Charles Dickens portrays Madame Defarge, Sydney Carton, and Charles Darney as morally ambiguous characters. Dickens’ background as a muckraker dissected into it to reveal the hidden story boiling underneath human nature. Muckrakers are incredibly objective, as was Dickens’ writing style. His past experiences gave him an insight of morally ambiguous characters to use in his novel. Madame Defarge can clearly be described as hasty, vengeful, whatever nasty adjective seen fit.…
He wanted to show his audience that people living in poverty could be good people, by using the archetype of a poor but happy family. Dickens desired to change this perception to encourage the audience of the time to be more generous and kind to the…
The motif of darkness assists the context in A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens whilst directing to the inscrutable quality of human nature, the foreboding mystery in its setting, and the overbearing obscurity over clarity. First, Dickens conveys the motif of darkness through the characters’ reactions and sentiments. For instance, Dickens portrays the dehumanizing nature of society through relevant characters when he illustrates, “Those who had been greedy with the staves of the cask, had acquired a tigerish smear about the mouth; and one tall joker so besmirched, his head more out of a long squalid bag of a night-cap than in it, scrawled upon a wall with his finger dipped in muddy wine-less –BLOOD” (Dickens 32). This is intriguing as it displays the savage-like features the civilization had acquired as they yearned for a revolution that would act upon…
Charles Dickens wanted to spread awareness of societal injustices in the Victorian Era. In Stave 1, Dickens presented three issues that involved a materialistic dystopia. First, he painted a detailed picture of the, “cold, bleak, biting weather,” (Dickens 9) where people could barely breathe any fresh air and the sky was always dark and smoggy. This was an effect of people constantly polluting the environment through the use of fires and taking advantage of resources. Then, Dickens introduced inhumane working conditions when the clerk was freezing while he copied papers.…
On the other hand, Dickens makes clear the overzealous thirst for blood and brutality of the French revolutionaries who brought unnecessary terror upon the aristocrats. Although Charles Dickens shows…
Dickens makes this point by showing drastic differences in the social circles of Defarge and Carton. Madame Defarge is surrounded by blood thirsty, starving revolutionaries who are willing to do anything. “the vengeance” is one character in particular that enforces Defarges unhealthy obsession. In the novel, Dickens makes it clear that the group is no longer confined by morals “give us the blood of Foulon, give us the head of foulon, give us the heart of foulon… ”(Dickens )…
However, his sympathy toward the French aristocracy is more prevalent. Dickens frequently notes the imprisonment and killings of innocent people due to their status as an aristocrat. Also, Dickens demonstrates the ferocity and viciousness the revolutionaries are in great detail. These inform the reader that he sympathizes with the aristocrats. While it can be argued that Dickens sympathizes more with the revolutionaries because the beginning of the novel lays emphasis on the social injustice that occurs and how the peasants/eventual revolutionaries are treated like vermin, they took it to a new level and produced far too much carnage.…
With these important details, it is shown that Charles Dickens did sympathize with the upper class citizens of the novel. To contradict this thesis, there are many examples from the first two books, ‘Recalled to Life’ and ‘The Golden Thread.’ The aristocrats are depicted as awful people…
“This is the even-handed sealing of the world!” He said. “There is noth-ing on which it is so hard as poverty; and there is nothing it professes to condemn with such severity as the pursuit of wealth!” (Dickens, Charles.) From the words of Ebenezer Scrooge, we see that society in England during Charles Dickens’s life despises the poor and harshly judges the rich who seek more fortune.…
Dickens uses the theme of sacrifice to show the reader how the revolution, specifically the French Revolution, can lead to such terrible endings, like the…
Dickens continuously bridges symbolism and religious undertones to expose the horror of…
Dickens purposefully evokes emotion throughout his literature in order for the reader to truly understand the life of a person living through such a revolutionary time in morality, values, technology, and family…
Dickens himself experienced injustice in his life, all men and women do. Perhaps Dickens is telling people to prevent this kind of injustice when they see it, and ensure it does not get out of hand. Mankind has a responsibility to fight against injustices, like those committed by the Marquis. Such heinous crimes must not go unpunished, regardless of the offender’s station. The murder of a child, and of a family, must not go unpunished.…
Revenge: An Acceptable Answer? The French Revolution was a dangerous period in France when the peasants, influenced by the American Revolution, decided to overthrow the monarchy. The plot of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens is set around this chaotic time. During this period, many characters take their revenge on others who have wronged them. Through his examples of revenge, Dickens provides insight towards whether or not revenge is acceptable.…
Many people have opinions over what makes you more entitled than the next. You get this snobbishness between the periods in literature. Most have debated who was able to have a richer more substantial literary life and whom has influenced it’s readers to greater things. Many need to ask themselves, “Who makes the greater social impact?” the Victorians or the writers in the 20th century, the Modernists.…