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.…
Undeniably, the book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson is an interesting yet enlightening read about a girl named Melinda Sordino who faces depression after a traumatic incident. There are multiple settings, but there are two major ones. The story mostly takes place at the MerryWeather High School. This is a place where Melinda fears to be at because she can run into Andy Evans, the boy who raped her at the summer party that left her devastated. The next setting is at Kyle Rodger’s party, this is where her depression began.…
After the Vietnam War, many soldiers returned home only to suffer from depression. For example, in Tim O'Brien’s book, The Things They Carried, Norman Bowker is one such soldier. He comes home to a town full of life, but it seems like a ghost town to him. While dealing with the horrible memories of war, he also has a hard time adjusting to his new surroundings. He finds out his girlfriend married another man, and he drives in circles around the lake in his hometown, where his best friend drowned to death.…
Walter Evans’s depiction of life and the people during the Depression of the 1930s is isolated, depressed, but also loving. For instance, in the photo of Bud Fields and his family, the picture is portrayed as a depressed and isolated family. The clothes look dirty and ragged and unclean. Their facial expressions show sadness and defeat. It looks as though there is no hope in their eyes.…
To Kill Mockingbird is a novel that was published in 1960. It was written by Harper Lee, who lived in Alabama during the great depression. The novel talks about a true story that happened during that time. The symbol of the mockingbird in the book means innocence such as that of Boo Radley, Tom Robinson, Jem, and Scout. In addition, it represents teaching his children ethical values and helping the oppressed such as when Atticus refuted the claims about Tom.…
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 novel, Of Mice and Men, portrays a somewhat accurate representation of the time period it is set in. The time period in question though not specifically mentioned in the book is inferred to be the Depression. This conclusion is drawn from the transitory nature that farm laborers are said to have in the novel and the sentiments shown throughout the novel ranging from the putting down of the weak in society to the apparent death of dreams. During the Depression, the sight of migrant workers was a common occurrence with unemployment as high as it was. The transitory nature of the migrant worker was also common due to rampant layoffs that must have occurred as prices fell in agricultural goods to lows that most likely did not cover costs…
The great depression struck and damaged the lives of many, and in the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, two characters have experienced just that. These characters go by the names of Lennie Small and George Milton; they seek refuge from the situation that had gone on in their original town of Weed. They obtain a job on a ranch and seek to gain a stake as hefty enough to purchase land to start their dream of forming a ranch to work and live on. But Lennie's strength and unpredictable behavior got the best of him, and he murdered a woman, causing his own execution. Even though throughout the novel, the relationship between Lennie and George created jealousy amongst the other men.…
Blood, terror, and war. All were characteristics of the French Revolution. The revolution began in France after peasants grew tired of the malevolence and poverty they faced at the hands of the French aristocracy (Sarpparaje 125). Charles Dickens’s novel A Tale of Two Cities follows the lives of numerous characters living in London, England and Paris, France. It begins in the year 1775, just before the start of the French Revolution (Dickens 5).…
Charles Dickens brought a very interesting point of view to the French Revolution. While he was narrating both sides of the fight, he was also stating a warning for the readers to come. The first two books of this novel are in the peasants favor, depicting the fight they had to overcome every day. However, the third book is much more powerful. He clearly states how innocent and sad the aristocrats became as they were murdered inhumanely by the ravenous peasants.…
Sydney Carton is probably the most dynamic Character in A Tale of Two Cities. With barely and information about him, Dickens keeps us wondering why he is the way he is. He’s a brilliant and handsome 25-year-old lawyer who is very successful. But instead, he is known as a drunken man, stumbling along the street. At the court we saw as he “sat leaning back, with his torn gown half off him, his untidy wig put on”, making him look sloppy and disorganized.…
As the chronology of Dickens’ life in the “Penguin Classics” 2003 republication of Little Dorrit points out that in 1824, twelve years after the birth of Charles Dickens, his father was put into the Marshalsea Debtor’s prison. It also claims that in the same year, Dickens was employed in a blacking warehouse, labeling bottles (Dickens vii). This connects Dickens directly with many of the characters that he writes in his novels. This account of Dickens’ life associates him more directly with Amy Dorrit, a character whose father is in the Debtor’s Prison, and Amy must work to sustain herself. Dickens is aware of the struggles of being in the lower class.…
When discussing his popular work the Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens explains the main theme that “Death may beget life, but oppression can beget nothing other than itself” (Dickens). Death and oppression often go together, with oppression resulting in death or death resulting in oppression. However, they differ in that death can result in something positive, such as the life of another person being saved while oppression only results in more oppression. Specifically, in The Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, the character Madame Defarge evinces this point because her childhood trauma affects her decisions as an adult. Like Madame Defarge, Queen Mary I of England, the mistreated and unwanted child of King Henry VIII, also emphasizes…
A timeless theme defines a phenomenon that can be applied to and understood in any era of the human existence, whether it be demonstrated through consistent presentation, or the lack thereof. The intricate philosophy that delves on the idea that if one is never satisfied, there will be no merry, can be summarized in one word; contentment. Contentment is a concept that can be witnessed in all lives, potentially experienced by someone who appreciates every small detail or one who has everything but always wishes for more. The latter can be seen in the character Ebenezer Scrooge in the play A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. The play of this title as well as the movie A Diva’s Christmas Carol by Richard Schenkman both show how being content…
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.…