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 inhumanity towards one another.
The Grindstone scene represents inhumanity because of the amount of blood that resulted from the killings, the sharpening of their weapons, and the revolutionists collecting and wearing the garments of the people they killed. A grindstone is in the middle of a courtyard and is surrounded by men with ravenous eyes, ripped clothing, and blood on every limb. When Lorry and Lucie come to the courtyard, Lorry hides Lucie’s eyes from the barbarous scene. Dickens depicts, “the eye could not detect one creature in the group free from the smear of blood” (203). The men are described as creatures and not humans. They have lost their humanity, and that humanity is replaced with a thirst for blood and death. The animals are caked in the blood of the murdered and they only hunt for more blood. The men scramble for the sharpening grindstone when Dickens says, “shouldering one another to get next at the sharpening stone, were men stripped to the waist, with the stain all over thei...
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In conclusion, the three symbols of the blue-flies, the knitting, and the grindstone scene shows how savage one man is to another, the cold and inconsiderate feelings a man has for a suffering one, and how passive to life one man is to another. Dickens uses these symbols to portray the theme of man’s inhumanity to the reader and through the symbols embodies the harshness of the French Revolution. The French Revolution grounded men and women down to their most primitive state of mind, which took over all sense of feeling and humanity. Overall the inhumanity of the people in the novel is hard for the reader to believe or imagine, but Dickens showcases this defining element of the revolution through the symbols of the grindstone scene, the blue flies, and the knitting.
Works Cited
Dickens, Charles. A Tale of Two Cities. Mineola: Dover, 1999. Print.
Symbols: we see them on the street, on the walls, and in our homes, plastered on backpacks, jackets, and even fast food receipts. From the generic images that guide us through our daily lives to the shapes we see on television screens, these symbols are everywhere—and their importance as guides that tell us how to live, what to do and whom to believe is undeniable. Of all of these symbols, perhaps some of the most important are the symbols found in literature. In using simplistic symbols to represent profound ideas, authors construct a kind of “key”: one that allows readers to look past the surface of a story and reflect on the deeper messages beneath. Such is the nature of the symbols found in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. As a group of boys stranded on an island struggle to survive without adult supervision to maintain order, Golding uses a variety of objects to convey their descent from civilization into brutality, violence, and savagery. Of these objects, three hold particular significance. In Lord of the Flies, Golding uses the conch, the signal fire, and the Lord of the Flies to symbolize civilization, hope for rescue, and inner evil while conveying an overall theme of innate human evil.
Charles Dickens writes this book explaining the French Revolution, in which the social and economic systems in France had huge changes and the French monarchy collapsed. This causes high taxes, unfair laws, and the poor being mistreated. Charles Dickens shows that cruelty of other people will lead to a revolution and in addition to the revolution more cruelty will occur. He explores the idea of justice and violence through the use of ambiguous characters with positive and negative qualities, meaning that they have to different sides to them; for example, Charles Darnay, Sydney Carton, and Dr. Manette. Throughout the story of A Tale of Two Cities, Charles dickens uses ambiguous characters to shows how violence and cruelty can be stopped through the power of true sacrifice.
Dickens describes the conditions of the village with a pathetic tone; throughout the passage, the village, and its people are described with uses of anaphora to emphasize the conditions that he so despises. Furthermore, the passage uses short descriptions to summarize the pathetic that he has. For example, the first paragraph ends with: “... [T]he men and women who cultivated it, a prevalent tendency towards an appearance of vegetating unwillingly--a
Charles Dickens writes this book explaining the French Revolution, in which the social and economic systems in France had huge changes and the French monarchy collapsed. This caused high taxes, unfair laws, and the poor being mistreated. Charles Dickens shows that cruelty of other people will lead to a revolution and in addition to the revolution more cruelty will happen. He explores the idea of justice and violence through the use of characters that are ambiguous, meaning that they have to different sides to them; for example, Charles Darnay, Sydney Carton, and Dr. Manette. Throughout the story of A Tale of Two Cities, Charles dickens shows the ambiguous characters through the power of true sacrifice.
During a time of conflicting warfare, a person’s social position and temperament play a significant role in the ideals of society. A Tale of Two Cities manifests society’s response to the French Revolution. Times like this result in two options, either to keep moving on with life, or give in to the vengeance. Charles Dickens portrays both sides of humanity through his characterization. Madame Defarge is the most prominent character that represents the inability to resist violence during the Revolution. In Madame Defarge’s quest for revenge, her continuous knitting and dominance prompt her character development, establishing her character as the antagonist.
The French Revolution was a period of radical social and political upheaval, lead by the lower class of France, which began the decline of powerful monarchies in France and the rise of nationalism and democracy. In A Tale Of Two Cities, written by Charles Dickens, he highlights these aspects of the war between classes and makes them personal to the reader. Throughout the novel, Dickens’ establishes and develops several symbols in order to help the reader better understand the Revolution and the way people acted during this time. He shows that while emotion, desperation, and irrationality run high, humanity, justice, and morality are scarce. The blue flies, Madame Defarge’s knitting, and the sea are three of Dickens’ symbols that develop his theme of man’s inhumanity to his fellow man throughout the novel.
In A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, a historical fiction about the two countries of England and France, he tells us some important things going on and also gives us important messages. Arguable one of the most important themes Dickens writes about in this novel is violence. More specifically he writes about the violence in France, a murder of a young child by a careless Marquis, the rape of a young girl by a pair of aristocrat brothers, the death of thousands of aristocrats and aristocrat sympathizers by the guillotine, and the dirty deeds done by Madam Defarge to “exterminate” the aristocrats and their sympathizers. Dickens
The French Revolution was a time when many people sacrificed their lives for their beliefs. As the French Revolution moved on, more people joined the movement and risked their lives. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens is set during this time. Many people who sacrificed their lives for the Revolution felt like it was their fate to do this. This idea of fate is described many times in Dickens’ novel to magnify the story. The theme of fate is prevalent in the novel through the lives of many characters. This theme is used to show how a person is unable to escape their fate because it is already decided. The metaphors and symbols in the novel are greatly used to contribute to the theme of fate through the symbols of knitting, the fountain and water, and the wine.
1789 marked a historic year in the struggles against slavery in the French colony of Saint-Domingue. The French Revolution played an important part in influencing the Haitian Revolution of 1791; it gave way to the Haitian Revolution which consisted of many other separate revolutions that occurred at the same time. Saint-Domingue, now known as Haiti, had the most wealth in terms of crops that could be excavated by black slaves. Toussaint l’Overture was a former black slave who was forced to pick up these crops; little did he know he was the person who sparked the Haitian Revolution. Toussaint, the leader of the Revolution, was the first person to strike. He took on a white planter who was controlling slaves, on August 21, 1791. Many people during this time period wondered how and why this revolution took place, Michel-Rolph Trouillot even stated that it was unthinkable. In his book, Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History, Trouillot argues that the Haitian Revolution was and remains unimaginable today; the ideas of race and slavery are challenged, along with the ostracism of Haiti.
Frederick Douglass once said, “Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.” He meant that if people are oppressed, one day they will pass their breaking point and fight back. As a consequence neither side will be safe or secure as violence and terror would corrupt them both. In A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, the author employs satire, symbolism, and irony to emphasize the social/economic inequality between the wealthy and the poor. The inequality is revealed by Dicken’s satirical description of the lifestyles of Monsignor of Chocolate and the Marquis Evrémonde. In contrast with the people in the wine cask scene; the scene indicates that the people are on their breaking point. Finally, the irony of the trials emphasizes Dicken’s warning to the upper class of England during the 1850s; if they abuse power then vengence will be sought. If action is not taken, England will be engulfed in violence and both the aristocracy and the peasants will suffer.
Charles Dickens, the author of A Tale of Two Cities portrays the aristocracy as an oblivious body of self-entitled people that wholeheartedly believe in their destiny of wealth. Their understanding of the poor people’s fate as stepping stools to their success allow them to injure and even murder them without any repercussions. This constant abuse of the rich to the poor fuels the fire that is the French Revolution. The Marquis St. Evrémonde shows an extreme sense of ignorance when, after running over an innocent child, he simply, “threw out a gold coin” as a token
Throughout the book, Dickens portrays his objectivity between the classes through a series of graphic descriptions. For example, the horrid events that occur when the Marquis murders the child is a time when Dickens most definitely favors the rebels. Dickens’s attitude when Jacques kills the Marquis is that justice has been supplied. There is a definite tone of approval in his voice after these actions. On the other hand, Dickens’s attitude towards the mutineers is not always one of endorsement. When the activists nearly kill Gabelle and burn the Chateau, Dickens’s attitude changes from one of approval to one of disbelief. His disposition is almost one of sorrow for all the beauty being carelessly destroyed. As the reader can see, Dickens’s opinion varies greatly in accordance to the portion of the story the person is reading.
During the 1800s, the aristocracy of England and France lived in luxury and possessed an enormous amount of power in the society while peasants live in poverty. Dickens links the two countries with the theme of how history repeats itself. Dickens compares the social rankings, rulers, and events of the two countries and warns how if the English aristocracy did not change their ways, what happens in France would happen to them. In the novel, Dickens portrays the character, Monseigneur as an individual character as well as a social class of France. Monseigneur is a character who Dickens portrays as the entire class of the French aristocracy in the way of which he abuses his power. Dickens describes how the Monseigneur was having chocolate prepared for him by four men who are wearing gold watches as peasants were starving and dying. Dickens uses the actions of the Monseigneur to represent the entire population of the aristocrats in the city of St. Antoine. Another way in which Dickens shows how the Monseigneur was corrupt was how he appointed people to be officials not by their skill but by the way they would appraise him or by their status. Dickens foreshadows how France would become corrupt over time from the action...
With imagery revealing the poor straits and desperation of the peasant class of France, Dickens influences the reader to pity them. He writes, “The cloud settled on Saint Antoine, which a momentary gleam had driven from his sacred countenance, the darkness of it was heavy—cold, dirt, sickness, ignorance, want were the lords waiting on the saintly presence—nobles of great power all of them; but most especially the last” (Dickens 22). Through hunger, want, etc. being personified and compared to nobles through language such as “nobles” and “lords”, Dickens shows the extent of the suffering of the peasants, their deserving to be pitied, and the human nobles’ apathy towards them. The peasants of Saint Antoine suffer in the 1770s, and the town’s name is made into a play on words with “saintly presence”, with the cloud of cold, dirt, sickness, ignorance, and want looming forming the imagery of irony. Another description of the peasants’ plight is revealed in the quote saying, “Ploughed into every furrow of age and coming up afresh, was the sign Hunger. It was prevalent everywhere...Hunger was the inscription on th...
The main focus of Dickens’ novel is the French Revolution. This was a tragic time that took place between the years of seventeen eighty-nine and seventeen ninety-nine. It was the lower class revolting against the corrupt authoritarian government. The ideals that the French stood for were liberty, equality, and brotherhood. Dickens uses this for the background of his novel. Marie Shephard once said that Dickens was helped by his friend Carlyle for a background on the French Revolution, and tried to focus more on the plot than a character (51). Another historian said that “the French Revolution exists in the novel only insofar as Dickens’s characters vivify it, live through it, react to it, and make its reality manifest to the reader”(Allingham). Dickens understood this and used it to help him write the novel, and to help us in understanding it.