Tale Of Two Cities Evil Essay

A Tale of Two Cities In his novel, A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens demonstrates the various levels of human evil and how they are presented in society’s contrasting classes. The novel is set during the years leading up to the French Revolution. It gives the story of a few men and woman and the obstacles they have to face. Dickens throughout the novel intertwines symbolic representation of the conflict between France and England. He does an amazing job displaying how the aristocrats mistreat the peasants and common folk. Along with war, comes evil. It seeps its way into even the kindest of hearts. The disconnect between the wealthy and the poor becomes so terrible that it’s destroying the structure of society. Men almost become savage in the hopes of becoming free, they lose a sense of their humanness to survive.
The first example we see of the savagery that this underlying conflict brings is when a case of wine spills in the street.
People flock to the scene and begin licking up the wine from the ground. In the midst of this chaos a man bends down and with his finger writes on the wall the word “blood”. Symbolizing the blood that would soon cover those streets and the frightening reality of the threat that the common people brought. Dickens shows the desperation of the common people. Right after this scene, in a secret room a daughter is reunited with her ill father. He was imprisoned and the only thing that kept him from fully being overtaken by agony was, a few locks of his wife’s hair. Again, this reiterates the desperation of the peasants and poor and establishes the temperamental state of the country.
After

A Tale of Two Cities a heart wrenching speech Lucie, the daughter, decides her father needs to go to England to get away from the misery of Paris.
Dickens ties little symbolic touches all throughout the novel. An example being, when Lucie sits by the door listening to the footsteps echo in the streets. She exclaims how listening to the footsteps make her think of new people entering her life and the reply is if that were the case we would be expecting a whole crowd. Representing the crowds of soldiers and revolutionists soon to enter those same streets. Lucie is a pure and gentle young woman, who loves others and shows immense compassion to them. She catches the eye of two young bachelors, Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton. Charles Darnay is a very sophisticated man who comes from a wealthy family. His family is part of the aristocrats, though he is very ashamed of this fact. Sydney Carton on the other hand is a commoner and at the beginning of the novel a drunk. They both confess their love for Lucie. Out of the two confessions, Carton’s is the most touching and heart warming. Despite this fact Lucie marries Darnay. The contrast of the two men again shows the underlying theme of the differences between the poor and the wealthy. In conclusion, Dickens displays evil in humanity in a way that is very captivating. His imagery and symbolism adds depth to the book and keeps the reader in tune with his thoughts. He does a great job telling the conflict between France and England through this story.