Personification In A Tale Of Two Cities

“Is the pious loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it pious because it is loved by the gods?”. So, asked Socrates of Euthyphro, in Plato’s Euthyphro. Put into modern terminology, “Is morality commanded by God because it is moral, or is it moral because it is commanded by God?”. Those who take the stance of the first horn are called moral universalists or objectivists. Those who take the stance of the second horn are theistic voluntarists or divine command theorists. This passage suggests a theistic voluntarist stance. This passage is in A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens in 1859. This passage can be found in Book III, Chapter 4 “Calm in the Storm”. The literal situation prior to this passage is that Charles Darnay is imprisoned,

The first concept Dicken’s develops through literary techniques is that of religion, showing the immoral state of extremists. The first device used is that of personification. The Cross is used to represent Jesus Christ and his life or values/ideals, although this personification exists outside of literature, it can be seen in this passage it is capitalized, just like a name. The Cross is clearly an aspect of the concept of religion, specifically the religion of Christianity. Personification is also used with the guillotine. The guillotine is described as a “sharp female” and given the name “La Guillotine” and represents the extremist ideals of the revolution. The parallelism between the Cross and the guillotine can be seen, as the guillotine “superseded” the Cross. This comparison seeks to develop the guillotine as the ‘god’ or major religious figure of the new ‘religion’ of the Reign of Terror. This concept of religion shows how the extremism of the revolution leads to a direct association and incorporation of the guillotine. By setting the extremist guillotine concept of religion superior, the people of the revolution look to

The first statement about the cyclic nature of violence is in line 3. Dickens states that “the new era began; the king was tried, doomed, and behead”. This shows cyclicity because it states that a new era had begun, meaning that there was one before it, and it is a “new era” not the final era, thus more will follow it thus showing the cycle of these ‘eras’. In this example, the concept of cyclicity represents the cycle of oppression, a characteristic of which, is extremism, thus showing how the concept of cyclicity shows the return to immorality from extremism. Another example of cyclicity in the passage, can be seen through the literary technique of universality, as “three hundred thousand men, summoned to rise against the tyrants of the earth, rose from all the varying soils of France”. This quote demonstrates extremism leads to universal immorality, as it shows how when the masses of people change their state (from prior state to revolutionary state or “rise against” state), they become immoral (seen through their merciless slaughter). Thus, the concept of cyclicity shows the return to immorality from extremism. Another example of cyclicity can be seen in the second paragraph’s description of the executions. Dickens used the literary device of repetition to describe them as having “no pause, no pity, no peace, no interval of relenting rest, no measurement