San Antoine, a character?
Final Copy
Charles Dickens, a Victorian era author, had a very intricate and clever way of writing. In the novel, A Tale of Two Cities he creates the sense that San Antoine, the slums of Paris, is an active character in the novel. He does this by describing the people of San Antoine as a single mass, showing how they become crazed and animal like when food is present, and personifying the suburb to create an image of a character in the mind.
At the beginning of chapter five, The Wine-shop, a casket of wine ruptures on the cobbles and leaks into the street and, “All the people within reach had suspended their business, or their idleness, to run to the spot and drink the wine… Others, directed by lookers-on up at high windows, darted here and there, to cut off little streams of wine that started away in new directions” (Dickens 20-21). As soon as the wine was spilt, all the people in the area and even more not on the street mobilied immediately to gather as much wine as possible. They worked as a single unit making sure none of the wine could get away from their searching lips. They routed the wine and blocked it off as it tried to make new paths through the cobbles while the rest slurped it …show more content…
In multiple places, Dickens throws in personification of San Antoine, “...Returned amicably to the bosom of Saint Antoine...Saint Antoine had again enfolded the Defarges in his dusky wings...The taste of Saint Antoine” (Dickens 135,136, 139). Dickens has personification scattered throughout the whole novel to subconsciously make the reader associate San Antoine as a living and breathing character. Moreover, when Dickens is referring to all the people of San Antoine, whether it be their opinions or their actions, he just calls them “San Antoine”. This also adds to the feeling of a real character because everyone is being thought of singularly instead of
Final Copy
Charles Dickens, a Victorian era author, had a very intricate and clever way of writing. In the novel, A Tale of Two Cities he creates the sense that San Antoine, the slums of Paris, is an active character in the novel. He does this by describing the people of San Antoine as a single mass, showing how they become crazed and animal like when food is present, and personifying the suburb to create an image of a character in the mind.
At the beginning of chapter five, The Wine-shop, a casket of wine ruptures on the cobbles and leaks into the street and, “All the people within reach had suspended their business, or their idleness, to run to the spot and drink the wine… Others, directed by lookers-on up at high windows, darted here and there, to cut off little streams of wine that started away in new directions” (Dickens 20-21). As soon as the wine was spilt, all the people in the area and even more not on the street mobilied immediately to gather as much wine as possible. They worked as a single unit making sure none of the wine could get away from their searching lips. They routed the wine and blocked it off as it tried to make new paths through the cobbles while the rest slurped it …show more content…
In multiple places, Dickens throws in personification of San Antoine, “...Returned amicably to the bosom of Saint Antoine...Saint Antoine had again enfolded the Defarges in his dusky wings...The taste of Saint Antoine” (Dickens 135,136, 139). Dickens has personification scattered throughout the whole novel to subconsciously make the reader associate San Antoine as a living and breathing character. Moreover, when Dickens is referring to all the people of San Antoine, whether it be their opinions or their actions, he just calls them “San Antoine”. This also adds to the feeling of a real character because everyone is being thought of singularly instead of