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Essay french revolution history
Historic essay on the causes and effects of the french revolution
Essay french revolution history
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The bloodshed and rallying cries of a revolution transcend beyond all barriers of time, often striking a chord with the most underrepresented and disadvantaged citizens of a nation. With enough backing, fringe ideas wield the ability to force their way into the minds of the populace, providing strength to the once-languished. Using A Tale of Two Cities, influential author of numerous classic works, Charles Dickens, illustrates the gaping holes in rhetoric and action widely disregarded during the French Revolution of the late 1700s as well as criticizing his own country, England, for its administrative flaws. However, his blunt assessment applies to countless eras throughout history, including today’s political environment in the United States. …show more content…
Dickens’ criticism of the revolutionaries in A Tale of Two Cities, relevant to both 18th Century France and modern day America, denounces the misguidedness of the many, the selfishness of the few, and the flawed world their shared movement brings about. While sympathizing with the hunger, poverty, and destitute living conditions experienced by the French working-class, Dickens depicts the needy demographic as willing to shed all previously-held morals in exchange for membership into the mob. His portrayal of the crowd’s transformation from desperate city dwellers into Bastille-storming beasts makes itself apparent in the passage, “For, they are headlong, mad, and dangerous; and in the years so long after the breaking of the cask at Defarge’s wine-shop door, they are not easily purified when once stained red,” (212). This appraisal hints to the forlorn origins of the revolution that act as a driving force in the minds of those revolting. Nonetheless, it also assigns barbaric traits to the rioters, suggesting they sacrificed individuality for a pack-like mental
Many characters have hopes and dreams which they wish to accomplish. Of Mice and Men has two main characters that go through obstacles to get what they want. In the beginning it is George and Lennie running away trying to get a job. Once both George and Lennie have a job they try to accomplish their dreams. Unfortunately they both can't get their dreams to come true since lennie does the worst and George has to shoot Lennie. Steinbeck uses characterization, foreshadowing, and symbol as rhetorical strategies to make George's actions justified.
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
Charles Dickens writes this book explaining the French Revolution, in which the social and economic systems in France had huge changes and the French monarchy collapsed. This causes high taxes, unfair laws, and the poor being mistreated. Charles Dickens shows that cruelty of other people will lead to a revolution and in addition to the revolution more cruelty will occur. He explores the idea of justice and violence through the use of ambiguous characters with positive and negative qualities, meaning that they have to different sides to them; for example, Charles Darnay, Sydney Carton, and Dr. Manette. Throughout the story of A Tale of Two Cities, Charles dickens uses ambiguous characters to shows how violence and cruelty can be stopped through the power of true sacrifice.
The French Revolution was a time when many people sacrificed their lives for their beliefs. As the French Revolution moved on, more people joined the movement and risked their lives. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens is set during this time. Many people who sacrificed their lives for the Revolution felt like it was their fate to do this. This idea of fate is described many times in Dickens’ novel to magnify the story. The theme of fate is prevalent in the novel through the lives of many characters. This theme is used to show how a person is unable to escape their fate because it is already decided. The metaphors and symbols in the novel are greatly used to contribute to the theme of fate through the symbols of knitting, the fountain and water, and the wine.
Dickens uses wine to represent the blood to be spilled in the war as well as to show how divided the classes are. Through the depiction of the poor rejoicing over spilled drops of wine against the backdrop of the aristocratic town of St. Antoine, Dickens is able to evince the polarity of rich and poor existent at the time. Dickens describes the scene of the broken wine cask, “When the wine was gone, and the places where it had been most abundant were raked into a gridiron-pattern by fingers, these demonstrations ceased, as suddenly as they had broken out. The man who had left his saw sticking in the firewood he was cutting, set it in motion again; the woman who had left on a door-step the little pot of hot ashes, at which she had been trying to soften the pain in her own starved fingers and toes, or in those of her child, returned to it; emerged into the winter light from cellars, moved away to descend again; and a gloom gather on the scene that appeared more natural to it than sunshine” (Dickens 21). The townspeople run to collect, drink, and play in the wine. The aristocrats are living lavishly while these townspeople are celebrating over a few drops of wine. He further describes how a townsperson, Gas...
Cruelty, blood, and gore are all accurate descriptions of the French Revolution. This horrific time is correctly represented by the twisted and elaborate plot of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. During this time, pity and sympathy leave the hearts of both the revolutionaries and the aristocrats. The hatred felt by the revolutionaries towards their oppressors seizes control of their hearts and results in more ruthless and savage behavior towards their old persecutors. Man, himself, becomes a more brutal race in this time of animosity. He has no compassion towards his fellow man, resulting in extraordinary bloodshed. Throughout A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens conveys the theme of inhumanity by using symbols, especially scarecrows, blue-flies, and dogs.
Dickens’ novel, A Tale of Two Cities, has many metaphors, including “the great blue flies,” knitting and the sea to explore the important theme of human inhumanity towards the fellow man into his story. The metaphors are perfect symbols to explain how insensitive and cruel people can be towards one another, despite their pain and suffering. Nevertheless, Dickens includes not only moments for the reader to feel empathy for the victims of the revolution, but also moments of love. This story shows that inhumanity towards the fellow man is a problem in societies that will never be overcome; however, the world would be a better place if everyone strived to have compassion and respect for everyone, regardless of social class, religion, race, or money.
“History is a set of lies agreed upon” Napoleon Bonaparte said during the French Revolution. Analysing the accuracy of the portrayal of the French Revolution seems almost ironic, because one person’s account may not match another’s. However, what Charles Dickens wrote in A Tale of Two Cities seems to leave out a lot of the more important factors which would have influenced the thoughts and actions of the people involved in the French Revolution. One of these things was that there is no mentioning of any of the influential figures, namely Robespierre, who was an important leader in the Revolution. Another missing point is that many of the actual events in this time period were not displayed. Finally, the actually reason for the uprisings in
“Republic One and Indivisible, Liberty, Fraternity, Equality or Death!” This was the phrase that resounded through the streets of France in the momentous, intense book by Charles Dickens: A Tale of Two Cities. Yet though these Revolutionaries who attempted successfully to over throw the former aristocratic government held this phrase as their catchphrase, the actions they performed ran ironically in contradiction. From their excusable version of a Republic formed by elitism, to their frightful example of liberty in needless dictatorship, Dickens captures the terrible irony of the French Revolution through this classic book.
The collective can be defined in many ways, but its definition is far less important than its relationship with the individual. Alexis de Tocqueville and John Stuart Mill similarly characterize the collective as the majority and champion individual thought in their respective works, Democracy in America and On Liberty; however, Mill supports all individualistic tendencies, while Tocqueville rejects individualism fearing that it may lead to egoism. Interestingly, in his novel, Hard Times, Charles Dickens ascribes the name, “the Hands,” to the collective in order to illustrate a recent dehumanization of the individual in society. In this essay I argue that, although Tocqueville’s opposition to individualism, Mill’s plea to citizens to completely
“People have only as much liberty as they have the intelligence to want and the courage to take.” This quote by Emma Goldman not only perfectly sums up the French Revolution, but also reflects on the issue in society today with police racism and brutality. In Charles Dickens’ novel A Tale of Two Cities, the peasants suffer extreme injustice, they allow the revolution to go to their heads, and we see how violence only ever brings more violence . When Dickens describes the peasants he makes sure their plight is made clear to all. The nobles consistently take advantage of them and do not show any compassion.
In the eighteen-fifties, Charles Dickens was concerned that social problems in England, particularly those relating to the condition of the poor, might provoke a mass reaction on the scale of the French Revolution. In a letter written in 1855, for example, he refers to the unrest of the time as follows:
Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities, juxtaposes France and England during the French Revolution. Dickens’s objective is to warn the English citizens of the imminent revolution that will occur if the English continue to act the way the French have. Dickens’s depicts and explores the corruption, evil and “Terror” transpiring in France at the time. Dickens’s presents these ideas in hopes that the English will recognize the mistakes of the French in order that a terrible revolution may be averted. The afterword written for A Tale of Two Cities, written by literary critic Stephen Koch, presents a wide variety of viewpoints on the various themes, motifs, characters and objects
The French Revolution was a period of time when the entirety of France went against the monarchy. King Louis XVI was taken down by the people at this time. The change brought along a replacement for the monarchial society (French Revolution 2). The now formed republic run by the people is now forever an example of what can happen to those whom live in places run by kings and queens, and that those who wish to escape tyranny can always make a change. The tyranny that was present brought along the eventual execution of the two royalties (2). This is evident in Dickens’s novel, in which the story centers around the revolution. Madame Defarge exists as on...
A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens, is a story set in the year 1775 and through the turbulent time of the French Revolution. It is of people living in love and betrayal, murder and joy, peril and safety, hate and fondness, misery and happiness, gentle actions and ferocious crowds. The novel surrounds a drunken man, Sydney Carton, who performs a heroic deed for his beloved, Lucie Manette, while Monsieur and Madame Defarge, ruthless revolutionaries, seek revenge against the nobles of France. Research suggests that through Dickens’ portrayal of the revolutionaries and nobles of the war, he gives accurate insight to the era of the Revolution.