How Does Dickens Present The Struggles In A Tale Of Two Cities

Does Charles Dickens have sympathy towards the revolutionaries or not throughout his novel, A Tale of Two Cities. This novel took place around the same time as the French Revolution. The novel is spaced out during an 18 year period. It started in 1775 and the novel ended in 1793. In the novel, Jarvis Lorry a banker at Tellson’s Bank in Paris, is traveling to Paris to reunite Dr. Manette, who was imprisoned in the prison of Bastille for an unknown reason, with his long-lost daughter Lucie Manette. Lucie is an orphan whose mother died when she was little and whose father was sent to prison, The Marquis Evremonde feared that Manette would reveal one of the Marquis' dark secrets. Dickens opens the novel by saying “It was the best of times, it
The nobility are super uptight and unfair towards the lower estates. The nobility were only doing what they were taught to do and did not care for the people beneath them. Monsieur the Marquis says “Why does he make that abominable noise? Is it his child?” (Dickens 114) when a child gets in the way of his carriage and ends up killing him . The nobility thinks that they can buy their way out of everything. Monsieur the Marquis, Charles Darnay's uncle who lives in England, says to the civilians “that you people cannot take care of yourselves and your children. One or the other of you is for ever in the way. How do I know what injury you have done my horses. See! Give him that” (Dickens 115). This example shows how selfish the nobility is and how now must not get in their
the nobility were to blame for the mob of peasants that stormed the Bastille. The storming of the Bastille would not have happened if the nobility had treated the third estate with more respect and lowered prices to make their lives easier. In the novel Dickens shows his feelings about the human race, which leads his thoughts on the topic of the revolution in general. The storming of the Bastille in 1789 could have been prevented if the third estate had gotten the same treatment as the three percent, which consisted of the first and second estate. The third estate made up 97% of the population, which were made up of peasants and bourgeoisie. The second estate were made up of nobles and were two percent of the population. The first estate which was the clergy only make up one percent. This proves that the third estate could had a big effect on the first and second estate due to the large amount of the people that made up its population. One main reason that caused the revolution was the fact that one could not move up in estate and class was based upon status and privilege and not wealth (Shah). The third estate wanted the gunpowder and weapons that were inside the Bastille. The first shot was fired by the people defending the Bastille and after all of the fighting seven prisoners escaped (Issitt). These ideas in the novel show how Dickens was supporting the idea of the invasion of the