Tale Of Two Cities Passage Analysis

In Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, the peasantry of Paris is transformed into a vicious ochlocracy by the Revolution they spark. Although this is clearly evident in passages that depict scenes of violence and fighting, this idea is exemplified in the passage that depicts Lucie Manette and her child coming into contact with radicals performing the Carmagnole (a song and dance celebrating revolutionary victories) in “The Wood-Sawyer.” Literally, this passage shows the revolutionaries taking to the streets to perform the Carmagnole dance, increasing frenzied support for the revolution’s cause. The figurative implications of this are greater, however, as a dance is a sort of act of communion between a group of people wherein a basic understanding
Dickens’ techniques, which present both the dehumanization and deindividuation of the mob, makes the reader question the relationship between the two. The passage begins, “There could not be fewer than five hundred people, and they were dancing like 5000 demons,” (1-2). Established in this is demonic imagery, in an otherwise joyful and light affair. The juxtaposition of dance, which has positive connotations, with demons, creates an unsettling inversion of social expectations and norms, causing an uncomfortable and sinister mood. Furthermore, the power of the mob is clearly established through this hyperbole of 500 people morphing into 5000 demons, in addition to the deindividuation occurring as 500 individuals become a demonic figure beyond themselves. A similar idea is embodied in the described that, as the dancers neared Lucie, “some ghastly apparition of a dance-figure gone raving mad arose among them” (6-7) This not only encompasses the group into one being, but a “ghostly” one, dehumanizing them even further. From the start of the passage, word choice with connotations of water imagery emphasizes the dehumanization of the revolutionaries as well as signal that they are a force of nature with which to be reckoned. The phrase when the revolutionaries first came, “a throng of people came pouring round the corner,” as well as “a mere storm of coarse red caps” (5), and “as they filled the place” (6) show that those involved are no longer individuals, since they have become as insignificant individually as droplets, but together form a wave of destruction. This deindividuation is also shown in Dicken’s description of the dance’s organization, where he states that “men and women danced together, women danced together, men danced together,” (4). The use of grouping by gender, while causing the deindividuation of the peasants, also reminds