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Peasantry In A Tale Of Two Cities

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The Mill In today’s world, many people devote their lives to helping the poor. There are also established government programs in many countries to assist them as well. During the French revolution, nothing was there to help the poorest of the poor who were starving, making it easy for the aristocrats to take advantage of their situation. In the novel, A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens portrays the peasantry as the most oppressed people who are unfairly treated by the aristocracy. Charles Dickens has greater sympathy for the peasants and their poverty-stricken lifestyles however, once the aristocracy is overthrown, he foreshadows further mistreatment and ridicules them for their brutality by treating people the same as the former ruling …show more content…
Madame Defarge, while talking about the destructive earthquake that is coming with her husband, says that the earthquake is “always growing, although no one sees or hears it.’” (171). Anger and hate is growing inside of the lower class and cannot be seen or heard, but will have to be unleashed. The hated aristocrats do not see it coming, but Madame Defarge and many others want revenge for the oppression that has happened to them. Charles Dickens also says that, “they are not easily purified when once stained red” (212). He continues to foreshadow that it will be hard to stop the hate-filled people once they begin their revenge. The people’s disposition towards the aristocracy will overtake them and more deaths will come due to the first. The peasantry, once the first deaths of the revolution take place, have “stomachs faint and empty” and “they beguiled the time by embracing one another on the triumphs of the day” (217). Dickens shows sympathy by showing that life is still the same for them once the battle is over. They are still struggling for food, but what keeps them going is their success with the storming of the Bastille, which gives them hope. While he shows sympathy for them, he also says that “they ran out with streaming …show more content…
Before the revolution, it was all about change, but as it progresses it becomes blood-thirsty. The peasants “changed into wild beasts, by a terrible enchantment” and want to avenge themselves from past generations (225). The revolutionaries become ferocious and unsympathetic to the aristocrats, even those who have done nothing wrong, like Charles Darnay. When Madame Defarge is told, “One must stop somewhere”, she responds with, “At extermination”(325). The revolution turns into a never ending cycle of killing people related to aristocrats or those suspected of being against the revolution. Those who are deemed not to be a supporter of the revolution are beheaded and the revolutionaries want to rid society of any trace of families with wealth and power. They will stop at nothing until that is accomplished, turning on each other if necessary. These people are shown to be heartless and lacking emotion like the aristocrats. Madame Defarge is an example of this when it says, “It was nothing to her, that an innocent man was to die for the sins of his forefathers; she saw, not him, but them” (347). The common man sees only past and not present when it comes to life and death. Those who came from a family who previously inflicted pain and suffering on people of their kind, were to feel pain and to

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