A Tale Of Two Cities: A Modest Proposal

567 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Charles dickens social analysis

A Modest Proposal and A Tale of Two Cities These two sources are pieces of work that mirror the themes and events that occured in Europe during the Industrial Revolution in Europe and the potato famine in Ireland. One of the prominent themes in A Tale of Two Cities are the polarizing classes of the have and the have-nots. While the miniscule percentage of the population recieves a abundance of fortune, the rest of the population. A Tale of Two Cities is a story about England and France going through time periods of political weakness and disarray. The novel mirrored the hardships of Dickens life living through the Industrial Revolution in England. Themes such as aristocracy vs. peasants, imprisonment, and life, consciousness and existence …show more content…

Living in the industrial period in England he suffered working in factories in poor working conditions as a kid. He was born on February 7, 1812 being the “second of eight children in a family burdened with financial struggles”, so customarily he was in the lower class of England that had to work (Wood). In A Tale of Two Cities Dickens displayed his experience of being in the lower class of England where he saw people of a higher class having no struggle at all and compared it to the similar situation in France, in which the book is centralized around. Another theme that Dickens uses throughout the novel is imprisonment in which he uses to mirror his family’s imprisonment in a debtor’s prison. Dr. Manette is a character in the novel that best displays this theme and plays as a symbol for every person that subject to same imprisonment; Dickens described the Doctor’s experience of imprisonment as , “pitiable and dreadful. […] Its deplorable peculiarity was, that it was the faintness of solitude and disuse. It was like the last feeble echo of a sound made long and long ago” (cite). Dickens uses the novel to describe imprisonment as cruel and can rob a person of their life to convey to the people of England that more people should

Show More
Related

  • A TAle of Two Cities

    763 Words  | 2 Pages

    A Tale of Two Cities In every great novel, there is a theme that is constant throughout the story. One of the better known themes portrays the fight of good verses evil. Different authors portray this in different ways. Some use colors, while others use seasons to show the contrast. Still, others go for the obvious and use characters.

    Read More

  • Mob Mentality in A Tale of Two Cities

    518 Words  | 2 Pages

    Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities follows the cruelties of the French Revolution. Mobs in France relentlessly imprison and kill citizens, including the novel’s main character, Doctor Manette, who stays in prison for 18 years before Lucie retrieves him. Only Lucie, can keep him young and free from his past. Doctor Manette and Lucie testify at the trial of Charles Darnay, defended by the lazy alcoholic, Sydney Carton. Both Darnay and Carton love Lucie, but Darnay ultimately wins her, and Carton never stops loving her. Meanwhile in Saint Antoine, Defarge and his wife plan the French Revolution. Darnay goes back to France, and Parisians immediately throw him in prison for being an Evrémonde. The novel ends with Carton sacrificing himself to save Darnay to show Lucie he loves her. Dickens creates chaotic and deadly crowds in A Tale of Two Cities in order to convey the theme of mob mentality’s destructiveness.

    Read More

  • A Tale Of Two Cities

    2254 Words  | 5 Pages

    A Tale of Two Cities takes place in England and France, during the time of the French Revolution. A Tale of Two Cities is a classic novel, where Charles Dickens presents to the reader archetypal main characters. From the beginning of the novel, the reader can know whether the characters are evil or not. In the novel, the main character, Sydney Carton, also contributes a lot to the theme of the novel-every individual should have both moral and physical courage, and should be able to sacrifice everything in the name of love.

    Read More

  • Symbols of Inhumanity

    808 Words  | 2 Pages

    Dickens wrote A Tale of Two Cities during his time of fascination with the French Revolution. The French Revolution was a time of inequity. There are many occasions in the novel where the problems of the Revolution are displayed. The human race is shown at its worst. Throughout the novel, man’s inhumanity towards fellow man, whether from a different social class or their own neighborhood, is shown through the metaphors of wine symbolizing blood, water symbolizing life, and blue flies symbolizing townspeople buzzing around death.

    Read More

  • Tale of Two Cities Essay

    1091 Words  | 3 Pages

    Certain themes present themselves throughout Charles Dickens’ famous novel, A Tale of Two Cities. These themes of love, good versus evil, and the upper and lower classes permeate the entire book. However, one such theme stands out. The theme of redemption also manifests itself in every part of the novel. Redemption and resurrection attract the reader’s attention because of the obvious biblical parallels.

    Read More

  • Tale Of Two Cities Motifs Essay

    870 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens repeats a number of symbols and motifs. By employing these two literary devices throughout the duration of the story, Dickens is working to emphasize the importance of these specific components of the story. Motifs and symbols represent repeating ideas that help the reader to understand, as well as highlight the author’s central idea. Dickens employs the usage of symbols and motifs, such that by using both he adds a layer of significance and deeper meaning to actions, people, as well as objects. Additionally, by using symbols and motifs, Dickens is able to create a story in which both the characters, and the plot are interwoven.

    Read More

  • A Tale of Two Cities Essay

    668 Words  | 2 Pages

    A Tale of Two Cities Essay Throughout history, the powers of love and hate have constantly been engaged in a battle for superiority. Time and time again, love has proven to be stronger than hate, and has been able to overcome all of the obstacles that have stood in the way of it reaching its goal. On certain occasions, though, hate has been a viable foe and defeated love when they clash. In the novel A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens presents several different power struggles between love and hate.

    Read More

  • A Tale Of Two Cities

    545 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Theme of Imprisonment in Great Expectations

    1063 Words  | 3 Pages

    The renowned poet, Richard Lovelace, once wrote that "Stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage." Although many think of a prison as a physical building or a jailhouse, it can also be a state of mind. A great number of people are imprisoned mentally and emotionally. Charles Dickens expresses this message in his eminent novel, Great Expectations. This book is about a simple laboring boy who grew into a gentleman, and slowly realized that no matter what happened in his life it couldn't change who he was on the inside. On the road to this revelation, Pip meets many incarcerated people. Through these people, Dickens delivers the message that people can be imprisoned mentally and emotionally, and only through love are they liberated.

    Read More

  • The Consequences of Socioeconomic Inequality as Portrayed by Tale of Two Cities

    1868 Words  | 4 Pages

    Charles Dickens, an English writer and social critic, lived in England from 1812 to 1870 (Cody). Dickens usually critiques topics important to him or those that have affected him throughout his life. He grew up poor and was forced to work at an early age when his father was thrown into debtors prison (Cody). As he became a popular and widely known author he was an outspoken activist for the betterment of poor people’s lives (Davis). He wrote A Tale of Two Cities during the 1850s and published the book in 185...

    Read More

  • A Tale of Two Cities Essays: The Character of Lucie Manette

    358 Words  | 1 Pages

    Lucie Manette, in A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, is a quiet young woman.  She is deeply compassionate but never develops a real believable character.  Her feelings, which are similar in all cases, are revealed to us when she interacts with her father Dr. Manette, Charles Darney, and Sydney Carton.

    Read More

  • Sympathy In Charles Dickens A Tale Of Two Cities

    1038 Words  | 3 Pages

    Perhaps this is why, in A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens

    Read More

  • A Historical Interpretation of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

    1775 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Historical Context of A Tale of Two Cities

    2559 Words  | 6 Pages

    Charles Dickens is a talented author who wrote many notable novels, including A Tale of Two Cities. Barbara Hardy notes that at a young age Dickens’ father was imprisoned for debt, leaving young Charles to support himself and his family alone (47). Dickens strongly disliked prisons, which shows as a motif in A Tale of Two Cities. Many of his interests contributed to the formulation of the novel. In the essay “Introduction” from the book, Charles Dickens, Harold Bloom claims Dickens hoped “to add something to the popular and picturesque means of understanding [the] terrible time” of the Revolution (20). Dickens’ reading and “extraordinary reliance upon Carlyle’s bizarre but effective French Revolution” may have motivated him to write the novel (Bloom 21). Sir James Fitzjames Stephen believed that Dickens was “on the look-out for a subject, determined off-hand to write a novel about [French Revolution]” (Bloom 20). In Brown’s book Dickens in his Time, Dickens guided the writing of the play Frozen Deep where two rivals share the same love, and one ultimately sacrifices himself for...

    Read More

  • How Charles Dickens’ Life Influenced Oliver Twist

    2071 Words  | 5 Pages

    Dickens lived a life full of events that would later influence his novels. Dickens grew up during a time of change for Great Britain. By the time he was born in 1812, the Industrial Revolution was in full force. Dickens grew up as a normal middle-class child in Portsmouth, Great Britain. It was around the age of twelve that his life took a drastic turn. Dickens was still a child when his father was imprisoned for debt. Families, at this time, lived with the father in prison. Charles did not live in prison, though. Instead, he was sent to live alone and become a laborer at Warren’s Blacking Facto...

    Read More

More about A Tale Of Two Cities: A Modest Proposal

Open Document