Tale Of Two Cities Inhumanity Analysis

The French Revolution was a time period of rebellion in the late 1700s throughout France. Charles Dickens wrote A Tale of Two Cities roughly sixty years after the French Revolution, starting as installments in a magazine then publishing his works in a book. The French Revolution was a time when man was extremely inhumane to his fellow man. This inhumanity is seen throughout Dickens’ novel in many ways. He proves that the cycle of man’s inhumanity to man is never ending when people come to watch Darnay’s trial for entertainment, the Marquis kills Gaspard’s child, and the Evermonde brothers kill Madame Defarge’s family.
The townspeople gather to watch Darnay’s trial for inhumane reasons, such as entertainment, eager for him to be found guilty
The imagery of inhumanity is seen in the Marquis’s selfish and destructive behavior, specifically when he recklessly runs over the child in his carriage. Dickens depicts how the peasants are completely overshadowed when the Marquis only stops to check on his horses, as he says, “But for the latter inconvenience, the carriage probably would not have stopped; carriages were often known to drive on and leave their wounded behind…and there were twenty hands at the horses’ bridles” (83). The Marquis has no sympathy for his actions, but only cares that his horses are in pristine conditions. The Marquis tries to make the situation right by throwing out money to the peasants, only enraging them even more, especially the child’s father, Gaspard. After this act of inhumanity towards the peasants and Gaspard, Gaspard has the urge to take revenge on the Marquis for killing his child as seen when Dickens recounts the downfall of the Marquis, “In the glow, the water of the chateau fountain seemed to turn to blood, and the stone faces crimsoned…At this, the nearest stone face seemed to stare amazed, and, with opened mouth and dropped under jaw, looked awe-stricken”(97). The water in the fountain symbolically represents life throughout the novel, and in this scene the water
The Evermonde brother’s inhumanity towards Madame Defarge’s family is observed through Dr. Manette’s journal when it is read at Charles Darnay’s last trial. The Evermonde brothers show no respect towards the peasants who served them. The Marquis describes the young peasant boy as “’A crazed young common dog! A serf!”’(251). The two brothers not only think of their peasants as dogs, but they treated them with great cruelty that is incomprehensible. An example of their extreme mistreatment of the peasants is when the younger Evermonde brother found himself in a duel with the young peasant boy and he eventually dies from his battle wound, described in the novel by Dr. Manette, “’I could not see where his wound was, as I kneeled on one knee over him; but, I could see that he was dying of a wound from a sharp point”’(251). The Evermonde brothers kill Madame Defarge’s sister, her brother-in-law, her father, and her younger brother. The mistreatment of her family leaves Madame Defarge with a craving for revenge on the Evermonde family. Not only does she want to kill the Marquis, but she also wants to kill “’The château and all the race’”(231), which includes Charles Darnay, Lucie, and little Lucie. Madame Defarge has no sense of her level of inhumanity towards the Evermonde family, but only desires to avenge the deaths of her family, leading to her