Over The Hills and Far Away
Its interpretation of the French Revolution has strongly shaped British views of national identity and political legitimacy (Jones, McDonagh, Mee). Though a bold statement, the impact A Tale of Two Cities had on British society and its views on any type of revolution was significant. One of Charles Dickens most popular books, it accurately depicts the gore and bloodshed that was the French Revolution. Dickens uses an extreme amount of violence in his book to tie in more meaning and truth towards the revolution. Some truth he incorporates in the book include actual events and ideas that occurred in the war; such as the oppression and injustices the peasants faced under the aristocracy and their eventual plot for revenge, the storming of the Bastille, and the impact women had in the revolution.
Now, found in hunting the people; now, found in hunting the beasts, for whose preservation Monseigneur made edifying spaces of barbarous and barren wilderness. No. The change consisted in the appearance of strange faces of low caste, rather than in the disappearance of the high-caste, chiseled, and otherwise beatified and beatifying features of Monseigneur (Dickens 223). Dickens wrote this book of revenge and sacrifice in order to express his concern towards England and its social problems, including relations with the poor, possibly producing a revolution in England formidable to the French Revolution. Dickens had every right to be fearful of such an event, not only because of the violence it entailed, but it was indeed provoked from the poor who sought revenge (Kiran-Raw). Their behaviors were animalistic, every person who had the appearance of a gentleman, whether stranger or not, was run through the body with a pike, or worse (Liu). The hate the peasants had for the aristocracy stemmed from constant abuse and rejection from the simplest of necessities. It was said by an aristocrat himself, Joseph-Francois Foulon, who told the peasants to eat grass during a famine, only fueling the fire and leading to his gruesome execution (Fetzer 451). Words and actions like these are what caused the oppressed citizens of France to go over the edge. Dickens uses a chain of these tragic events directed towards the peasants from the aristocracy to eventually lead to the beginning of the revolution. It begins with the evil done to Madame Defarge and her family; the Evremonde twins raping her sister along with killing her brother and other severe injustices. The awful death of Gaspards son, who was ran over by an indifferent Marquis Evremonde, and eventual execution of Gaspard himself. This was the straw that broke the camels back, bringing upon the storming of the Bastille and triggering the horrors of the French Revolution as we know it. These few deaths of lower-class, less important commoners led to a gaudier amount of executions and slayings of significant leaders of France.
The revolutionaries took pride in their cause. Throughout the novel, they go by the alias of Jacques, most likely in regards to Jacques Necker, who was eventually dismissed as the chief minister to King Louis XVI. Necker was seen as the savior of France while the country stood on the brink of ruin, but his actions could not stop the French Revolution (Fetzer 453). Two days after Neckers dismissal, the storming of the Bastille occurred. Necker was the last voice of the people, as well as their last hope, and just as everything else was, he too was taken from them (Carlyle 41). This paved the way for a character we see portrayed in the book, Maximilien Robespierre. A fiery individual who was instrumental during the Reign of Terror, his main ideal was to ensure virtue and soverignty of the people (Mills). A character in the book who can be described as a fiery individual who serves as a major voice of the people is Madame Defarge. She represents all that is wrong and evil in the revolution, but yet shes the spark in the revolution, decapitating the governor of the Bastille, and a leader of the riotous mob throughout its berserk rampages. Both Robespierre and Madame Defarge succeeded in having many aristocrats condemned and executed. Even though Madame Defarge does most of her executing by hand, they both eventually meet their fatal and predictable ends. On the opposite end, Dickens created Charles Darnay, an honest, noble man, in his image. He is against the revolution just as Dickens is, and Darnay wants nothing to do with his aristrocratic title. Just as Charles Darnay and Sidney Carton resemble each other physically, they also resemble the little that is good in the revolution. One could say Carton represents Jean-Paul Marat, a man filled with passionate rage towards the revolution (Mills). Like Carton, he was murdered for his cause, and could be called a martyr for that cause. Just how Carton is compared to Jesus for his noble sacrifice, so too is Marat, as said by the elegy of the National Assembly: Like Jesus, Marat loved ardently the people, and only them. Like Jesus, Marat hated kings, nobles, priests, rogues and, like Jesus, he never stopped fighting against these plagues of the people (Carlyle 22). There is no doubt the peasents of France were treated unjustly, just as they were told to eat grass during an occasion when they had nothing. Untaught, uncomforted, unfed, a dumb generation; their voice only an inarticulate cry they have none that finds credence (Carlyle 58). But, the extent they took it to is also unjust and inhumane, and only further increased chaos.
On then, all Frenchman, that have hearts in your bodies! Roar with all your throats, of cartilage and metal, ye Sons of Liberty; stir spasmodically whatsoever of utmost faculty is in you, soul, body, or spirit; for it is the hour! Never did your axe strike such a strokeTyranny be swallowed up forever! The Bastille is besieged! (Carlyle 64). The storming of the Bastille was the focal point of the revolution, even with its limited amount of violence. The siege gave the mob a positive attitude despite their position, giving them the audicity to actually go through with a revolution for their rights (Fetzer 455). Never has a bunch of peasents been able to overrun and conquer nobility or any source of government (Carlyle 571). The small glimpse of hope that flickered before the revolutionaries occurred from their storming of the fortress-prison. Their increased anger shifted to the royalty, where the guillotine came largely into play. Very few, if any, were spared, and their deaths were horrendous; execution by way of guillotine became the easiest and cleanest way of death.
"But indeed, at that time, putting to death was a recipe much in vogue with all trades and professions Death is Nature's remedy for all things (Dickens 51). Seemingly enough, Dickens uses a great statement through his Bastille storming by showing that the use of violence only stirs the pot of more violence. Once the Defarges and the rest of the mob get going, they cant stop; almost like a vampire fiending for more blood. Madame Defarge said it herself, then tell the wind and fire where to stop, but don't tell me (338). In fact, Madame Defarges vast use of violence causes her death to be violent and messy. She couldnt stop killing, and by searching for Lucie so she could in turn murder her, too, she meets a large brick wall in Miss Pross. Dickens uses this event to focus his writing on Madame Defarges murderous actions and bloodthirsty attitude, singling her out to commit the first real vicious undertaking. The way Madame Defarge behaves with such passion and anger promotes her as someone the revolutionaries look to for guidance; they seem to look at her for guidance and to raise the morale of the mob. Defarge is a prime example of how women played just as much, if not more, of a role in the revolution than men did.
Traditional values express women in a more personal and private world of the home and family, and their activites being reproductive and domestic (Wood 18). In Vicotrian Literature, this value was strictly enforced even more (Kiran-Raw), and in A Tale of Two Cities, this is Lucies position. Lucie is viewed as a girly-girl who is fancied by all the men, and remains perfect through her goody-goody personality. While other women are out killing and rioting, Lucie stays at home, providing and watching over her son. Whereas Madame Defarge literally de-sexes women, stripping them of their feminine qualities of passivity and pity (Wood 113). Defarges personality goes against nature itself; we constantly see her outside the home, knitting, plotting, being secretive in her actions. Shes never a mother or a daughter or a caretaker, but a high-strung, dynamic leader, completely contrasting Lucie.
From such household occupations as their bare poverty yielded, from their children, from their aged and their sick crouching on the bare ground famished and naked, they ran out with streaming hair, urging one another, and themselves, to madness with the wildest cries and actions (Dickens 219). In Dickens novel, we see the women taking the brunt of the oppression; the raping conducted by Evremonde twins, or not having enough to support their family while the husband is either dead or in prison. Lucie has to go without her father for seventeen years, and is raised by Miss Pross. She then almost loses the love of her life, and becomes distraught over his sure execution and death. Madame Defarge falls victim to many tragedies in her family, where her pain and anger arises from. In a sense, Dickens is showing us that women, if pushed hard enough, have a much more violent personality. Because of this, women are no longer confined to their homes but are involved in public affairs and allowed to make an impact in the world (Wood 81). Just as women make a sure impact in his novel, they make a severe one in Dickens own life; this may have impacted his writing towards women in his novel. He wrote A Tale of Two Cities during his affair, and seemed bitter towards his wife for her plain looks and dull personality. Lucie represents the beauty he desires in a women, and Defarge complements the wild, spontaneous side that was not relevant in his own wife. This two-tone attitude involves a sense of love and protection towards Lucie Manette, who conveys Ellen Ternan. On the other hand, Madame Defarges eventual death takes on the death of his love toward his wife Catherine, who was stripped of her ten kids, her home, and her husband.
Dickens style of writing is one of irony and foreshadowing; not too subtle, but a grey shade to keep the reader interested and concerned for the characters (Kiran-Raw). He puts a lot of energy and focus into his characters, and the littlest detail of their personality may play a large role in the book. There are also patterns that occur and continue to escalate as the book moves forward. The pattern can be seen between the two cities; those who represent what is good in the revolution end up in England, where its safe, and those depicted as a source of evil will meet their fatal ends, violently, in the French Revolution. Another pattern is the string of violence that begins in the opening of the novel, which led to the storming of the Bastille and eventually other violent acts of the revolution. A book centered around revenge and wants, Madame Defarge meets her deserving death by her seemingly unending search for revenge (Jones, McDonagh, Mee). In the end, the two cities come to interpret their own meaning; calmness and turbulence, indulgence or imprisonment, life or death (Jones, McDonagh, Mee).
Works Cited
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Carlyle, Thomas. The French Revoluton: A History. New York: Random House, Inc., 2002.
Dickens, Charles. A Tale of Two Cities. New York: Penguin Group, Inc., 1997.
Fetzer, Scott. French Revolution. The World Book Encyclopedia. World Book, Inc. 1985.
Jones, Jon, and Josephine McDonagh. Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, and the French Revolution. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.
Kiran-Raw, Meltem. The Victorian Web. The French Revolution in the Popular Imagination: A Tale of Two Cities. 1998. 9 December 2008
Liu, Alan. English Dept., U. California, Santa Barbara (transcribed 2/17/00).
Mills, Ian C. Discover France. The French Revolution. 1989. 3 December 2008
Wood, Kirsten E. Masterful Women: Slaveholding Widows from the American Revolution through the Civil War. New Jersey: The University of North Carolina
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