Tale Of Two Cities Essay

“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 epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair…”

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,

Although Dickens clearly supports the revolutionaries cause, through metaphors of water, he highlights the sometimes animalistic nature of the revolution. In Book one, “[T]he sea did what it liked and what it liked was destruction.” Dickens acknowledges the inevitable nature of the revolution by comparing the sea to the French mob. And the mob, much like a sea,

Lucie approaches, with tears in her eyes. The shoemaker asks who she is. Noticing her blonde hair, he removes a necklace he wears and reveals a scrap of paper containing some golden threads of hair—stray hairs from his wife, which he has kept all these years as a spiritual escape from his imprisonment. Overcome by emotion, Manette struggles to recognize his daughter. Lucie rocks Manette's head on her chest like a child. She promises him that his agony has ended, and gives thanks to God.

A Tale of Two Cities opens with the lines “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” and “it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair” (Dickens 1). The wealthy upper class was without any worries while the peasants were starving and struggling to survive. Many were hopeful while others had lost any shred of hope left within their souls.

When considering the capital of punishments prisoners can be sentenced to, things such as torture and execution come to mind. Whenever these punishments are sentenced, no one on earth (except perhaps the convict) truly knows the full story. The true motives behind the crime, the convict’s rationalizations during the crime, any moral adjustments the convict possesses after committing the crime, or if the convict is truly the one behind the crime. With the justice systems of the world possessing such limited knowledge, is it not fair for them to deliver these irreversible and inhumane punishments. Charles Dickens and his Christian audience believe that the beings of God and Jesus are omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent. Possession of

Lucie Manette is a compassionate and benevolent character that aids in the resurrection of Sydney Carton and Dr. Manette. At the beginning of the book Lucie is only

When terrible things happen to good people there are two paths that can be traveled: forgiveness can be offered, or vengeance can be pursued. Madame Defarge from Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, takes the latter of these two options and religiously lives by it, seeking revenge on the cruel heartless aristocracy plaguing France with famine, poverty, and oppression; however, the reasons behind her malice force the reader to understand why she performs such hateful acts during the French Revolution. Madame Defarge, though intelligent, is consumed by her hatred and has transformed into something just as bad, if not worse, than the members of the aristocracy.

In the book, Dickens portrays the people as having the hatred necessary for mob violence. Immediately, the book shows us an example how such hatred was created. When a youth’s hands were chopped off, “tongue torn out with pincers” and “his body burned alive” it shows the violence and torture that led to the French revolution. The youth represents the weak in French society

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.

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.

     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.

Charles Dickens utilizes doubles and contrasts to enhance the plot of Dickens uses parallels in characters, social classes, and events that compliment each other to strengthen the plot. Its themes of violence in revolutionaries, resurrection, and sacrifice also help support the story.

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

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