Tale Of Two Cities Social Class Analysis

In the novel A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens, the author’s purpose was to emphasize the struggle and differences between the high and low classes. On page 15, Dickens describes the earth as “... cold and wet ...” (Dickens 15) while describing nature as “... clear ... bright, placid and beautiful.”(15). Dickens is showing the difference between high class and low class citizens; where the earth, cold and wet, characterize the lower class citizens, while nature, clear; bright; and beautiful, describe high class citizens. As of today this is still true, in which middle to high class citizens are still considered to be bright and beautiful. In more affluent areas, higher citizens are able to buy products from companies such as Apple or …show more content…
For example, to show the struggles of the lower class, he uses horses to depict their issues. “With drooping heads and tremulous tails, they mashed their way through the thick mud, floundering and stumbling between whiles as if they were falling to pieces at the larger joints” (6). Stuck and trapped, the horses represent the struggles of the lower class citizens, and because the high class repeatedly reaped the benefits of the lower class, they were not able to overcome poverty. Moreover, symbolism is used when Dickens describes the, “... clammy and intensely cold mist, (6) which, “... made its slow way through the air in ripples that visibly followed and overspread one another, as the wholesome sea might do. It was dense enough to shut out everything from the light of the coach-lamps...” (6). Incapacitating the view, the mist depicted the fact that people from lower class were not able to find their way out of poverty, similar to the way that the coach-riders were unable to escape the fog. Their lostness relates to the fact that they are stuck in poverty and can’t find their way out and because they are being taken advantage of, leading to an inability of overcoming