preview

Tale Of Two Cities Violence Analysis

Good Essays

The Remorseless Sea: Mindless Violence in A Tale of Two Cities In the sociopolitical novel, A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens analyzes the events of one of the bloodiest revolutions in history, the French Revolution, characterized by its violence after no less than 40,000 people were sentenced to death. The violence of the uprising puts irreversible change into motion, helping to bring greater equality between French citizens as a result of the upheaval, and causing political changes that affect millions. Dickens examines the revolution through a focus on one family, the Manettes, and those closest to them, telling the tale of their tribulations in the midst of revolution. Through his changing tone, Dickens conveys that rebellion is …show more content…

The class division is not getting any smaller, people are starving, and even in the case of imminent revolution and the evident distress of the masses, the aristocracy remains oblivious, “look[ing] at them and [seeing] in them without knowing it, the sure filing down of misery-worn face and figure” (79). The struggling of the common people is unbeknownst to the aristocracy until the outbreak of revolution. The violence of the peasantry and the chaos they create can not be ignored, and they effectively gets the attention of the nobility, no longer able to ignore the formerly worthless and negligible people. Later on in the novel, Dickens adopts a critical tone regarding the revolutionaries as a result of their mindless violence and cruel acts. While at the grindstone, Dickens describes the faces of the revolutionaries as “more horrible and cruel than the visages of the wildest savages in their most barbarous disguise” (182). The revolution turns the common people into monsters, eager to spill more blood as they sharpen their weapons at the grindstone, their various arms already stained red. Without knowing anything about a guard from the Bastille, Jacques Three calls for the man’s death, yelling “‘Kill him!’ and evidently [is] disappointed by the dialogue . . .

Get Access