Diction is extremely prevalent in this excerpt from Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities. In this text about the violent storming of the Bastille, Dickens uses diction to help the reader visualize the transition from the anticipation of the mob to the chaos and anarchy of the battle. During the beginning of the passage when people were gathering around the streets in preparation for the ensuing violence, Dickens uses language such as “vast dusky mass (1)” , “forest of naked arms (5)”, and “ whirlpool of boiling waters (23)” to describe how people from all parts of Paris unified into one single mob, boiling over with “high-fever strain (20)” and “high-fever heat”. This effectively demonstrates that Dickens wanted to use this language to show
