Retelling the Revolution

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Recommended: Foreshadowing a tale of two cities

The French Revolution began in 1789, which caused an uprising against the political and social ways of the aristocracy. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens takes place in the midst of the Revolution even though Dickens wrote the novel about 60 years after it ended. Dickens obviously favors the French peasants and wants the reader to see the Revolution from their point of view, using different literary elements to do so. Foreshadowing is one of the main and most prevalent elements Dickens uses in the novel. Charles Dickens uses foreshadowing in more ways than one, such as the looming French Revolution, to skillfully enhance the reading experience.
In A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens uses the metaphor of a “storm” many times in the novel to describe and foreshadow the French Revolution. “The show being over, the flutter in the air became quite a little storm, and the precious little bells went ringing downstairs. There was soon but one person left of all the crowd, and he, with his hat under his arm and his snuff-box in his hand, slowly passed among the mirrors on his way out” (Dickens 82). The French Revolution, or the “storm”, is called the storm because it because it brings destruction and cannot be stopped by anyone, even the aristocracy. The events that had happened before this quote were the Monseigneur de Marquis, a wealthy aristocrat, had been going around very snobbishly to all the people in town. Dickens shows the reader the point of view of the peasants and how they feel exasperated from the behavior of the aristocracy. The “flutter” that is slowly turning into a storm lets the reader know that there was already some hostility between the two parties and this may turn into a thunderstorm warning for the aristocracy. An...

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... plans of the Revolutionaries, making sure to leave out important details that could reveal the most intriguing parts of the novel far too early.
Dickens exquisitely uses foreshadowing as a tool to give the reader a way to have some kind of idea of the evens to come and the give the reader some kind of knowledge of how the peasants intend to carry their plans of destruction out by using metaphors. The turmoil between the aristocracy and the peasants has been summed up into the metaphor of the storm. This metaphor truly helps the reader have a grasp on the violence and destruction going on at that time because a Revolution, much like a storm, causes demolition to all things around it. This metaphor is used to enhance the reading experience by cluing the reader in on the minor details of the plans of the Revolutionaries, so they are not confused in later chapters.

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