Dickens's Views of the French Revolution

"Sow the same seed of rapacious license and oppression ever again, and it will surely yield the same fruit according to its kind." (385) This quote from Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities illustrates Dickens' bias for the revolting class during the French Revolution. In the book, however, Dickens does vilify the violence that is inherent in this Revolution. He also puts his own slant on the way the Revolution occurs and who leads it. This bias could be attributed to who he was and who his audience was. Because he is an Englishman and the novel is written primarily for other Englishmen, there is a clear bias in the way he presents the classes (through a variety of characters that exemplify each Fcaste) and their actions in the novel that seems to sympathize with British ideals and notions on the Revolution.

First of all, Dickens presents a harsh view of the aristocracy through two of the key characters: Charles Darnay and Marquis Evrémonde. Darnay is a member of the French elite who rejects the cruel ways of his family and flees to London to forget about the injustices his family has committed. While this may seem honorable he is not because he acts as a coward and runs away rather than standing up and trying to stop the inhumane treatment of the poor. Evrémonde on the other hand is as harsh and cruel as they come. He embodies the terrible atrocities committed against the people of France by the landed nobility. The way that Dickens uses these characters he establishes a very cynical view of the elite as being either cruel or impotent; and thus there is no hope for the French people from this class. How does this view stack up to reality during the French Revolution? Well, the nobility were cruel, and had been for...

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... Madame is a vengeful and blood-thirsty revolutionary that makes a list of people that must die in the Revolution. To say that neither figure existed in the Revolution would be a falsehood, but it seems Dickens overstated their power in the movement. This overstatement could come out of his personal feelings towards the working class that stem from his youth. Another possible bias when discussing the role of the lower class here is his bias toward the peaceful transition toward a more democratic system like that of Britain. He could be making the statement that if the change had come from the top, rather than from the bottom, the more educated and less base members of society could have made the transition smoother and altogether less violent. This interpretation further emphasizes Dickens' belief that the changes were necessary, but that he detested the violence.