Preview

Tale Of Two Cities Evil Essay

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
555 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Tale Of Two Cities Evil Essay
A Tale of Two Cities In his novel, A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens demonstrates the various levels of human evil and how they are presented in society’s contrasting classes. The novel is set during the years leading up to the French Revolution. It gives the story of a few men and woman and the obstacles they have to face. Dickens throughout the novel intertwines symbolic representation of the conflict between France and England. He does an amazing job displaying how the aristocrats mistreat the peasants and common folk. Along with war, comes evil. It seeps its way into even the kindest of hearts. The disconnect between the wealthy and the poor becomes so terrible that it’s destroying the structure of society. Men almost become savage in the hopes of becoming free, they lose a sense of their humanness to survive. …show more content…
People flock to the scene and begin licking up the wine from the ground. In the midst of this chaos a man bends down and with his finger writes on the wall the word “blood”. Symbolizing the blood that would soon cover those streets and the frightening reality of the threat that the common people brought. Dickens shows the desperation of the common people. Right after this scene, in a secret room a daughter is reunited with her ill father. He was imprisoned and the only thing that kept him from fully being overtaken by agony was, a few locks of his wife’s hair. Again, this reiterates the desperation of the peasants and poor and establishes the temperamental state of the country.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    In the novel, A Tale of Two Cities Charles Dickens opens with an anaphora, about how the world is throughout the novel. A reoccurring theme throughout this story is the battle between good and evil. Most of the novel is about the struggles each force has and how most of the time good triumphs over evil. In A Tale of Two Cities, the triumph of love, the death of the Marquis, and the contrast between Sydney Carton and Charles Darnay shows how good triumphed over evil.…

    • 718 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The passage I have chosen is from Chapter 5, book 1, which takes place at a wine shop. Dickens is using this passage to explain the recent event that has taken place; crowds of people gather in front of the wine shop, and actually scoop up the wine for themselves from the broken cask. That shows the readers that these peasants are in physical hunger and are that desperate for food, showing that France isn’t in good shape. Once all the wine is gone all that is left over is the stains of the red wine on the street, the peoples hands, faces and feet. Dickens is foreshadowing the blood that will be left there in later years during the revolution. Like I stated before Dickens is showing the peasants hunger, but I think he is showing the physical hunger and the hunger the peasants have for justice and that they want freedom from the misery they’re in, therefore I feel he is also foreshadowing that the peasants are going to revolt and that they’re will be some kind of revolution. When Dickens says “the wine was red wine”, it is symbolic in a way of showing the sense of revolution, because the peasants dressed themselves in the color red while revolting, but also the fact that red is symbolic by symbolizing the blood of all the peasants and people of France that will die in the fight for what they believe in. I also believe when Dickens closes this passage with the words wine-lees blood he is trying to say that although at that moment its just wine, eventually lives are taken and it turns into real blood, and that the blood will stain the streets of France, leaving a reminder of this terrible…

    • 307 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Charles Dickens', Tale of Two Cities, the author repeatedly foreshadows the impending revolution. In Chapter Five of Book One, Dickens includes the breaking of a wine cask to show a large, impoverished crowd gathered in a united cause. Later, we find find Madame Defarge symbolically knitting, what we come to find out to be, the death warrants of the St. Evremonde family. Also, after Marquis is murdered for killing the small child with his horses, we come to see the theme of revenge that will become all too common. The author uses vivid foreshadowing to paint a picture of civil unrest among the common people that will come to lead to the French Revolution.…

    • 872 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In Charles Dickens’s Book A Tale of Two Cities, he illustrates the French Revolution and its effect on the people. Through the stories of revolutionaries, upper-class, and lower-class citizens he creates a dichotomy between Paris, France, and London, England, to caution England about what will happen if their government continues to run as France’s does. Dickens uses imagery of the sea to warn that a hellacious government leads to an equally hellacious revolt.…

    • 2563 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...” Charles Dickens used this famous phrase to introduce one of his most well-known novels, A Tale of Two Cities. This phrase also introduces an important motif of the novel, which is the foil. In literature, a foil is a character that contrasts with another character and therefore brings certain parts of each character’s personality into focus. Madame Therese Defarge and Miss Pross are an example of Dickens’ use of this writing technique.…

    • 569 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    2

    • 683 Words
    • 2 Pages

    2. The novel takes place, as its title suggests, in two cities: London and Paris. What are some of the differences between these two cities? Between their denizens? What about characters who travel—or move residence—from one to another? How are the cities themselves divided in two? In the first chapter of Tale of Two Cities Dickens states that “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” which is starting the book off with comparisons between England and France. Dickens portrays London as a more safe city then Paris, the trials are less cruel, and there are not heads rolling from the guillotine. Paris, on the other hand is more violent, and uses the guillotine to kill there queen. London is more of a “safe haven” and Paris is more of a hell-hole. During the last half of Tale of Two Cities it shows that France has made many new laws about emigrants, and hardly anyone is safe. They kill traitors, innocent, and pretty much everyone who they can prove guilty in court. England, on the other hand does not have any laws about emigrants being traitors, and do not have killing sprees of everyone in prisons.…

    • 683 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    It also represented the deep dark secrets that some may never know about. Dickens was able to clearly show the reign of terror in London, Paris (hence a tale of two cities) and in the French country side leading up to the outbreak of the French…

    • 449 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In this sequence of descriptions of poor sights of the town, Dickens is trying to emphasizes the poor side of this beautiful town, and how miserable the people are. "The village had its one poor street, (...) he said. Dickens wants people to realize how poor and miserable these people are prior to the French Revolution, and he wants also to emphesize what lead up to it happening.…

    • 1253 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In 1859, Charles Dickens wrote A Tale of Two Cities. The novel took place during the revolution era of France and England. Dickens uses a variety of literary devices to convey his message to the reader. Literary devices that are continuously used throughout the novel are the double motifs, light and dark. Dickens uses the doubles light and dark, through the two female characters Lucie and Madame Defarge. In A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens uses the motif of light versus dark, to characterize Lucie Manette by creating her pure nature in contrast of Madame Defarge’s dark nature.…

    • 784 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Every novel has a theme hidden within the story's lines. A theme is the main topic or subject that is shown repetitively throughout the story through the story's line of events. A Tale of Two Cities, written by Charles Dickens, has many themes that are shown throughout the story. The most prominent theme that is shown through out A Tale of Two Cities is the idea, "rebirth or resurrection is possibly through sacrifice". There are many events that occur which support this idea of resurrection through sacrifice. The "rebirth and resurrection is possible through sacrifice" theme is shown when Carton saves Darnay for Lucie, Lorry resurrects Dr. Manette, and the Defarges sacrifice their entire lives for the French Revolution get started.…

    • 776 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When the wine is spilled in the street, this highlights how poor the poor are and foreshadows the conflict associated with the French Revolution. Dickens chooses particularly different words that help amplify what he is trying to say. He uses the word “creatures” to describe the people drinking the wine. He uses this word in particular because he wants to…

    • 491 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times […] we were all going directly to Heaven, we were all going directly the other way" (Dickens 7). Charles Dickens "[influenced] the development of the serial novel" and created many classics (Pool 389). Only Shakespeare used the same writing techniques as Dickens (Engel). The novel "A Tale of Two Cities" is a grand example of character foils and doubling within one of Dickens ' novels. The use of England, France, and the characters makes the novel better because they add to the intensity of the plot "between the two eternally paradoxical poles of life and death" (Charles Dickens 421).…

    • 1253 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    The French Revolution was a time period of rebellion in the late 1700s throughout France. Charles Dickens wrote A Tale of Two Cities roughly sixty years after the French Revolution, starting as installments in a magazine then publishing his works in a book. The French Revolution was a time when man was extremely inhumane to his fellow man. This inhumanity is seen throughout Dickens’ novel in many ways. He proves that the cycle of man’s inhumanity to man is never ending when people come to watch Darnay’s trial for entertainment, the Marquis kills Gaspard’s child, and the Evermonde brothers kill Madame Defarge’s family.…

    • 1272 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the novel “A Tale of Two Cities” The author Charles Dickens uses various themes such as death and resurrection, social conflicts and sacrifice. To convey different ideas to the reader. Dickens also uses many forms of figurative language to help convey the many themes. Foreshadowing, allusion and motifs is some of the many figurative languages that is used. The story takes place during the french revolution. The novel starts off with a popular quote “ It was the best of times, It was the worst of times” This quote shows that the novel is can be interpreted differently to everyone. The themes that is discussed in the novel may not even be relevant to the novel because of his big use of…

    • 1370 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A Tale of Two Cities is not just about the struggles of Paris and London, during the time of the French Revolution. It is also about the social injustice and the struggle for class vengeance. One character, Madame Defarge, is tied into all of this. This stern, bitter woman has a loathing monster in her soul. Towards the end of the book, the reader discovers why she is so resentful of the upper class. Nevertheless, in the beginning of the book the reader ascertains that Dickens takes a side; he considers the rebels little better than savages. Dickens frequently makes the connection that the anarchy of the mob in France could also occur in England. For example, at Rodger Cly's funeral, the mob raids shops and sets fire to various objects. Dickens subtly points out how this is also happening in France during the French Revolution, except in France it is at a much higher scale. When this was written, in 1859, Charles Dickens tries to warn England not to allow the chaos of France to come to England. Even though Dickens says the mob is wrong, he maintain that the uppercases treated the lower class as human at their disposal. The story of the Marquis' murder of Madame Defarge's brother and the rape of her sister describes how the aristocrats maltreated the peasants and how that is past of the struggle for justice. On a smaller scale, the killing of Gaspard's boy is yet again a social injustice to the commoners of France. The Marquis St. Evrémonde has once more killed an innocent victim. The aristocrats have brought much pain, mental and physical, to the revolutionaries. Dickens, to show how cruel the aristocrats had been, has Monsiegneur momentarily stop and give the father a coin for the loss of his son. The working class of France was abused and demanded vengeance. But soon, paradoxically, the commoners are in charge. Social injustice again spreads, like a…

    • 506 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays