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Rhetorical Devices In A Tale Of Two Cities

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Throughout the novel, A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens uses a variety of rhetorical devices to convey his message of fate and history, but one of the most prominent devices used is symbolism. By strategically inserting an array of hidden symbols, such as the broken wine cask, footsteps, and Madame Defarge’s knitting, Dickens creates a bridge between the sequence of events that make up the story and the ideals of fate and history. To begin, the wine cask makes its first appearance in book one, chapter five when it is knocked to the ground in the streets of Saint Antoine. Dickens’ depiction of the broken wine cask outside Defarge’s wine shop, along with his portrayal of the peasants scrambling for the last lingering traces of the wine, clearly represents the desperate quality of the people’s hunger. Furthermore, their hunger ties directly …show more content…

links the wine with blood, then stating that “those who had been greedy with the staves of the cask, had acquired a tigerish smear about the mouth,” (37, Dickens.) He then portrayed a drunk citizen scrawling the …show more content…

Even on a literal basis, Madame Defarge’s knitting constituted a whole network of symbols. Through her needlework, she stitched a complex list of names of all those condemned to die in the name of a new republic. On a metaphoric level, the knitting became a symbol in itself, representing the cunning, merciless vengefulness of the revolutionaries. Similar to Madame Defarge, the French peasants may appear harmless and humble at first glance, but they evidently rise up to massacre the aristocracy. Dickens’s depiction of knitting also amplifies the association between vengeance and fate. In Greek mythology, the Fates are three sisters who use knitting or weaving as a vessel to control human life. In light of this, Madame Defarge’s knitting transforms into a symbol of her victims’

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A Tale of Two Cities, written by Charles Dickens, surrounds the cities of Paris and London during the late 1700’s. The novel takes place during the French Revolution, a period of social and political upheaval in France and England. While peasants died in the streets from hunger, aristocrats had more money and power than they knew what to do with. A Tale of Two Cities describes, in detail, the poverty of the time period, as well as the struggle of a people able to overcome oppression. The novel is largely based off of occurrences Dickens experienced during his childhood.

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Dickens first introduces the character Madame Defarge by giving a description of her features with the motif of dark, “ This, in combination with the lifting of her darkly defined eyebrows…” (31). In the quote, Dickens is using darkness to describe how Madame Defarge looks, which one can lead to describe Madame Defarge as an antagonist. Dickens again ties Madame Defarge and the motif of darkness by describing the rat holes that she creates in France when planning the revolution. The narrator describes, “... the rats were sleeping close together in their dark holes again…” (108). Dickens describes the poor people in France as rats, the reason being that the poor were looked upon as dirty.

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