Men are corrupted and doomed by the hatred and inhumanity towards his fellow man, and this is shown clearly through the Evrémonde brothers, Madame Defarge, and the revolutionaries.

A Tale of Two Cities, a book written by Charles Dickens in 1859, describes the situation of France and the French Revolution. At the end of Chapter Six, Dr. Manette, Lucie Manette, Charles Darnay, Sydney Carton, and Miss Pross are at a Tea Party. A turbulent storm occurs and incites an eerie mood within the characters. Charles Darnay starts telling a story about a paper he found. After telling the story, Dr. Manette begins to feel ill. Following this is a section which contains multiple literary elements. In Chapter Six, Dickens utilizes descriptive literary devices, such as imagery, personification, and anaphora, to foretell the French Revolution and set the mood of the passage.

His inspiration for the novel was brought about by a play he starred in, wherein a man sacrifices his own life so that his rival may have the woman they both love. This was the basis for the love triangle relationships between Charles Darnay, Lucie Manette, and Sydney Carton in the novel. Moreover, Dickens appreciated the play for its treatment of redemption and rebirth, love and violence. The novel is seen to transpose these themes onto the French Revolution, which seemed like an event that embodied these same issues on a historical level. The theme of rebirth and redemption is constantly seen in the novel, especially since it took place during such a turbulent time of much change and the countless “rebirths” of France’s government.

His father and twin brother were responsible for a young peasant woman’s rape, and her brother’s death, which they then tried to cover up by wrongfully imprisoning Doctor Manette. Darnay goes back to France to see his uncle and tries to convince him that “‘they have done wrong, and are reaping the fruits of wrong,’” but to no use, since the Marquis dies for his sins that night anyway (Dickens 124) Once he is old enough, Darnay decides to reject his ties to the Evremonde family, and start a new, virtuous life in England. He tries to convince his uncle to face the consequences of the crimes that he has committed in his dark past. But driven by his thirst for his futile wealth, the Marquis ignores his advice, which becomes one of the reasons for his death later in the novel. By sacrificing his wealth, Darnay managed to lead a happy and fulfilling life with Lucie, his wife, and their daughter. A sacrifice for someone else's happiness is also shown by Doctor

Dickens described the aristocracy was being unfair to the people and treat them in uncharitable ways. Dickens’ wrote about a aristocracy killed a man’s child and hanged the child high above to prove the symbol of the aristocracy. The aristocracy gave a gold coin to the man as the compensation after he killed the man’s child. Dickens disliked the way that the aristocracy used, but he also disliked the way revolutionaries used. From Dickens’ view, there was no real revolution because the revolutionaries were fighting in a barbaric way and only violence, but the Revolution had to be carried out. "I see Barsad, and Cly, Defarge… It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known."(page 2932-293)In the last few paragraph, Dickens wrote down the importance of the French Revolution and the result that brought to the people.

The tale of two cities written by Charles Dickens is at the time period of the French revolution. But it is not understood if Charles likes the French revolution or if he’s against it? Charles Dickens sees the poverty in all the peasants, he sees that peasants are becoming solemn and deadly the people are. Charles sees that the rich treat the poor like garbage. The French revolution made France more disorganized then before. Charles agrees that something must be done, but does not agree with the violence of the French revolution.

Man’s Inhumanity Toward His Fellow Man Though the French Revolution began as a moral revolt against the injustices of the aristocracy, the inhumanities displayed by the peasants revolting were equally as immoral as the injustices that initially sparked the revolution. Charles Dickens brilliantly develops this revolutionary theme in his book, A Tale of Two Cities. The theme of man’s inhumanity is developed by characters who embody the different aspects and development of man’s inhumanity to man. Dickens develops the theme of man’s inhumanity toward his fellow man in A Tale of Two Cities through the court-attendees, Monsieur the Marquis, and Madame Defarge.

The French Revolution mainly took place in the city of Paris during the late 1700’s. The Revolution did not only affect the people of France, but also the citizens of England as well. The French Revolution is known as one of the most brutal and inhumane periods of history. If one studied the beliefs and views of the people involved at the time, one would see a reoccurring theme of “ being recalled to life”. Born from the world of literature, Charles Dickens’ novel, A Tale of Two Cities takes a deeper look at the culture of the late 1700’s, in both England and France. Dickens uses the character of Lucie Manette to further examine one of the major themes presented in the novel, consisting of the belief of one being

Doctor Manette’s prison account clearly demonstrates the class gap, “The speaker [the Marquis] seemed to acknowledge that it was inconvenient to have that different order of creature [the peasant] dying there, and that it would have been better if he died in the usual obscure routine of his vermin kind” (Dickens 329). Not only is there an extreme difference in lifestyle, but the upper class also treats the lower class with extreme disdain. The treatment of the people at the hands of their “betters” and the class gap catalyzes the French Revolution.