Charles Dickens uses symbolism as a means to foreshadow events to come in his books. Symbolism is the use of indirect suggestions to express mystical ideas, emotions, and states of mind. Foreshadow means to indicate an event that is to come. His methods of foreshadowing can be seen when he describes things such as the wine in the streets, Lucie hearing footsteps, and when he describes people hurting towards shelter.
While a cart is being unloaded, a barrel of whine is dropped and it burst, spilling wine all over the street in front of the wine shop. This is symbolic and represents the vast amounts of blood spilled during the revolution. It also foreshadows a part near the end of the book, where people are lined up, waiting to be killed on the guillotine. We can see that this is true because Dickens writes “The time was
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The footsteps that dickens mentions symbolize people coming into our lives but also leaving them. On the other hand, they foreshadow the approaching horror of the French Revolution. We are told of this when dickens writes “Lucie sat in the still house in the tranquilly resounding corner. listening to the echoing footsteps of the years”(p.216). He also foreshadows the characters getting caught up in the French Revolution by symbolizing a furious storm on the way. He does this by writing “People speeding away to get shelter before the storm broke”(p.107)
Both symbolism and the element of foreshadowing play an important role in A Tale of Two Cities. Dickens’ writing is intriguing because of his use of symbolism to foreshadow events. It’s also intriguing because may symbolize many thins, but everything he symbolizes foreshadows a specific event. In conclusion, dickens uses symbolism as a means to foreshadow when he writes about the spilling of the wine, Lucie hearing the footsteps, and the oncoming