In A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, the chapter “Knitting” occurs as the French Revolution is quickly approaching. During the chapter the reader is able to visualize the wine shop filled with revolutionaries awaiting the start of the action and becoming more and more tense. The mender of roads comes with Monsieur Defarge and tells the tale of how he saw Gaspard and how he came to his death. Afterwards the pair, accompanied by Madame Defarge, travel to watch a procession of the nobility and their views of the nobility and their extravagant wealth are seen. Through the use of symbolism and satire, Dickens is able to portray the building of anger in the people, and therefore the imminent revolution.
Symbolism is seen throughout the chapter …show more content…
The road mender mends and fixes the roads outside of a small town in the countryside, right outside of Paris. While he is working the carriage of Monsieur the Marquis travels by and the Marquis notices the road mender’s staring and demands to know what he is staring at. The road mender then tells Monsieur the Marquis that someone is hiding under his carriage and that he is “Tall as a spectre” (Dickens, 169). Even though he is a revolutionary and despised the aristocracy, the mender of roads still told the Marquis that someone is there and even gave a slight description without hesitation. The people’s readiness to obey the nobility even though they despise them and the nobility’s power over the people is what fuels their anger and the revolution. The mender of roads is also quick to praise the nobility when he sees them in all of their glory. While the nobility “despise” the very existence of the peasants, the road mender, “absolutely wept with sentiment” and had to be held by the collar to “restrain from flying at the objects of his brief devotion” (Dickens, 176), showing his brief love for the nobility and all their wealth and supposed glory. The revolutionaries were against the wealth and power of the nobility and by the end of the revolution citizens cannot appear to be too wealthy for fear of being persecuted. One of the revolutionaries being swayed to devotion for the nobility and for wealth, even if only temporary, is ironic as it is against the ideology of the revolution. That the people could be so easily swayed to the support of the nobility would have only fueled the anger of the revolution even more. Through these uses of irony Dickens portrays the building anger of the people and
Symbolism is seen throughout the chapter …show more content…
The road mender mends and fixes the roads outside of a small town in the countryside, right outside of Paris. While he is working the carriage of Monsieur the Marquis travels by and the Marquis notices the road mender’s staring and demands to know what he is staring at. The road mender then tells Monsieur the Marquis that someone is hiding under his carriage and that he is “Tall as a spectre” (Dickens, 169). Even though he is a revolutionary and despised the aristocracy, the mender of roads still told the Marquis that someone is there and even gave a slight description without hesitation. The people’s readiness to obey the nobility even though they despise them and the nobility’s power over the people is what fuels their anger and the revolution. The mender of roads is also quick to praise the nobility when he sees them in all of their glory. While the nobility “despise” the very existence of the peasants, the road mender, “absolutely wept with sentiment” and had to be held by the collar to “restrain from flying at the objects of his brief devotion” (Dickens, 176), showing his brief love for the nobility and all their wealth and supposed glory. The revolutionaries were against the wealth and power of the nobility and by the end of the revolution citizens cannot appear to be too wealthy for fear of being persecuted. One of the revolutionaries being swayed to devotion for the nobility and for wealth, even if only temporary, is ironic as it is against the ideology of the revolution. That the people could be so easily swayed to the support of the nobility would have only fueled the anger of the revolution even more. Through these uses of irony Dickens portrays the building anger of the people and