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The gap between poverty and riches
The gap between poverty and riches
The gap between poverty and riches
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The gap within power between the upper and lower classes in Paris created biased rules and laws. The upper class controlled the government and were therefore the ones who decided the rules. Because of this, the lower class were treated unjustly. Lower class people who did not follow these rules would be treated worse and in most cases publicly executed. This injustice that is shown in the novel results in and investable conflict between the two classes. Sub-argument 1: Dr. Manette Dr. Manette is one of the first characters that is introduced in the novel. He plays an important role in showing how the French aristocrats unjustly use their power to protect themselves. In the novel, Dr. Alexandre Manette was just released from a French prison after serving over eight-teen years of false claims. It is only later in the novel when it is revealed that the Evremonde family had him …show more content…
After the Marque de Evremonde ran over a child, he tosses a coin to the father and leaves after criticizing the people for not taking care of their own children. This shows how like with the unjust imprisonment of Dr. Manette, the upper-class aristocrats can get away with crimes such as murder. They abuse their power unjustly so that they can protect themselves. Sub-argument 2: Madame Defarge In A Tale of Two Cities, even after the revolution injustice within their society was still very evident. This was clearly seen through the character Madame Defarge. She led the revolutionists in trying to free the common people. However, after the raiding of the Bastille not much had changed. This was due to the fact that Madame Defarge was more focused on exacting her revenge on the Evremonde family. In book the third, Madame Defarge unjustly accuses and arrest Charles Darnay after learning of a letter where Dr. Manette had condemned the Evremonde name. Quote
The French revolution was a significantly dangerous time period because of the chaos and conflict that took place in the streets of France, resulting in the mass slaughter of thousands of innocent people. Within the revolution, there were many characters who took part in resolving the conflicts that had arisen. One thing that sparked the revolution was the shortage of food caused by a drought which lead to the bread prices going up since most were too poor to afford food at the new price people started revolting against their government in hopes to be heard and treated fairly while many were still dying of hunger. Within the revolution, there were figures such as George Danton, Jean Bailly and Reine Audu who contributed in the development and the recognition of the 3rd estate.
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.
Another dynamic character in A Tale of Two Cities is Dr. Alexander Manette. Before Dr. Manette went to the Bastille, he is a “young physician, originally an expert surgeon, who within the last year or two has made a rising reputation in Paris” (298). When the reader met Dr. Manette for the first time, much of is memory is forgotten and he is very weak.
The ideas of change in the French Revolution came from Jean- Jacques Rousseau. Rousseau, from his book, Discourse on the Moral Effect of the Arts and Sciences, had the idea that civilization corrupted people and had once said “Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains”. His ideas were the beginning of socialism. He believed in the common good. More extremely, there was Karl Marx (1818 – 1883) who fueled ideas for the Russian Revolution. He was the Father of Communism, a more radical form of socialism. Those who followed Rousseau’s and Marx’s ideas felt that the...
A Tale of Two Cities clearly portrays very distinct divisions in the behavior of men. The aristocrats, or upperclassmen, rule and control all of France. The members of the aristocracy never have to undergo hardships; they always have everything presented to them on a silver platter. They do whatever they want with total disregard for the peasants. On the other hand, the peasants always have to work hard for everything in life. Due to the aristocracy, the peasants are constantly starving, enough as to drink spilt wine from a filthy street (24-26). They loathe the wealthy people who have created these horrible living conditions. This drives the peasants to revolution, and the decapitation of the aristocrats via the guillotine. They have a mob mentality and kill everyone who they believe is the enemy. Neither the aristocrats nor the peasants show any compassion toward the other social class.
Human beings are an impressionable race who learn from each other what they should and should not do. While this is sometimes a useful trait, in other instances it can lead to death and cruelty. This is showcased copiously in A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. The book starts off with the French nobility horribly mistreating the destitute peasants, beating them and starving them without feeling any guilt whatsoever. To the rebels, it does not matter whether the people they execute are innocent or guilty of crimes against them, and instead see the entire upperclass as responsible for what a portion of them actually did. In this way, the cycle comes to a complete
The essential cause of the French revolution was the collision between a powerful, rising bourgeoisie and an entrenched aristocracy defending its privileges”. This statement is very accurate, to some extent. Although the collision between the two groups was probably the main cause of the revolution, there were two other things that also contributed to the insanity during the French revolution – the debt that France was in as well as the famine. Therefore, it was the juxtaposing of the bourgeoisie and the aristocracy as well as the debt and famine France was in that influenced the French Revolution.
Each social class in France has its own reasons for wanting a change in government. The aristocracy was upset by the king’s power, while the Bourgeoisie was upset by the privileges of the aristocracy. The peasants and urban workers were upset by their burdensome existence. The rigid, unjust social structure meant that citizens were looking for change because “all social classes.had become uncomfortable and unhappy with the status quo.” (Nardo, 13)
Poverty on social conditions affects everyone in every part of the world, no matter if they are rich or poor. First of all, everyone is divided into some sort of social class. The most known classes are the economic classes- the lower class, the middle class, and the higher class. The lower class goes through arduous labor all day and night to earn decent amounts of money to provide for themselves and their families. Most likely, they are the only source of income for the entire family. The higher class works hard to keep up or raise their high social status. They also work hard so they don’t loss their social rank, which permits them to hold a higher power over the middle and lower classes. Similarities of decisions made by characters in these two literary works will analyzed to understand the meaning behind the actions and influences of the social classes on each other.
“I do not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to death your right to say it,” were the famous words of Francois Marie Arouet, more commonly known under the pen name of Voltaire. He was known for being very outspoken and rebellious, which got him into trouble with the authorities for most of his life. Voltaire advocated the French bourgeoisie as being ineffective, the aristocracy as being corrupt, and the commoners as being too superstitious. Voltaire’s beliefs on freedom and reason are what ultimately led to the French Revolution, the United States Bill of Rights, and the decrease in the power of the Catholic Church, which have all affected modern western society. The French Revolution was a period of upheaval in France, during which the French governmental structure and Catholic clergy underwent a large change due to Enlightenment ideas.
Monsieur Defarge can be considered a true revolutionary, as his actions prove throughout the novel: ".
Social injustice had always been an uncorrected shortcoming for France from the early 19th century to the present. While the social injustice that appeared in the form of French religious persecution was much more visible during the early 19th century than in the reasonably tolerant 21st century, as seen in the contrasting cases of the Anti-Sacrilege Act in 1825 and the About-Picard Law in 2001, social injustice was a ubiquitous presence in many religious institutions of France. In a different degree of paramountcy, the social injustice manifested in the style of French political inequalities remains to be a perennial prejudice against the “forgotten man”, one clear-cut case being the anti-Semitic and espionage controversy of the Dreyfus Affair in the modern 20th century. In the same way, the social injustice seen in the economic discrimination in France was so prominent that literary works such as Les Miserables by eminent novelist Victor Hugo and its more modern philosophical counterpart, La Misère Du Monde by prominent French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu continually emphasized on the French economic inequalities between the inferior social classes and bourgeois-esque citizens. While religious persecution in France was more visible in the 1800s than that of recent times, the social injustice seen in the case of political inequalities and economic discriminations remained more or less the same throughout the 19th and 21st centuries.
The social differences in France were very unreasonable. People openly argued that “social differences should not be defined by law, as they were in the old regimes order” (2). In France, much of the inequality came from the social class system. It led to angry peasants and tons of revolting. This could have been avoided if France maintained equality for all estates, as it would have been rational. In addition, the clergy and nobles were given many rights which “included top jobs in government, the army, the courts, and the Church” (109). This was very biased as they were able to get the highest jobs, not because they earned it, but because of their social stature. Meanwhile, commoners or bourgeoisie, were not granted those jobs even if they had the ability to do them. This caused much of the third estate to become mad which led to uncivilized manner in France. If the government had just given equal rights and granted jobs by merit opposed to social class rankings, there would have been less drama between the estates and everything would have been
Dr. Manette starts his life as a young successful man but then is traumatized by imprisonment and again becomes successful with the comfort of, his daughter, Lucie. Lorry rescues Dr. Manette from his prison in St. Antoine and essentially brings him back to life. At first Alexandre seems unstable and much older than his years, but as Lucie nurses him back to life he transforms into the vibrant man missing throughout hers. Doctor Manette has no recollection of his successful past: “Doctor Manette, formerly of Beauvais . . . the young physician, originally an expert surgeon, who within the last year or two has made a rising reputation in Paris” (298). After his unnecessary imprisonment he is very weak and frail: “[h]e had put up a hand between his eyes and the light, and the very bones of it seemed transparent” (36). He is found in a dark garret hunched over a cobbler’s bench making shoes to pass time. At first Lucie is apprehensive about approaching her father, but as she observes his actions she is overcome with joy; she has now found her father whom she thought was dead for seventeen years. As he spends more time with Lucie and Miss Pross he gradually gains more and more strength and is beginning to reach his capacities in life. “This new life of the Doctor’s [is] an anxious life, no doubt; still the sagacious Mr. Lorry [sees] that there was a new sustaining pride in it” (253). The changes in Dr. Manette are not all by his own doing. He started life prosperous and fortunate, and after an ill-fated imprisonment it takes him a long while to accomplish the ability to endure life again.
At the start of the revolution, in 1789, France’s class system changed dramatically (Giddens, 2014). Aristocrats lost wealth and status, while those who were at the bottom of the social ladder, rose in positions. The rise of sociology involved the unorthodox views regarding society and man which were once relevant during the Enlightenment (Nisbet, 2014). Medievalism in France during the eighteenth century was still prevalent in its “legal structures, powerful guilds, in its communes, in the Church, in universities, and in the patriarchal family” (Nisbet, 2014). Philosophers of that time’s had an objective to attempt to eliminate the natural law theory of society (Nisbet, 2014). The preferred outcome was a coherent order in which the mobility of individuals would be unrestricted by the autonomous state (French Revolution). According to Karl Marx, economic status is extremely important for social change. The peasants felt the excess decadence of the ancient regime was at the expense of their basic standards of living, thus fuelling Marx’s idea of class based revolutions and the transition of society (Katz, 2014). This can be observed, for example, in novels such as Les Liaisons Dangereuses, a novel that had a role for mobilizing the attitudes of the