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Contrasting characters in tale of two cities
Consider the historical importance of a tale of two cities
Consider the historical importance of a tale of two cities
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This passage from A Tale of Two Cities consists of the preparation and the eventual storming of the Bastille, a fortress in Paris that was used as a state prison. The citizens of Saint Antoine, led by Monsieur and Madame Defarge, begin to arm themselves with any weapon available and proceed to storm the Bastille. Dickens chooses to convey the violent storming of the Bastille through the use of multiple literary terms such as imagery, similes, and metaphors.
Charles Dickens describes the storming of the Bastille through the use of imagery. He mentions how Saint Antoine looks, and describes it as, “ A vast ducky mass of scarecrows heaving to and fro, with frequent gleams of light above the billowy heads, where steel blades and bayonets shone in the sun.” (221). The leaders, Monsieur and Madame Defarge, decided to begin the preparation for the storming by arming the revolutionaries with any weapons they could find. For example, when revolutionaries began distributing weapons to the mob, Dickens portrays the scene in which, “Muskets were being distributed-so were cartridges, powder, and ball, bars of iron and wood, knives, axes, pikes, every weapon that distracted ingenuity could discover or devise” (221), using imagery.
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He uses similes in describing the mob before the storming. For instance, Dickens uses similes to describe the scene in which, “ A tremendous roar arose from the throat of Saint Antoine, and a forest of naked arms struggled in the air like shrivelled branches of trees in a winter wind-”
The only allies of Madame seen in the first book are Monsieur Defarge, Dr. Manette, and the Jacques men. However, the introduction of new allies, such as the Vengeance and the Revolutionaries at the siege of the Bastille, by the end of the second book bring to light a different aspect of Madame. This new feature is one of unrelenting violence and intensity for the Revolution. During the siege, “[Madame] put her foot upon [the officer’s] neck, and with her cruel knife—long ready—hewed off his head” (Dickens 387). Through this scene, the reader gets a sense that Madame feels justified in her actions due to her Revolutionary cause.
Although the passage foreshadows the events later throughout the novel, Dickens ultimately uses a pathetic tone toward the social conditions of France before the French Revolution through the use of anaphora in the first half of the passage and the diction throughout the second half of the passage.
In this passage, Dickens’ juxtaposition, personification, detail, and diction reinforce Dickens’ tone of empathy and pity for the social conditions of the people of lower class France. When a large cask of wine spills open on the streets of France there is a mad rush to collect a taste of the spoiled wine. The people’s reactions consisted of “...frolicsome embraces, drinking of healths, shaking of hands, and even joining of hands and dancing a dozen together.” This exciting and scene of much happiness is juxtaposed by the “gloom that gathered on the scene that appeared more natural than sunshine” that occurs after all the wine has run out. This juxtaposition of the momentary happiness that the peasants of St. Antoine experience provide a contrast
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.
A comparative study of Sydney Carton in Dickens’ novel, A Tale of Two Cities, and Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet in Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliet, requires the reader to analyze various aspects that the transforming effect love can have on a personality. As we study each character, it is relatively easy to see that no matter how painful love can be, it is usually to one’s betterment to have experienced it. Love affects each person differently. Some become more introspective, searching to better themselves for the sake of themselves or another. Others do not recognize what they are lacking in their lives until they find love. In either event, it permanently redirects the course of one’s life. Or causes one to end it in some cases. We see that all three characters learn to love themselves better, to love others anew and in the end, make the ultimate sacrifice for their love for another.
In Great Expectations, Charles Dickens uses diction and imagery to illustrate how if one bases their dreams and aspirations on the values of a society that prizes materialism over character, they will face a life of devoid unhappiness through the character of Pip. In the novel, Pip finds it impossible to change social classes when Joe declares, “That ain't the way to get out of being common. . . as to being common . . . You are uncommon in some things. You're uncommon small . . .
Power can allow one to make decisions for others than will benefit them, but too much power can cause one to become corrupt. In the novel, A Tale of Two Cities, the author, Charles Dickens, views power as a way in which corruption arises. Throughout the novel, Dickens speaks about three characters who starts to abuse their power as time passes in the novel. Dickens portrays the characters of the Monseigneur, the Marquis of Evermonde, and the revolutionaries as characters who goes through a change as a result of power.
A very violent scene given to the reader by Dickens is when he describes the crazed revolutionists sharpening their tools on the grindstone, “The grindstone had a double handle, and, turning at it madly were two men…and their hideous countenances were all bloody and sweaty,” (Dickens 272). Dickens paints in the readers mind that the revolutionists are savages and crazed for blood, they won’t stop killing until the job is done. It is known to the readers that Madam Defarge is the most blood crazed of them all. She and her husband are conversing when Defarge is wondering when it will all stop (the reader can tell that he is starting to feel remorse for what he has started), but Madam Defarge replies with “At extermination,” (Dickens 353). Such a small quote, but it means so much to the novel, it shows that Madam Defarge will not stop what she is doing until all aristocrats have been put to death because of what had happened to her as a young child. This is the point in Dickens’ novel when the reader can tell that Dickens’ point of view on the Revolutionary has changed, it is now evident that he believes that the Revolutionists are taking what they are doing too far. It’s important to the novel as a whole because it helps to picture the unjust of how far the revolutionists go to “get back” at the
The French Revolution was a time of chaos and uprising in France during the mid-19th century that divided the French people. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens is a novel that is set during this tumultuous time in history. During this period of time, the people of France made many sacrifices. Sacrifice is a common theme that is developed throughout this novel. One reason many people make sacrifices is for love, and throughout the novel this theme is developed through the characters Miss Pross, Doctor Alexandre Manette, and Sydney Carton.
How can someone be “recalled to life”? It is a blazing strange statement. In Charles Dickens’ novel, A Tale of Two Cities, there are many people who are or help someone else to be recalled to life. In particular, there are three main characters that experience this. Dr. Manette, Charles Darnay, and Sydney Carton are all resurrected, as implied by the statement “recalled to life”.
The book has four metaphors, all of which have a significant part in the understanding of the novel. The first metaphor the readers encounter is the broken wine cask. The wine cask represents the plight of the poor and the blood of the revolution. The scene explicitly describes the people literally licking the streets and dripping the wine into the mouths of their children. The novel states, “Some men kneeled down, made scoops of their two hands joined, and sipped, or tried to help women, who bent over their shoulders, to sip, before the wine had all run out between their fingers. Others, men and women, dipped in the puddles with little mugs of mutilated earthenware, or even with handkerchiefs from women’s heads, which were squeezed dry into infants’ mouths; others made small mud-embankments, to stem the wine as it ran; others, directed by lookers-on up at high windows, darted here and there, to cut off little streams of wine that started away in new directions; others devoted themselves to the sodden and lee-dyed pieces of the cask, licking, and even champing the moister wine-rotted fragments with eager relish.” The novel also shows the wine cask as a metaphor for the blood of the revolution. The red color of the wine is similar to that of rich, red blood, shed by many because of the plight of the poor experienced in France. The second metaphor would be revealed as the grind stone. The grind stone, which was used to grind the food the poor needed so badly, later became used to sharpen the tools the poor would use to overthrow the government. The grindstone became a metaphor of killing and empowered poor throughout the novel. The third metaphor is the shadow. A shadow represents the great unknown, the great unexpected. Not a single person may prepare for the unknown. None of the characters could prepare for the events that came about in the plot, such as the denouncement of
Charles Dickens’s voice varies from being sympathetic with the revolutionaries, to a feeling of discord with their method of revolting. A Tale of Two Cities revolves around the French revolution and the tension in England. Dickens gives the tale of a family caught in the conflict between the French aristocracy and radicals. In the course of the book, the family handles extreme difficulty and obscurity. Dickens’s neutrality, though sometimes wavering from side to side, is apparent throughout each book in the novel.
In society today, all people determine their lifestyle, personality and overall character by both positive and negative traits that they hold. Sydney Carton in Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities was a drunken lawyer who had an extremely low self-esteem. He possessed many negative characteristics which he used in a positive way. Carton drastically changed his life and became a new man. Sydney is not the man he first appeared to be.
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...
History has not only been important in our lives today, but it has also impacted the classic literature that we read. Charles Dickens has used history as an element of success in many of his works. This has been one of the keys to achievement in his career. Even though it may seem like it, Phillip Allingham lets us know that A Tale of Two Cities is not a history of the French Revolution. This is because no actual people from the time appear in the book (Allingham). Dickens has many different reasons for using the component of history in his novel. John Forster, a historian, tells us that one of these reasons is to advance the plot and to strengthen our understanding of the novel (27). Charles Dickens understood these strategies and could use them to his advantage.