Charles Dickens & A Tale of Two Cities

What is it that made Charles Dickens write the novel you're reading? What in your analysis of literary techniques led you to this conclusion? (Make sure to include textual support illustrating Dickens' use of at least three techniques.)


A Tale of Two Cities was written to show how difficult it was to live during this time period.   The federal system was terrible, and Dickens wanted everyone to actually see the system for how it was.  He mainly wanted to display how dishonest or corrupt everything was.


Imagery
Dickens use of imagery helps the reader "see" what Dickens is trying to describe.  The reader is able to imagine what the streets were like, how the people acted, and what the people said.
"Samples of a people that had undergone a terrible grinding and regrinding in the mill, and certainly not in the fabulous mill which ground old people young, shivered at every corner, passed in and out at every doorway, looked from every window, fluttered in every vestige of a garment that the wind shook. The mill which had worked them down, was the mill that grinds young people old..."


Foreshadow/Symbolism
Charles Dickens helped "remind" people how fear was everywhere.  Fear was everywhere because of the French Revolution.  People thought they would die, that there were always unknown things everywhere.  The word "blood" being written on the street with wine signifies that there will be blood spilled in the streets in the future.  Also, the shadows everywhere symbolizes the unknown.
"The hands of the man who sawed the wood, left red marks on the billets; and the forehead of the woman who nursed her baby, was stained with the stain of the old rag she wound about her head again. Those who had been greedy with the staves of the cask, had acquired a tigerish smear about the mouth; and 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 muddy wine-lees—blood."


Tone/Mood
During this time period, it was very dark.  Therefore, having the tone dark and gloomy was appropriate.  The mood was also the same, very melancholy.
"And now that the cloud settled on Saint Antoine, which a momentary gleam had driven from his sacred countenance, the darkness of it was heavy--cold, dirt, sickness, ignorance, and want, were the lords in waiting on the saintly presence--nobles of great power all of them; but, most especially the last."