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The Footsteps Die Out Forever In A Tale Of Two Cities By Charles Dickens

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The Footsteps Die out Forever

The name, “The Footsteps Die out Forever” refers to the last chapter in the novel A Tale of Two Cities by 19th century Charles Dickens. This passage takes place at the very end of the book, and details the consequences of Carton’s actions. Before this passage we observe Carton’s swap with Darnay, the escape of the Manette family, and the death of Madame Defarge.
This passage occurs at the very end of the book, and serves as a conclusion to the story of the whole. At this point in the book, many of the “loose ends” in the plot are tied up, as our protagonists have narrowly escaped the wrath of the revolution. In this chapter the story literally ends for both us, and Sydney Carton. The end of the book serves as …show more content…

At the beginning of each paragraph of Carton’s thoughts, the phrase “I see” is repeated in regards to Carton’s vision of the future. This repetition illustrates his insight, in seeing beyond his death, beyond his life, and towards a point where the horrors of this day will be forgotten. He looks beyond the present, and describes that this city of destruction will be repaired by the “brilliant people” of this “beautiful city” who are “rising from the abyss”. Dickens uses such diction as “brilliant”, and “beautiful”, words which only have positive connotations, to describe the people who had just wrongly sentenced Darnay and are about to execute Carton. This usage serves to describe Carton’s willingness to see beyond the atrocities of the day. This idea is also demonstrated in Dicken’s metaphor “rising from the abyss”, to describe Carton’s belief that the people will return from this madness. This strand of thought is concluded in Carton’s described vision of the end of the current evil, “I see the evil of this time and of the previous time of which this is the natural birth, gradually making expiation for itself and wearing out”. Here Dickens personifies the evil, which in this case refers to the murderous violence of the revolutionaries. And much like the cycle of human life from birth to death, evil follows the cycle from “natural birth” to “wearing out”. Carton’s belief in this …show more content…

How that might translate into restoring Paris from its current state of violence is left unspecified, yet Carton is sure this will

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