Tale Of Two Cities Quote Analysis

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,

This relates to the theme of social class because it shows how the lower class used some slang, and Dickens portrays this by letting his characters use slang throughout the book.

More importantly, Lucie is the “golden thread” that enlightens those around her, specifically her father. For this, Dickens’ provides a series of resurrections, such as that of Dr. Manette, of which express Lucie’s abilities. Furthermore, Lucie’s femininity is what allows her to “resurrect” her father and influence those around her. She is nurturing, caring, tender, and kind. With such masculine stereotypical and Victorian archetypal depictions, Dickens’ frames women through a patriarchal lens.

Instead of a single main protagonist focused upon, the novel revolves around the lenses of various characters, dealing with their own stories and conflicts, while the overarching event, the French Revolution, is increasing in intensity. Because most of the characters belong to the upper class, they are later persecuted by the revolt. Dickens, at first, witness this uprising as inherently good, as the lower class will no longer stand against discrimination from the wealthy. The beginning of the novel gives off the impression that this would most likely become nonviolent, seeking justices by new laws and regulation. The main protagonist, dislike his aristocrat's upbringing, originally see this upset as something positive that will help relinquish the ills of society. Instead of this wishful thinking, the poorer citizen goes through exceeding lengths. At times such as back then, moral guidance becomes muddled. Dickens illustrates that although some of the powerful were corrupt and brutal to those of lower class, the reaction of the proletariat was unwarranted. Varying characters were affected by the events that took place, for must were or higher status. Families aware shatter as mobs were formed to storm the streets, seeking anyone to exact anger towards. And just as historical documents confirm, public executions took place as well. Dickens writes that evil, the one

Sow the same seed of rapacious license and oppression over again, and it will surely yield the same fruit according to its kind.” (367) This summary of the cycle of oppression shows how Dickens feels about tyranny; that it will always yield angry souls who will rise up and become reflections of the oppressors once in the seat of power. In contrast to the oppression in the novel, Dickens uses metaphors and character relationships to explain his idea of mental and spiritual resurrection. Early on, it is shown that Dr. Manette has been deeply negatively affected by his time in prison, and the only thing that makes him feel better is Lucie, who is referred to as the “golden thread” that is holding him together, and securing him to his inner self. Dickens says of this, “Only his daughter had the power of charming this black brooding from his mind.

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

The motherly Miss Pross and pragmatic Mr. Lorry are loyal servants who sacrifice their time and safety for the Manette family. Mr. Jarvis Lorry is the man of business, but behind his stoic facade he is a very feeling, loving man. In the beginning of the novel, Lorry travels from Tellson’s Bank in England to France in order to resurrect Dr. Manette from his eighteen year “burial.” On his way, Mr. Lorry stops at the Royal George Hotel to consult Dr. Manette’s daughter, Lucie. Ultimately, Mr. Lorry reunites Dr. Manette with Lucie who is “the golden thread that united him to a Past beyond his misery” (Dickens 60).

All revolutions are a result of a gap or conflict between the rich and the poor. In the novel, A Tale of Two Cities, A barrel of wine is spilt and many poor people run to grab some. Dickens includes this scene to describe the future revolution in France, and the horrors. Dickens uses evil symbolism, details conveying horrors, and hunger imagery to prove that a violent revolution by the poor, hungry peoples of France is imminent, and compassion in the reader for the people.

English author Charles Dickens has written many well known novels such as Oliver Twist and A Christmas Carol, of which both have a recurring theme: the expectations of society. During the Victorian Era, England was over populated and had terrible living conditions, with an enormous gap between the rich and the poor. Generally, people during the Victorian Era were not allowed to talk about things such as sex and crime, and had to live by strict social rules set by society. With the social disparities came many other concerns as well. Charles Dickens eloquently displays issues such as child abuse, prostitution, poverty, and crime in such a way that readers are able to understand and view them from diverse perceptions. By creating characters that have been through hell and back, Charles Dickens executes a great display of struggle especially within the lower classes. In the works of Charles Dickens, the wide variety of social issues of the Victorian Era are presented in a way such that readers are able to see specific issues from the perspectives of people from contrasting social classes, while speaking from his own experience through the characters. By doing so, Dickens is able to compare and contrast issues deemed controversial in the Victorian Era, especially regarding the disadvantaged.

Dickens described the aristocracy was being unfair to the people and treat them in uncharitable ways. Dickens’ wrote about a aristocracy killed a man’s child and hanged the child high above to prove the symbol of the aristocracy. The aristocracy gave a gold coin to the man as the compensation after he killed the man’s child. Dickens disliked the way that the aristocracy used, but he also disliked the way revolutionaries used. From Dickens’ view, there was no real revolution because the revolutionaries were fighting in a barbaric way and only violence, but the Revolution had to be carried out. "I see Barsad, and Cly, Defarge… It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known."(page 2932-293)In the last few paragraph, Dickens wrote down the importance of the French Revolution and the result that brought to the people.

The characterization of Dr. Manette helps prove the theme in A Tale of Two Cities. Dr. Manette was in an abominable state directly following his release from prison. Even though Dr. Manette was convicted of committing a crime, he was given a second chance at life with his daughter Lucie after, he was subsequently released from prison. This is clear when Dickens wrote “We must go to him at once; I, to identify him; you, to restore him to health!”(Chapter “The Preparation”). Dr. Manette was wrongly imprisoned for 18 years. He was eventually released and resurrected by his daughter Lucie. Dr. Manette was in a very poor condition due to being imprisoned. As time went on Dr. Manette was able to live a normal and healthy life with his daughter. Dickens characterizes Dr. Manette many times, and even with the horrible ways he is perceived he was still able to get a second chance. Dr. Manette thought he would spend his entire life in prison,

Through satire and exaggeration, Dickens exposes his view against the way justice is conceived as an unfair problem of society that relates both society and politics.

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.

It is stated, “Dickens proceeds to work through the tension caused by such an idea in his consideration of characters trapped within political forces prior to the French Revolution that they can neither control nor affect. The result takes its place among Dickens’ other works as a finely crafted tale, brimming with characters all necessary to its complicated plot” (Brackett 329). Dickens takes the stance that people are trapped within their class and cannot surmount these political boundaries, however, “It is a tragic view, unrelieved by a belief in human dignity, or in the human ability to attain nobility through exertion of will” (Dickens “A Tale”). He pokes fun at the aristocracy, and ultimately at the governmental structure of such. He incorporates the concept of the powerful not earning their power and the poor being born into their poverty, showing his stance that he is against this system. Dickens also decides that if humans wish to join the scheming forces of society, then they must be corrupt in order to do so (Dickens “A Tale”). He means to say that only the crooked minded believe that they can change society, for better or for worse. This is also proven by the statement, “Dickens clearly indicates that society cannot be made to progress or even be substantially

. . all of one piece and consistently truthful as none of his other books are.” (1937,p.xii) That period witnessed the growth of capitalism accompanied by cycles of booms and drawbacks. Dickens’ Great Expectations refers to the manipulation of the bourgeois employers, assisted by the government, against the working class. They were not only used as machines by their employers, but were also victimized by them. The working class’s exploitation stemmed solely from materialistic purposes, which resulted in a series of destructions such as the transformation of innocent characters into evil ones. Within this context, Peter Childs and Nicolas Tredell argue that Dickens’s Great Expectations renders a world in which “the individual human freedom and fulfillment is frustrated by what are usually promulgated as society’s ‘great expectations,’ and those values usually associated with progress, civilization and modernity.” (2006,p.167) Charles Dickens harshly reviles the capitalist system that would create and transform human beings into greedy creatures.(Houston,1992) He sheds light on the impact of the Industrial Revolution and its capitalist system in transforming characters into pitiless, selfish people devoid of emotions and on how it destroys all ties of affection and love and nourishes feelings of snobbishness, selfishness, and