A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens, takes place during the French Revolution. During this time period, Dickens writes of townspeople who face incredibly unjust acts as a result of the start of the French Revolution. Poverty and the corruption of the ruling class are common in this moment and the cause of many problems. A Tale of Two Cities takes place during a historical time, yet has its own narrative, making it a historical novel. A man named Georg Lukacs, who was a Marxist, wrote a work called, Historical Novel. In his piece of work, Lukacs came up with thirteen conventions that help differentiate the genre, historical novel, from all others. Historical novels are so important because they are based on actually time periods and allow
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Dickens demonstrated the events leading up to the revolution and now the revolutionaries are acting out in brutal ways. In Chapter 22, the Revolutionaries learn that Foulon, a hated official whom they thought was dead, is alive. Foulon had fled the city, faked his own death and arranged his funeral in order to escape the angry townspeople. The people have such hatred towards this man because he told “the famished people that they might eat grass” if they are hungry. (219) In the endnotes, it also goes into detail that he was also responsible for manipulating food distribution for his own profit. (390) When the revolutionaries learned of his presence, they captured him and brought him to Hotel de Ville. The people were so distraught over what Foulon said; they lashed out and orchestrated a mob. On page 221, in A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens demonstrates how these people completely transform into something else after being faced with the injustice. He describes how the men were terrible and in “bloody-minded anger,” and how the women “were a sight to chill the boldest.” (221) When the mob captured Foulon, they stuffed grass into his mouth, hung him from a lamp post and after he died, they beheaded him and put his head on a pike. Dickens reveals the ruthlessness of the townspeople in this chapter after the years of abuse they have dealt
Dickens demonstrated the events leading up to the revolution and now the revolutionaries are acting out in brutal ways. In Chapter 22, the Revolutionaries learn that Foulon, a hated official whom they thought was dead, is alive. Foulon had fled the city, faked his own death and arranged his funeral in order to escape the angry townspeople. The people have such hatred towards this man because he told “the famished people that they might eat grass” if they are hungry. (219) In the endnotes, it also goes into detail that he was also responsible for manipulating food distribution for his own profit. (390) When the revolutionaries learned of his presence, they captured him and brought him to Hotel de Ville. The people were so distraught over what Foulon said; they lashed out and orchestrated a mob. On page 221, in A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens demonstrates how these people completely transform into something else after being faced with the injustice. He describes how the men were terrible and in “bloody-minded anger,” and how the women “were a sight to chill the boldest.” (221) When the mob captured Foulon, they stuffed grass into his mouth, hung him from a lamp post and after he died, they beheaded him and put his head on a pike. Dickens reveals the ruthlessness of the townspeople in this chapter after the years of abuse they have dealt