Tale of Two Cities Essay - 1098 Words

Violence and Cruelty Leading to Harsh Rebellion Throughout the novel A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens constantly uses examples of violence and cruelty to show why the French peasants revolted against the aristocracy and to describe the revolt. During the extant of the peasant’s lives before the rebellion they were treated so brutally by the aristocrats. The wealthy people took great advantage of their power and the poor people. When the peasants rebelled they responded with violence and brutality from the hatred of their hearts. The suffering the low class people of France endured during the time of this story was more than unbearable. As Dickens describes â€Å"Far and wide, lay a ruined country, yielding nothing but desolation.†¦show more content†¦She was just asking for a gravestone for her husband but the Marquis quickly trotted off in his valet leaving her far behind. This heartless act left sadness in the woman’s heart, but the evil Marquis Evermon de could care less. He â€Å"drove as if he were charging an enemy, and furious recklessness of the man brought no check into the face, or into the lips of the master.†(Dickens 113) When Gaspard killed the Marquis â€Å"he was hanged there forty feet high and left hanging, poisoning the water.† The French did not care that the little water the poor had to drink was being poisoned or that they killed a man. They wanted to warn the peasants that revolting would not be tolerated; yet it still occurred. Dickens directly warns that, so long as the ruling class refused to take responsibility for the way that they govern, they are destined to be violently overthrown.†(Galegroup 1). Although the aristocrats were asking for it â€Å"Violent oppression breeds violent rebellion which becomes a new king of oppression†(Bloom C) .The violence of the peasants was their response to their pain and no prosperity. â€Å"Dickens is always reminding the reader that the revolu tion, though a frightful moral disorder was born of Unspeakable suffering, intolerable oppression, and heartless indifference. Society was diseased before the fever broke out.†(Gale E) â€Å"Headlong, mad and dangerous footsteps to force their way into anybody’s life, footsteps not easilyShow MoreRelatedA Tale of Two Cities800 Words   |  4 Pages Charles Dickens characterizes the settings in his novel, â€Å"A Tale of Two Cities,† through indirect comparison and contrast between Paris and London during the French Revolution, a political and social upheaval from 1789–1799; â€Å"There was a king with a large jaw and a queen with a plain face on the throne of England; there was a king with a large jaw and a queen with a fair face on the throne of France. In both countries it was clearer than crystal to the lords of the State preserves of loaves andRead MoreA Tale of Two Cities900 Words   |  4 PagesChange can be a good thing. Charles Dickens, a fine author of A Tale of Two Cities uses many themes throughout his work, but the main theme he focuses on is redemption. 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He was inRead MoreA Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens1420 Words   |  6 Pageshorrifically bloody and violent period of history – the best of times and the worst of times. The violence enacted by the citizens of French on their fellow countrymen set a gruesome scene in the cities and country sides of France. Charles Dickens uses a palate of storm, wine, and blood imagery in A Tale of Two Cities to paint exactly how tremendously brutal this period of time was. Dickens use of storm imagery throughout his novel illustrates to the reader the tremulous, fierce, and explosive time periodRead MoreUse of Repetition in A Tale of Two Cities1577 Words   |  7 Pagesconstant repetitions, and his habitual phrases are remembered by readers who are not used to reading with close attention. Dickens’s stylistic use of repetition reaches its climax in A Tale of Two Cities (1859). Therefore, it is fruitful to deal with the language of Dickens, especially that of A Tale of Two Cities, from the point of view of repetition in order to explore his linguistic artistry with which the novelist, inheriting the language of the 18th century, improved upon the style of English