Symbolism In A Tale Of Two Cities By Charles Dickens

Dickens uses the needs and wants for people to get an image in their head about what life was really like before the French revolution. "Cold, dirt,

The novel, A Tale of Two Cities, was written by Charles Dickens and was published in 1859. A Tale of Two Cities is a historical fiction based during the French Revolution. As two groups of people who both live in London and Paris find themselves in a situation that affects all of them, which ends with some deaths and suffering. Charles Dickens purpose for writing A Tale of Two Cities was to inform and amplify the readers mind on human nature. Throughout the book Charles Dickens uses many themes and characteristics, that bring out human nature in all his characters, to broaden the view of the readers.

Although the passage doesn’t directly convey the coming revolution, Dickens uses the resources of language, especially foreshadowing, denotation, connotation, and irony, to portray the role of women and to convey his condescending attitude toward the coming revolution. Dickens begins by illustrating a threatening image of women and their roles in the Revolution. He ends the first paragraph with the statement, “the [knitting] was a mechanical substitute for eating and drinking; the hands moved for the jaws and the digestive apparatus: if the bony fingers had been still, the stomachs would have been more famine-pinched” (Dickens 10-15). As a result, Dickens conveys the knitting as something not for material purposes as per the denotation,

Charles Dickens had a way of writing amazing characters. He was known for his passion in writing and his way of words. A man once said that Charles was the greatest story writer of all time. He was able to craft fully make a character that was both memorable and taught you a valuable lesson on how to be a better you. In this book I spotted a few characters that stood out to me. It was either their courage or loyalty that stuck out the most. The biggest lesson I wish to share from these characters that I learned in this novel is that it is important to study a person and get to know them before you make assumptions on their life based on their outward appearance.

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.

The idea of resurrection and rebirth pervades in this novel. How does Dickens use this theme? Do these themes of resurrection and self sacrifice and the setting of the French Revolution have anything to do with one another? Why is this the time and place of the novel?

Essay Prompt: In A Tale of Two Cities, how does Dickens’ description of specific characters and their fate (2-3) illustrate his interpretation of the French Revolution? Evaluate this interpretation in light of other evidence drawn from course materials.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us…” (Dickens, 1). These are the famous introductory lines of “A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens. They bring to mind the famous lines of the witches in Macbeth, “When shall we meet again/In thunder, lightning, or in rain? /When the hurly burly's done/When the battle's lost and won.”

Symbolism is a way for an author to show the reader something without saying it. It can be used in many different ways. Charles Dickens uses symbolism to foreshadow events in the story, Tale of Two Cities. Tale of Two Cities takes place in San Antoine, France, in the midst of the French Revolution. In our first example of symbolism, Monsieur the Marquis is riding in his carriage back to his home.

In A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, it uses duality throughout the story. Duality often refers to having two parts and is usually used with opposite meanings. Charles Dickens wanted us to know about duality by the very first paragraph of his novel. One of the dualities has to deal with the two cities of the title, London, England and Paris, France. Also, some of the dualities show us opposite parallels dealing with two or more people. The two emotions love and hate also have something to do with the theme. I think the use of the doubles is significant

Dickens begins the novel with a pro-revolutionary tone. His regard for the idea of the upcoming and inevitable revolution in a positive light is reflected by the atmosphere he sets for the reader. Dickens is able to make his readers pity the peasantry and sympathize with them. Through inclusion of detail, Dickens portrays the plight of the lower class writing, “gloom [gathers] on the scene that [appears] more natural to it than sunshine” (21). This allows the reader to imply that the suffering of the lower class has fallen into a continuous pattern, and they can understand the need for revolution. Additionally, Dickens uses anaphora with the phrase “Hunger [is]” (21). This gives the reader a sense of how much hunger dominates and defines their lives, effectively making their

In the beginning of A Tale of Two Cities a wine cask spills onto the streets of France. The people had then stopped whatever they were doing and collected the wine in any way they could. Those who did go after the spilled wine “had acquired a tigerish smear about the mouth” and had stained their hands. After the wine was gone and the people had left the streets; the road was then stained a brilliant red, and someone had “scrawled upon a wall with [a] finger dipped in muddy wine-lees—blood” (Dickens, 32). Not only does this scene show how desperate the people in France are, but Dickens makes sure the reader understands that he is foreshadowing that the French Revolution is on the horizon. When Dickens uses this scene to create foreshadowing he makes sure he keeps the reader hooked on the story. He does this by using creative word choice, imagery and creating a beautiful scene that drags the reader in. Later on in the story this scene is revisited. However, it would no longer be wine that is flowing through the streets of France, but blood.

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.

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

The wine cask and the scrawling of blood indicate the rise in tensions between the two classes. "The time was to come, when that wine too would be spilled on the street-stones, and when the stain of it would be red upon many there" (Dickens 33). This statement foreshadows the upcoming struggle and the vengeance of the peasantry. The liquid smears on the peasants' hands, feet, and faces foreshadow the approaching chaos.