Examples Of Foreshadowing In A Tale Of Two Cities

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.” (Dickens 2). This notable quote started off the novel, with lots of meaning behind it. It compares the two major cities in the novel, London, and Paris, but also compares one of the major themes throughout the book, the rise of the revolution. Charles Dickens was a unique writer in the sense that he would use lots of foreshadowing to create the major plot in the novel. In The Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens uses dynamic and thought provoking events of

foreshadowing to portray the events of the revolution.
One of the major foreshadowing events started in Chapter five.

The chapter shifted to Saint Antoine, a poor suburb of Paris. A wine cask spilled into the street, consequently making everyone to drop to their knees to get a sip off the street. It showed the sheer desperation of the people, but also alluded to the coming of the revolution. “Those who had been greedy with the staves of the cask, had acquired a tigerish smear about the mouth; and one tall joker so besmirched, his head more out of a long squalid bag of a night-cap than in it, scrawled upon a wall with his finger dipped in muddy wine-lees—blood.” You didn’t fully realize the meaning behind this until the revolution was in full force, where instead of the street being filled with wine, it was filled with the blood of the

Aristocracy.
Furthermore, we prepare to see the revolution becoming a reality for the poor French people. There were multiple scenes in the wine shop that would allude to the coming of the rebellion. For example, Madame Defarge would use her knitting as a secret hit list for the revolutionaries. Every time someone came into the shop to divulge information about certain people around the city, it would usually mean another name was being knitted onto the hit list. As an illustration, Barsad told the Defarges about how Darnay was marrying Doctor Manette’s daughter. For this reason, Madame Defarge began to stich his name in the list. In other words, this is how the rebellion of the hundreds of the imprisoned aristocracy at the grindstone began.
In addition to the knitting, the beloved Doctor Manette had another big role in the foreshadowing of the revolution.

Toward the end of book two, Manette was starting to have a relapse when talking to Charles Darnay on the day of his daughter’s wedding. The two were talking about who Darnay “really was.” Earlier mentioned in the book, Manette insisted that he can wait to tell him until the day of his wedding. "My present name, though but slightly changed from my mother's, is not, as you will remember, my own. I wish to tell you what that is, and why I am in England. . . You shall tell me on your marriage morning." (Dickens 136). In addition, Doctor Manette began to go into his anxiety attack; going back to his old ways of being a prisoner in the Bastille. He wasn’t acting like his normal self and began to go back to his shoemaking bench. This whole event revolved all around the true name of Charles Darnay, which revealed that he is actually related to the evermondes, which was the man that put Doctor Manette in prison! We were revealed to this in Charles Darnay’s second trial, when a letter is discovered that was written by Dr. Manette while he was in prison, denouncing Charles' family. Dickens purposely included Doctor Manette’s relapse after hearing Darnay’s name, so the reader could foreshadow that Darnay had a connection with his

imprisonment.
Another use of foreshadowing Dickens used in The Tale of Two Cities was in the Manette’s house. Lucie would always mention how she could almost hear footsteps throughout the house. "The footsteps were incessant, and the hurry of them became more and more rapid. The corner echoed and re-echoed with the tread of feet; some, as it seemed, under the windows; some, as it seemed, in the room; some coming, some going, some breaking off, some stopping altogether; all in the distant streets, and not one within sight." (Dickens 190). This alludes to the coming of the revolution. "But, 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." Identically to its first mention, it was constantly being brought up throughout the book, as more and more time went by, the closer it was coming. When you finally get to the end of the novel, you can see how all of the events of foreshadowing was all put together and made sense.
In conclusion, there were plenty of events that are portrayed as foreshadowing to build up the crazy plot. He used themes such as blood, flashbacks, and echoing footsteps as events of foreshadowing. He connected all of the characters in one way or another to thicken the plot even more. In other words, Dickens did a great job at putting all the pieces of the puzzle together to finally put together a very suspenseful climax to engage the reader throughout the whole story. Using these examples of foreshadowing, Charles Dickens creates an amazing story to portray the events of the French Revolution.