Volume Two

With the invention of the Guillotine, the French Revolution takes a bloody turn as the peasants seek revenge on the aristocracy, blaming the entire race of nobles for the suffering and mistreatment of the common people. Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens captures the transition of power from the nobles to the peasants through the course of the novel. The suffering, desperation, and anger inside of the peasants is released first in the Storming of the Bastille in retaliation to the power of…

While reading A Tale of Two Cities I noticed an abundance of conflicts which arose can be traced back to the female characters and the lack of education for them. The main conflict of the story and the root of all problems that occured in the book was caused by the sexual abuse of Madame DeFarge’s sister from Marquis Evremonde who was a rich french aristocrat. She is an example of a girl living in France during the Revolution who would hugely benefit from free education and empowerment. After…

Dr. Manette is one character that secretly illustrates the theme of appearance versus reality. In book one, Lucie Manette, daughter of Dr. Manette, finds her father and brings him “back to life” (54). Lucie helps her father to restart his life with her. Adding onto this, Dr. Manette appears to be well again, but the truth is, Dr. Manette is dying inside. When he reconnects with his daughter, Dr. Manette also starts caring for patients again. During the novel, Dr. Manette relapses several…

turmoil and change. Revolutions were shaping and transforming the country by means never seen before. Two books, Les Misérables and A Tale of Two Cities, are perfect examples that demonstrate the chaos of that time. One book, Les Misérables, is written by Victor Hugo, who is French, whereas the author of A Tale of Two Cities is Charles Dickens, an Englishman. However, while Les Misérables and A Tale of Two Cities differ in many ways, the overall theme from these stories is similar.…

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 “…

In this passage, Dickens talks about the theme of poverty in the story. He emphasizes the gloominess and hunger of the people through the use of irony and imagery. Dickens notes that the Defarge’s wine had always been very thin, but at that point in time the wine was unusually thin. The irony of this statement is that the thinness of the wine has not increased at all, but the poverty of the people has. Dickens likely used this example of irony as a way to explain that as the people continue to…

245) Dickens projects Sabbatarian London as likewise involving "an utter depression of soul"--"Melancholy streets, in penitential garb of soot, steeped the souls of the people who were condemned to look at them out of windows in dire despondency" (67)--before moving to the Povian "dreariness of thought" (245) that also characterized the Sabbaths of Arthur's childhood: There was the dreary Sunday of his childhood, when he sat with his hands before him, scared out of his senses by a horrible tract…

Lastly, law was approached in a different manner all due to the way that the government in a certain country had stated it. For example, in the book, A Tale of Two Cities, the way that people were punished when something bad was done, the guillotine was used as a punishment and was seen as a practice after the first couple of times; people who were innocent were sometimes killed by the guillotine. Charles Dickens writes, “‘Down, Evremonde! To the Guillotine all aristocrats! Down Evremonde!’”…

Doctor Manette in “Book the First” is broken and suffering from what we now know as PTSD, from being locked away in prison for eighteen years; prison has altered his personality. Dr. Manette no longer has an identity and refers to himself as the building he was held in, in Bastille prison. “One Hundred and Five, North Tower.” (Dickens 72) Although he is still in the prison mindset and a shell of his former self he still maintains the qualities of a round character. He is a figure of the trauma…

Dr. Manette is a very important character who makes a dramatic change throughout book the first of A Tale of Two Cities and can be considered a round character. Dr. Manette is originally considered dead but is then brought to light that he was imprisoned. Dr. Manette the makes a recovery from being barely human to being a fully functioning person. This transformation shows how realistic Dr. Manette because many people go through similar feelings when faced with similar situations. Dr.…