Violence and Cruelty Leading to Harsh Rebellion 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. The suffering the low class people of France endured during the time of this story was more than unbearable. As Dickens describes “Far and wide, lay a ruined country, yielding nothing but desolation. …show more content…
She was just asking for a gravestone for her husband but the Marquis quickly trotted off in his valet leaving her far behind. This heartless act left sadness in the woman’s heart, but the evil Marquis Evermonde could care less. He “drove as if he were charging an enemy, and furious recklessness of the man brought no check into the face, or into the lips of the master.”(Dickens 113) When Gaspard killed the Marquis “he was hanged there forty feet high and left hanging, poisoning the water.” The French did not care that the little water the poor had to drink was being poisoned or that they killed a man. They wanted to warn the peasants that revolting would not be tolerated; yet it still occurred. Dickens directly warns that, so long as the ruling class refused to take responsibility for the way that they govern, they are destined to be violently overthrown.”(Galegroup 1). Although the aristocrats were asking for it “Violent oppression breeds violent rebellion which becomes a new king of oppression”(Bloom C) .The violence of the peasants was their response to their pain and no prosperity. “Dickens is always reminding the reader that the revolution, though a frightful moral disorder was born of Unspeakable suffering, intolerable oppression, and heartless indifference. Society was diseased before the fever broke out.”(Gale E) “Headlong, mad and dangerous footsteps to force their way into anybody’s life, footsteps not easily
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 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.
This becomes the criticism which brought forth the revolution due to the disapproval of aristocracy. This system seem to be ineffective as Dickens portrays them only caring for themselves while brushing off anyone who come to them for help. The social and political turmoil is shown to be unjust due to the large gap between the poverty of majority and the lavish Monseigneur. While Marquis ran over a child he is more concern with his carriage rather than someone child. He throws a bag of coin like nothing happened, a payment for the dead child. This type of mistreatment causes the pleasant to hate on the aristocracy and royalty leading towards
Charles Dickens focuses on the revenge that put the bloody French Revolution in motion in his suspenseful story A Tale of Two Cities. The French Revolution was a revolt instigated by the peasants, who attacked the nobles with vengeful hearts starting in the year 1789, and going on until the year 1799. The settings of the book took place in both London and England, two parallels in novel, two cities where the plotting of the Revolution went into affect. Although the reasons behind the different examples of revenge are exposed, the actions taken with revenge in mind are inexcusable and not justifiable. Dickens portrays the theme of revenge successfully through the joker Gaspard, the brave younger brother who sacrificed himself to protect his
During the French Revolution, over 40,000 people died, and over 12,000 of these people did not even have a trial. The French Revolution was over sixty years before A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens was released, but there were still many injustices and inhumane acts that took place in England during his lifetime. The inhumanity Dickens experienced during his lifetime is seen throughout the novel very clearly. Dickens portrays the inhumane people in the novel as successful at first, but they all eventually meet their horrific demise. Men are corrupted and doomed by the hatred and inhumanity towards his fellow man, and this is shown clearly through the Evrémonde brothers, Madame Defarge, and the revolutionaries.
The use of suspenseful imagery allows for a descriptive foreshadow of the French Revolution. At the end of the chapter, Dickens compares people to the storm by showing “a crowd of people with its rush and roar, bearing down upon them too” (109). The Third Estate is depicted as rowdy and very thundering by means of their rush and roar. If the people linger to this extent for a Revolution, this rowdiness can cause a massive war. Soon enough there was “a great hurry in the streets, people speeding away to get shelter before the storm broke” (107). The storm, being synonymous with the Revolution, will cause a great hurry to the Third Estate due to their unpreparedness. Civilians, speeding away, try to get to shelter before the revolution starts to become too brutal. In the night a “storm of thunder
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.
Charles dickens does not agree with the results of what happened in the French revolution. They were allover the place with their laws and imprisoned people for no reason. “you are consigned, evre'monde, to the prison of La Force… under what law?... we have new laws and new offences…”[4] an innocent man is sent to prison, exactly how it has been before 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.
A person who belittles others, is truly belittling himself. In early paris, lots of innocent people were wrongly accused of crimes they did not commit. They did not even have fair trials and if they did it would be by a bias judge. Since the fair trial system is unfair, it leads to people who will rebel. Through Dickens’ Tale of Two Cities, oppression leads to vengeance and rebellion causing France’s monarchy to fall.
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.
The French Revolution was a grim and primitive period in history lasting from 1789 to 1799 when the commoners attacked aristocrats because of their selfish and inhumane treatment of the lower class. In Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities the storm of the French Revolution is brewing and plots to overthrow the cruel aristocracy are underway. The aristocracy is hated by the commoners of France because of their harsh and abusive behavior towards the poor and their excessive lifestyle that leaves them subject to Hunger and Want. However, within the Revolutionaries’ plans are actions that mirror the aristocrats’ behavior towards them. Dickens’ symbols of the grindstone scene, the blue flies, and the knitting encompass his theme of man’s
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
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.