Symbols and Symbolism in A Tale of Two Cities - Symbolic...

Symbolic Events in A Tale of Two Cities Many events that take place in A Tale of Two Cities, written by Charles Dickens, foreshadow upcoming obstacles and give insight into the hardships of the townspeople. Symbolic events occur which describe the vengefulness of the peasants towards the aristocrats. The novel contains many events, which have symbolic value. Many of the symbols have to do with the inevitable clash between the aristocrats and peasants. These events foreshadow the war that is soon to become reality. The first apparent symbolic event is the broken wine cask. A large cask of wine drops and breaks in the street and the people of St. Antoine stop their daily business to drink the wine from the†¦show more content†¦The broken wine cask conveys the suffering and rage that will lead the French peasantry to revolt. The second symbolic event that occurs is the scrawling of the word blood on the wall. One of the men partaking in the drinking of the wine writes the word blood by dipping his finger in the wine-stained mud and using that as his writing tool. One tall joker so besmirched, his head more out of a long squalid bag of a night-cap than in it scrawled upon a wall with his finger dipped in BLOOD (Dickens 33). The word blood symbolizes the unavoidable(muddy wine-lees war that is emerging between peasants and aristocrats. The red letters represent the blood that will flow freely from the aristocrats and political officials. The wine cask and the scrawling of blood indicate the rise in tensions between the two classes. The time was to come, when that wine too would be spilled on the street-stones, and when the stain of it would be red upon many there (Dickens 33). This statement foreshadows the upcoming struggle and the vengeance of the peasantry. The liquid smears on the peasants hands, feet, and faces foreshadow the approaching chaos. The symbolic events in A Tale of Two Cities foreshadow upcoming obstacles and give insight into the hardship of the townspeople. Charles Dickens uses the symbols to indicate the terrible events that occur in the following years. The peasantry is being treated unfairlyShow MoreRelatedThe Handmaids Tale By Margaret Atwood And Catching Fire By Suzanne Collins1522 Words   |  7 Pagesoxforddictionaries.com).The text, The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood and Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins deal with the main idea of societal restraint. Both authors portray a protagonist who is living in a totalitarian society. The protagonists in both novels have harsh limitations which they must abide to. The authors use setting, oppression, and symbolism as restraint for societal control. Setting is a demonstration of restraint because in both novels the city/district has a barrier, which limits theRead MoreCritical Analysis on a Tale of Two Cities2729 Words   |  11 PagesChelsey Cardwell Dual Credit English 1/3/12 Mr. Burns A Literary Analysis of A Tale of Two Cities I. Introduction Charles Dickens’ twelfth novel, A Tale of Two Cities, was written to show all of the good and evil that was present during the French Revolution. He uses the two main cities, London and Paris, to represent this, and then ties in a love story with many different symbols of good and evil such as Darnay and Carton, Madame Defarge and Miss Pross. In his novel, Dickens also shows bothRead MoreThe Setting and Symbols in the Mayor of Casterbridge1388 Words   |  6 Pages setting atmosphere mood symbol character coincidences Abstract: Modern critics consider Hardy a great writer and they consider The Mayor of Casterbridge one of Hardy ¡Ã‚ ¯s two great novels. Of all the Wessex ¡Ã‚ ¯s novels, however, this is the least typical. Although it makes much less use of the physical environment than do the others, we still cannot ignore the frequently use of symbols and setting in the novel. In my essay, I ¡Ã‚ ®ll analyze the function of the symbols and the setting in The MayorRead MorePortraiture Depictions Of Queen Elizabeth I1578 Words   |  7 PagesShe embellished the way she wanted to be seen or perceived, it was how she controlled her public image and communicate to the people of the country, she only showcased the way people should only view her. The portraits show her identity, historical events, displays concrete arguments about her identity as a virgin, royalty, power, and purity. The first portrait of Elizabeth I as Queen is the Coronation Portrait, this portrait captured her beginning moments as Queen. This portrait also dictates howRead More Mythology and Archetypes in Harper Lees To Kill a Mockingbird2536 Words   |  11 Pagespatterns unearthed apply universally to all works, yielding results that can be applied to a great many texts. This is because the very nature of the Mythological/Archetypal approach is the exploration of the canon for widespread and pervading symbols, plots, and characters. These are all greatly extant in Harper Lees classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird, an extraordinary examination of the Depression-era South through the eyes of a young girl with rare intelligence and insight, living in aRead MoreThe Things They Carried By Tim O Brien1970 Words   |  8 Pagesreader is exposed to unknown taboo recollections of war tales in which the protagonist and sub characters cannot remove from memory. Moreover, The Things They Carrie d acts as a medium for the long kept emotional distress of the author and even the protagonist. Throughout the novel the protagonist expresses the perpetual need to share his surreptitious memories and relive his experiences as a soldier in the war as a form of cleansing from the events of the past and a need to conform to traditional societalRead More The Nature of Duality in Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde1828 Words   |  8 Pagesthat there are two sides to the human mind. Many philosophers have stressed on the fact that human beings are dual creatures’. There is the duality of good and evil, right and wrong, joy and despair. There always is the desire to do something which is against the society, against the laws, although this varies from person to person. Robert Stevenson brings the possibility of another self in one person to life in his creation of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. His novel is a rich tale of the dualityRead MoreThe Central Station Essay2225 Words   |  9 Pages Symbolism of Lord Jim: In this novel, Conrad mingles suggestiveness with realism and symbolism. Mac whirr, young Marlow, Kurtz, Jim etc. are all symbolic figures. Silver in Nostromo and ivory in The Heart of darkness symbolic the materialistic lust and corruption and decay of the human heart. Conrad’s seas and ships are symbolic in Lord Jim. Lord Jim also symbolic novel. Above all, Jim himself is the most important symbolic figure. He is the symbol of man’s craving for theRead MoreBiblical Allusions In The Grapes Of Wrath1717 Words   |  7 PagesThe novel, The Grapes of Wrath, is a story that describes the journey of the Joad family through the brutal migration from Oklahoma s destroying Dust Bowl to California corrupt promised land. Through the depiction of events and portrayal of characters, the bible takes part in the novel as one whole allusion. The story of struggle for survival in the fallen state of Oklahoma and in the â€Å"promised land† of California, reveals the same ideas shown as we explore in the bible. In The Grapes of WrathRead More Symbols, Symbolism and Irony in Thomas Manns Death in Venice2018 Words   |  9 PagesSymbols, Symbolism and Irony in Thomas Manns Death in Venice      Ã‚  Ã‚   In the novel Death in Venice, by Thomas Mann, an observer compliments the main character Gustave von Aschenbach by saying, You see, Aschenbach has always lived like this -here the speaker closed the fingers of his left hand to a fist-never like this -and he let his hand hang relaxed from the back of his chair (p. 1069).   This is a perfect description of Aschenbach, a man set in convention, driven to succeed from an