Metaphors In A Tale Of Two Cities

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens is a novel set during the time of the French Revolution in England and France. The French Revolution was a time of great danger and constant change. Dickens’ novel expresses the theme of fate through metaphors in many different ways. These metaphors connect the fates of Dickens’ characters that intertwine in some way, whether they are aware of how they connect to each other or not. The novel illustrates that fate is predetermined as shown through the metaphor of water, echoing footsteps, and knitting. The metaphor of water foreshadows the fates of Gaspard, the Marquis, and Madame Defarge. This metaphor is best described by Dickens when he says, “The water of the fountain ran, the swift river ran, the
This metaphor is first introduced through Lucie Manette, who says, “I have sometimes sat alone here of an evening, listening, until I have made the echoes out to be the echoes of all the footsteps that are coming by-and-by into our lives” (Dickens 77). The footsteps represent the people that come in and out of Lucie and Dr. Manette’s lives. In addition, they represent the mob of people in Paris when Mr. Lorry visits the Soho house, and the people who storm the Bastille. Circumstances lead Lucie to think these footsteps will become a danger to her and her family; therefore, Sydney Carton says, “I will take them into mine!” (Dickens 78). Carton is so willing to take these lives into his because he wants a way to be close to the Manette’s and be an important part of their family. Carton’s love for Lucie pushes him to do this and foreshadows Carton’s sacrifice for Lucie. By being a part of their lives, he can surround himself with good people and not be alone. Carton is trying to protect Darnay and his family from the dangerous footsteps, but one pair he cannot protect them from is the pair of Madame Defarge. She put them in danger as a result of her secret past. Madame Defarge explains the story of her secret past and her
Madame Defarge uses her past as a motive to carry out her terrible plan to assist the revolution by knitting her registry. Dickens describes Madame Defarge as she sits, watching, “The father had long ago taken up his bundle and hidden himself away with it, when the women who had tended the bundle while it lay on the base of the fountain, sat there watching the running of the water and the rolling of the Fancy Ball- when the one woman who had stood conspicuously knitting, still knitted on with the steadfastness of Fate” (Dickens 85). She was observing Gaspard holding his dead son because she was knitting the wrong doings of the Marquis Saint Evrémonde into her registry. The reason Madame Defarge put the Marquis in her registry is because he runs over Gaspard’s boy without any remorse and tries to give Monsieur Defarge money to pay off the boy’s death. Madame Defarge fates many people like the Marquis and others to die at the guillotine. She says, “I have this race a long time on my register, doomed to destruction and extermination” (Dickens 264). Madame Defarge dooms the race of the Evrémondes because of the two Evrémonde brothers who killed her family. The hatred that Madame Defarge has for that family adds suspense to the story because the reader is waiting for Madame Defarge to kill one of the family members or do something to sabotage