Tale Of Two Cities Rhetorical Analysis

Dickens’ Sympathy Towards Revolutionaries in A TAle of Two Cities “Too often, we judge other groups by their worst examples; too often we judge ourselves by our best intentions.” - George W. Bush. In his writing, Charles Dickens regularly sides with the lower class people because of his experiences. However in the historical fiction novel, A Tale of Two Cities Dickens sides against the revolutionaries for their hypocrisy. Just by the way that Dickens starts off the novel, “It was the best of times, worst of times” it is shown that the times were very extreme and people were being treated very poorly. Violence was a continuous trend throughout this time period and Dickens put no end to it in his writing. However, in A Tale of Two Cities Dickens …show more content…
Dickens is not sympathetic in portraying the revolutionaries as extremely violent, even to the point of being extreme. This is perfectly demonstrated when Madame Defarge cuts off an aristocrat’s head. Dickens does not hold back in expressing the heinous acts committed by Madame Defarge with violent imagery: “...she put her foot upon his neck, and with her cruel knife-- long ready-- hewed off his head” (Dickens, 237) . Before this, we have only seen Madame Defarge as patient and calm, constantly knitting. But now we see what she has been patiently waiting for when she cuts off an aristocrats head after he is already dead. This is the first glimpse of how truly ruthless the revolutionaries are to their “enemies”. Later in the novel, and further along in the revolution, we see the guillotine killing large numbers of people a day.”Sixty-three today. We shall mount to a hundred soon,” says the wood-sawyer when talking to Sydney Carton about his view of the guillotine (338). The wood-sawyer expresses the thoughts of many citizens in Paris, they do not care about the people that are being killed, they only care for the number and the spectacle of the guillotine. They are always excited to see these people get killed even if there are no real charges against the person. Overall, the portrayal of …show more content…
The majority of the aristocrats in the story are portrayed as also being treated unjustly, which helps to exemplify the notion of the revolutionaries being ruthless and merciless. Darnay’s wrongful imprisonment by the revolutionaries does not cause any loss of sleep, but instead is a common sight: “...and a few shook their fingers at him as an aristocrat; otherwise, that a man in good clothes should be going to prison, was no more remarkable than that a labourer in working clothes should be going to work.” (273). People on the streets do not even question why he is going to prison when they see his nice clothing because many aristocrats are imprisoned for no reason everyday. Even though Darnay was trying to help someone else and had done nothing but try to help the people of Paris, they still imprison him for being a part of a family he didn’t chose. By the sheer number of people being executed daily the revolutionaries are imprisoning many people. Many of which did not do anything to try and harm anyone, the revolutionaries just don’t like what their class has done. Many of the revolutionaries are also consumed by revenge and kill many people because of it. Madame Defarge even admits that her overwhelming desire for revenge does not allow her to act rationally: “my husband has not my reason for pursuing this family to annihilation, and I