The Revolution Knows No Humanity

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,

“The soul of the furious woman whose body lay lifeless on the ground” (Dickens 287). Revenge can be either positive or negative, depending on what an individual believes. In this case, Dickens creates a character whose unforgiving past and relentless actions destroy them in their nature of Revenge. A Tale of Two Cities, written by Charles Dickens, is a warning for his contemporaries on the situations seen in the French Revolution, from the nobility’s mistakes to the revolutionaries’ mistakes, created to hopefully prevent a future war in England and France. Madame Defarge symbolizes the inevitable revolution through her troubled childhood built on hatred of the nobility, her insatiable lust for Revenge on the Evrémonde family, and her desire

Support of The Aristocracy Charles Dickens timeless classic A Tale of Two Cities shows his sympathy towards the French aristocracy by showing his lack of support towards the actions of the revolution. Dickens writing shows the flaws in the peasants actions in their attempt to create a just and fair society. He also shows the bloodthirsty rage of the peasants is not justified by the heinous crimes of certain aristocrats. Dickens is a supporter of the struggles of the aristocracy by showing the cruel and unjust actions of the French peasants and their blind and unjust revolution towards those they envy. Charles Dickens displays the cruelness of the mob, through the treatment of the aristocrat Foulon who is killed and mutilated.

First, in a scene in Saint Antoine, a large cask of wine was dropped and broken on the streets. Everybody stopped what they were doing and went to drink the wine on the ground. Peoples’ hands, clothes, and the roads were all stained. The word, “BLOOD,” was also written on a wall with wine (Dickens 20). The wine in this scene symbolizes the blood of the revolution and foreshadows the entrance of the revolution. While the cask spilled, happiness and the thought of change went through all the minds of the poor in Saint Antoine. The mob formation of all the peasants to get wine or, “blood,” shows us the hatred they have for the wealthy class and how much they want the revolution to come. Later on in the book, Dickens uses echoing footsteps to foreshadow the upcoming revolution. As Lucie sits in the corner of a parlor, as she had done for six years, she hears footsteps from people downstairs, but she also hears echoes coming from far away. She wonders if the echoes are about her or her family, but then she says, “There were other echoes, from a distance, that rumbled menacingly in the corner all through this space of time. And it was now, about little Lucie's sixth birthday, that they began to have an awful sound, as of a great storm in France with a dreadful sea rising(Dickens 164).” Echoes of happiness and family were around; however, there were also

The French Revolution was a gruesome event that forever changed the history of France and its people. Charles Dickens the writer of Tale of Two Cities captures the essence of what the French Revolution was like with its exposure to his characters. The peasants of France start to change in their behaviors towards the nobles, and the friction grows. Other important characters in Dickens’ book are drawn into the chaos that is bound to ensue in France. Dickens enhances his readers’ experiences through foreshadowing the inhumanity towards man in the events of the introduction to French peasants, Carton’s future, and the spillage of the wine cask.

In Charles Dickens’ novel, A Tale of Two Cities, the readers meet a wide variety of characters who all teach a lesson to the readers. Madame Defarge is one of these, and readers can view her choices through maliciously placed detail and carefully planned coincidences that add up just right to see her story of how justice can start one way and slowly consume the person until it becomes revenge. Throughout the novel, the details surrounding Madame Defarge change dramatically, evolving from describing a quiet, small woman to describing a vicious, cruel woman. She changes from “a stout woman… with a watchful eye that seldom seemed to look at anything” into a woman fueled by her anger and by her need for revenge (Dickens 39).

Throughout Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, the guillotine is a persisting symbol of the French Revolution. It represents the revolutionary violence through which humanity loses its religious morality and a new, savage standard is created. By looking at the passage as a Student of Literature, the revolutionists, straying from ethics and God, are depicted through religious allusions. A Historian lens reveals Dickens condemnation of the bloodthirsty revolution that has normalized violence and stripped the people of humanity.

A Tale of Two Cities truly was “...the best of times,” and “...the worst of times,...” (Dickens 7). The worst of times was especially portrayed through the mobs in France. In A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens writes about mobs and how the peasants and even the aristocrats act while in a mob. The motif of mobs reveals the theme of how easily people are influenced by others around them such as Roger Cly’s ‘funeral’, the storming of the Bastille, and when the peasants were trying to find Old Foulon.

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.

A social problem Dickens’ portrays is the extreme hunger of the French people. In the first chapter that take place in France, Dickens’ repeats the word “hunger” numerous times to convey just how hungry the people are. Dickens’ also later describes how an aristocrat

Man’s Inhumanity Toward His Fellow Man Though the French Revolution began as a moral revolt against the injustices of the aristocracy, the inhumanities displayed by the peasants revolting were equally as immoral as the injustices that initially sparked the revolution. Charles Dickens brilliantly develops this revolutionary theme in his book, A Tale of Two Cities. The theme of man’s inhumanity is developed by characters who embody the different aspects and development of man’s inhumanity to man. Dickens develops the theme of man’s inhumanity toward his fellow man in A Tale of Two Cities through the court-attendees, Monsieur the Marquis, and Madame Defarge.

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).

Not only did he show the evil in the aristocrats, but also the evil in the peasants that became from their mistreatment. It is true that Dickens portrayed the peasants of France as sinful, brute, and vengeful, but not without reason. If the aristocrats had never committed the injustices they did onto the peasants, the peasants would not have justification to rebel and begin the blood-soaked revolution. The peasants were like dogs being trained to fight, becoming aggravated and violent against their will. The aristocrats, their owners, were the true source of savagery. The peasants were not to blame for those dark times in France because their actions were only in response to what the aristocrats had begun. In the final chapter of the book, Carton’s letter reads: “I see a beautiful city and brilliant people rising from the abyss, and, in their struggles to be truly free, in their triumphs and defeats, through long years to come, I see the evil of this time and of the previous time of which this is the natural birth, gradually making expiation for itself and wearing out,”. All that was painful was set in motion by the aristocrats. The peasants wanted a new life, and to be free from the restrictions that were upon them. Though the revolution was carried through by hatred and revenge, it was necessary to amend the actions commited against the peasants. Be it in hate, or in secrecy, or in negotiation, change was

Revolutions have occurred since the first oppressed people got fed up with a tyrannical leader. It has been the cry of the downtrodden since the beginning of time. Revolution is a word that symbolizes hope for a better future. It can be a dangerous thing because if not successful life for the common people might get worse than it originally was. Even if successful the new leaders can be as bad as those preceding. Dickens captures the essence of a revolution gone bad in his novel A Tale Of Two Cities. The intent of this short essay is to discuss and analyze Dickens' treatment of the theme of revolution in A Tale of Two Cities. It will attempt to show you how Dickens changes his mind midway through the novel about whether or not the revolutionaries in France are better than their aristocratic predecessors.

Charles Dickens’ highly commended novel A Tale of Two Cities is one that is considered a classic. Based on the events of the French Revolution, this novel mixes factual historical events with a fictional story line and characters. The topic of the French Revolution leads itself to show the differences in society. This view on society is expressed throughout the entire novel beginning with its first famous lines. All the characters throughout this novel embody one or more of the ideals of the French Revolution.