Symbolism In A Tale Of Two Cities

Joan Kane
Chao
English 10 Honors
11 January 2016
The Wealthy Aristocrats vs. The Poor Peasants of France
A revolution often represents the cycle of achieving new power. Usually, the cause of a revolution is due to the division of social classes, causing one class to feel inferior to the other. In his novel, A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens, writes about the French Revolution to illustrate that a revolution symbolizes a need for change and liberation, often because of the greedy and wealthy aristocrats who have too much power. However, as the revolution transpires, the lower class becomes just as power-hungry and inhumane as their enemies, shown through their actions. Both the aristocrats and the peasants are tempted to control all

Dickens uses the symbol of red wine spilling, in a suburban Parisian street, to depict the picture of how thirsty the peasants are for liberation. “All the people within reach had suspended their business, or their idleness, to run to the spot and drink the wine” (20). The people who had witnessed the spilling of the wine stopped their activities and rushed to drink the wine. Dickens uses this symbol to demonstrate the desire of a new way of life the peasants long for. The peasants, quickly shrugged off their duties to rush to the spilt wine, revealing their hunger for change. Dickens also says, “The time was to come when that wine too would be spilled on the street-stones, and when the stain of it would be red upon man there” (22). Dickens uses the wine to foreshadow the events of the revolution, stating that when the time comes (the revolution), blood will be spilt on the streets and people would be stained with it. When the peasants finally begin to fight back, marching through the streets armed with weaponry, Dickens describes the peasants as a raging sea that rises and overflows the city. “With a roar that sounded as if all the breath in France had been shaped into the detested word, the living sea rose, wave on wave, depth on depth, and overflowed the city to that point. Alarm-bells ringing, drums beating, the sea raging and thundering on its new beach, the attack began” (166). Dickens uses a natural force to represent the peasants because a natural force has no limits and can be very powerful. The rising of the sea represents the peasants rising up to the wealthy and the start of the revolution. This representation shows that the poor are determined and hungry for liberation and will do anything for it. Towards the end of the revolution,