Tale Of Two Cities Comparative Essay

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.

by chance. Coincidences are a main factor in the book and play a great role in the fallout of the

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.

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.

“Still, our first impressions of the Germans were rather reassuring. The officers were billeted in private homes, even in the homes of Jews. Their attitude toward their hosts was distant, but polite. They never demanded the impossible, made no unpleasant comments, and even smiled occasionally at the mistress of the house.” (5)

The oppressed peasants of the French society change their environment to benefit their own needs through the Revolution, mercilessly murdering their oppressors, the aristocracy. Although the peasants were successful in their revolution, they did not consider the consequences of their own actions. An overlooked connection about the peasants, now recognized as patriots, is how they became the oppressors of their fellow man. Dickens’ attitude towards the peasants’ revolution is one built on reasoning and understanding of the social systems of the French. The peasants rose up and revolted against their oppressors after much disdain with their living current living conditions and the aristocracy was met with the treatment they had given to the peasants.

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 revolutionaries had a lot of dissatisfaction to the aristocracy, and so people lost their humanity and fought toward a rough and barbaric way. The revolutionaries did not help the Revolution, but made themselves to victims again. Dickens thought the Revolution could not be avoid because the unequal treatment. “Greater things than the Doctor had at that time to contend… permanent connections abroad.” (page 210)The way Dickens described had showed his sympathize to the people who against the

A Tale of Two Cities Jarvis Lorry, an employee of Tellson's Bank, was sent to find Dr. Manette, an unjustly imprisoned physician, in Paris and bring him back to England. Lucie, Manette's daughter who thought that he was dead, accompanied Mr. Lorry. Upon arriving at Defarge's wine shop in Paris, they found Mr. Manette in a dreadful state and took him back to London with them. Mr. Manette could not rember why he had been imprisoned, or when he was imprisoned. He was in a state of Post Tramatic Stress Dis-order.

Within both Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities and Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto, there marks a time of social tension between the upper and lower classes; the bourgeoisie and the first and second estates of France dehumanize the proletariat and third estate, respectively. In contradiction to Marx’s belief that the bourgeoisie exploited art and literature to advocate capitalism, Dickens created A Tale of Two Cities to caution his own time period on the dangers of a stratified society through his use of motifs such as wine and the guillotine that foreshadow the coming revolutions. Because of Dickens employment of wine, he is able to warn the bourgeoisie of his time. For example, in the novel, Dickens suggests the coming war when a man “scrawled upon a wall with his finger dipped in muddy wine-lees–BLOOD” (Dickens 30).

Throughout the novel A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens constantly uses examples of violence and cruelty to show why the French peasants revolted against the aristocracy and to describe the revolt. During the extant of the peasant’s lives before the rebellion they were treated so brutally by the aristocrats. The wealthy people took great advantage of their power and the poor people. When the peasants rebelled they responded with violence and brutality from the hatred of their hearts.

     One might believe that because capital punishment plays such a large role in Charles Dickens’ A Tale Of Two Cities, that Dickens himself is a supporter of it. This just simply is not true. Dickens uses capitol punishment as a tool to define the evil embodied in both the French ruling class, and the opposing lower class during the French Revolution; as well as comment on the sheep-like nature of humankind.

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.

Connections between Charles Dickens and Charles Darnay There are many similarities with Charles Dickens’ work and the Tale of Two Cities as reflected in his life. Many aspects Dickens life are touched in the work the tale of two cities such as his family, historical events and time frame, and well as love afflictions. Authors often write about what they know bringing intricate details into their stories with such depth, allowing the reader to learn more about that time period. Dickens’ had personal knowledge of the time period and landscape because this is where he is from and lived throughout his life.

In the novel "A Tale of Two Cities" Charles Dickens describes "the best of times [and] the worst of times" (1) of the characters. France and England struggle through political confusion, which is one of the most disturbing periods of history. On the other hand, for the characters of the novel, these are the times of rebirth and revival. The author conveys the dual nature of this epoch by contrasting representations of light and dark, chaos and stability, doom and hope with the use of setting, characterization, foreshadowing, symbolism, and plot set up.