Man’s Inhumanity to Man: Corruption Runs Deep Charles Dickens composed many great novels, including A Tale of Two Cities. Dickens combats social injustice using great suspense and complex metaphors, leaving room for thought. There are three series of scenes which perfectly exemplify man’s inhumanity to man throughout the course of this novel. These scenes are used by Dickens to underline the inhumanity of mankind. The cycle of man’s inhumanity to his fellow man leads to the dehumanization of each man to another and is exhibited through the lives of the Monseigneurs, the execution of the prisoners, and the trials of Charles Darnay. The aristocracy’s lack of consideration for the poor is clearly illustrated through the lifestyles and actions …show more content…
It is quite evident that Dickens is using this quote as an exaggeration and mockery of the lives of the aristocrats, especially by saying that this man needs four men to prepare his hot chocolate for him, which is obviously not realistic. Next, we are introduced to Marquis Evrèmonde. The Marquis is not well liked throughout the entirety of France and is completely deserving of that. One night he was riding in his carriage, and he realized he had hit something; he had hit a child but of course that didn’t alarm him very much. The Marquis then states, “It is extraordinary to me,” said he, “that you people cannot take care of yourselves and your children.…. He threw out a gold coin for the valet to pick up, and all the heads craned forward that all the eyes might look down at it as it fell” (84). It is evident that although the Marquis is aware of the destruction he has just caused, instead of taking responsibility or feeling any guilt, he blames the poor. …show more content…
There were a total of three trials for Darnay throughout the course of this novel. All of these trials had the possibility of a horrible sentence for Darnay. The first trial was called for the suspicion of treason and he was almost guaranteed to be found guilty. People from all around came to the court to watch this trial as if it were a play or show. “For people then payed to see the play at the Old Bailey, just as they pay to see the play in Bedlam – only the former entertainment was much dearer” (45). Dickens supports the thought of people seeing trials as some form of entertainment, by comparing seeing a trial at a courthouse to seeing a play at a theatre. People would get just as excited about seeing the new play as they did by a trial. Dickens states, “When the Attorney-General ceased, a buzz arose in the court as if a cloud of great blue-flies were swarming about the prisoner, in anticipation of what he was soon to become” (50). The blue flies represent the “buzz” of the courtroom and how people are getting very excited about what the result of this trial may be. By comparing people to blue flies, Dickens clearly indicates to the reader that the people witnessing this trial do not take it as a serious matter and are more or less gossiping about the matter. They take the matter of this so lightly that in their eyes, Darnay is no longer seen as a human with a precious
In the story it is clear that the peasants had valid motives to kill and be angry, but some nobles were unjustly persecuted. Dickens uses character foils, flashbacks, and the theme of suffering throughout the book to create an even balance of portraying both sides of the revolution as victims. This allows readers to sympathize with both sides of the revolution in the story, but also in the historical event. This book allows readers to see into the lives of characters who very likely could have been real people during the French Revolution, and that that there truly are two sides to every
In the novel, A Tale of Two Cities Charles Dickens opens with an anaphora, about how the world is throughout the novel. A reoccurring theme throughout this story is the battle between good and evil. Most of the novel is about the struggles each force has and how most of the time good triumphs over evil. In A Tale of Two Cities, the triumph of love, the death of the Marquis, and the contrast between Sydney Carton and Charles Darnay shows how good triumphed over evil.
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens deals with many coincidences that impact the plot and
Today many violent scenes are used for their shock value and for the sake of including violence. However, A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens, has violent scenes to illustrate the time period of the French Revolution. Scenes such as Foulon being paraded through the city and murdered, the Storming of the Bastille, and the fight between Miss Pross and Madame Defarge emphasize the violence of the time through graphic detail and imagery. These scenes add to the novel’s legitimacy by expressing the immense violence of the time and truly showing the horrors of the revolution.
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.
In Robert Alter’s literary analysis of A Tale of Two Cities, The Demons of History in Dickens’s Tale, his central emphasis converges with the ideal that the novel tends to stray from his preceding works. Alter essentially deems A Tale of Two Cities as an “uncharacteristic expression of his genius (94),” which he believes is a result of his distinctive writing style, deviating from his jollyness, humor, and warmth. He primarily believes that Dickens attempts to convey a strong sense of emotion by means of melodramatic storytelling to “persist in a kind of splendid, self-transcending unevenness (94).” Additionally, Alter claims Dickens utilizes a distinguishable contrast between the elements of “picturesque” and “dramatic immediacy” to enhance Dickens’s focus on
In Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, it is explicitly mentioned several times that Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton look particularly similar. The similarities in the appearances of Carton and Darnay later play a substantial role in the conclusion of the novel. Despite their physical similarities, the two are completely different individuals and are nothing alike. Chapter 4 of the novel juxtaposes the two characters together and displays the differences in their personalities. In A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens exhibits the diversity of Carton and Darnay’s personalities, by embedding imagery and characterization into the context.
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.
Charles Dickens’ own father was in debtor’s prison when Dickens was a young boy. Dickens left his family to work in a factory so that his father could be liberated. Dickens did this out of the love he had for his father; however, he sacrificed living with his family for living on his own to work. The parallels between sacrifice and love are one of many of the reoccurring themes throughout Charles Dickens’ novel A Tale of Two Cities. Dickens shows that the power of love exceeds violence and hatred in life through the sacrifices made out of love from Miss Pross, Dr. Manette, and Mr. Carton.
In the book, at the first trial Charles Darnay is tried and proven innocent, and the mob cheers him and praises the justice of the ruling. Yet later at the second trial when he is proven guilty, the crowd roars with delight and wants to see him die. As Dickens says, “A life-thirsting, cannibal-looking, bloody-minded juryman, gave great satisfaction to the spectators” . The crowd had no true reason to dislike Darnay, and their only reason is because they wants more blood. When one is in a mob, he does not care about the person who is being killed, but he only wants to see blood. Similar to people losing their identity when they become part of the mob, the change of the crowds mood at Darnay’s trials shows how members of the mob can lose the sense of compassion as well.
A Tale of Two Cities, written by Charles Dickens, takes place during the French Revolution. The book centers on the heroic attempts of Sydney Carton and Charles Darnay. Sydney Carton puts on the façade of being insolent and indifferent, but his true nature is expressed in the book when he puts others first, defends Charles, and dies for the ones he loves. Charles Darnay is a once wealthy aristocrat whose attempts at heroism include going back to France, his financial sacrifice, and the noble way in which he was willing to face his death.
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 revolution put irreversible change into motion, helping to bring greater equality between French citizens as a result of the upheaval, and causing political changes that affected millions. Through his changing tone, Dickens conveys that rebellion is necessary to amend the ever-growing divide between the social classes, but the mindless nature of the violence, as a result of mob mentality, is excessive, and blood is unnecessarily spilled.
While the Victorian people called for romantic intrigue and petty drama in the literature of their time, Dickens’ added complexity to his novels not to satisfy the frivolous needs of Victorians but to further the theme of irony in his novel. In A Tale of Two Cities, irony is an ever-present theme and is woven into the plot seamlessly by author Charles Dickens. Coincidence is a complementary theme to irony in this novel. Dickens’ constant implementation of situations of coincidence and chance leads to a greater sense of irony throughout this book. Dickens adds complexity to the plot and further enforces the theme of irony in the novel through circumstances of coincidence, including the indictments of Charles Darnay, the life and associates of Dr. Manette, and Madame Defarge’s need for and path to revenge.
Charles Dickens wrote A Tale of Two Cities in order to enlighten the average Briton about the events of the French Revolution. The novel compares and contrasts cities of London and Paris, which represent French and British society, through the eyes of Dickens’ human characters. The two cities play such a large part in the novel that they become characters themselves, and the contrasting societies of the two cities become a conflict. In Charles Dickens’ classic, A Tale of Two Cities, the individualistic society of London champions the first feudalistic and later socialistic society of Paris.
Sacrifice, even when it comes to one’s ultimate end, is crucial in order to survive as a productive race. In the book Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, he illustrates the hardships of the early-nineteenth-century lifestyles. With the resurrection of an evicted man, the novel sprouts from a broken family recovering and growing. This novel incorporates many grand gestures and adventures, such as the French Revolution, treason trials, and the sacrifice of one’s own life in the name of love.