A Tale of Two Cities - Essay Example

The Tale of Two Cities Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities is largely a historical tale. The devoted a significant amount of time to researching the French Revolution and penned the piece with a high level of historical accuracies. Hence, although the historic details in The Tale of Two Cities are considered fictions, the descriptions of the details especially those regarding the events of French Revolution are full of historical accuracy. For instance, the historical event surrounding the storming of the Bastille as described in Book II, Chapter 21 is largely accurate.

“On a July evening in 1789 Lucie Darnay, now the mother of a six-year-old girl, sits and worries over the future. Mr. Lorry speaks of the run on Tellsons Bank as a consequence of the turmoil in Paris. There citizens storm the Bastille to free its seven prisoners. Among them are Madame and Monsieur Defarge, who find Manettes old cell. The people of St. Antoine hang a man named Foulon, who had once told the starving people to eat grass. They seek out aristocrats with a frenzy. One evening they burn down the chateau of the Marquis.

The chateau was left to itself to flame and burn. In the roaring and raging of the conflagration, a red-hot wind, driving straight from the infernal regions, seemed to be blowing the edifice away. With the rising and falling of the blaze, the stone faces showed as if they were in torment. When great masses of stone and timber fell, the face with the two dints in the nose became obscured, anon struggled out of the smoke again, as if it were the face of the cruel Marquis, burning at the stake and contending with the fire.

”While most details in the passage are accurate, there are some slight inaccuracies. For instance, while it is true that seven prisoners were released and seven gory heads on pikes, there were only seven prisoners held in the Bastille at the time and were all freed. But, while the garrisons were killed, their number may only have been just three, and not seven . Another example is about Governor de Launay. The Governor was indeed captured and beheaded, and that his head carried in display through the streets.

However, Dickens indicates that seven were beheaded along with seven prisoners being freed, which may not be true. That notwithstanding, there are details that have been accurately described. These include, the description of the Bastille—a towering prison in Paris. It is true that, the Bastille had a deep ditch with a single drawbridge surrounded by massive walls of stone. In addition, it had eight great towers, muskets, cannon, fire and smoke. It is also true that the crowd penetrated the chains of the drawbridge.

The Governor of the Bastille, de Launay also ordered the garrison to shoot cannons at the crowd. Another aspect accurately depicted is the fact that Governor de Launay soon surrendered, and let the crowd storm the Bastille and freed the prisoners. Apart from the historical event surrounding the storming of the Bastille, the scene where Madame Defarge was knitting during the execution is another scene which has been accurately described in the French revolution. “Entering the wine shop with Defarge, we meet his wife, Madame Defarge.

She is a strong-featured woman of iron composure, busy at her trademark activity, knitting. Also present are Jarvis Lorry and Lucie Manette, and three wine drinkers. The drinkers and Defarge exchange the name "Jacques," a kind of password demonstrating that theyre against the existing order. Defarge directs the three men to an adjoining building. Then, after a brief conference, Defarge leads Lorry and Lucie up a dark, filthy staircase to Dr. Manettes room. Lucie trembles at meeting her father, who according to Defarge is very confused and changed.

” Just as Madame Defarge knitting in A Tale of Two Cities is symbolic of the names of intended victims, the scene accurately denotes the fate of the Greek. Madame Defarge was an incarnation of the Norns. In truth, the Norns would knit and weave the fates of mankind while looking at the past, examining the present and also considering the future . It is a depicting of an army of Madame Defarges who during the revolution would weave and knit as they laughed, gasping at death and humiliations. Also accurately depicted was the fact that there was a growing discomfort with the regime and the conspiracy by the parties involved.

At a metaphoric level, it is an accurate description of the cold-blooded vengeful and stealthiest of the revolutionaries. The passage is a close association between fate and vengefulness, which is traditionally linked to weaving in Greek mythology. The Fates—the three women who control life—are busy with the tasks of weavers: one woman spins the web of life, another one measures, while the last one cuts it. Madame Defarge’s knitting in the passage thus becomes symbolic of her victims’ fate, death at the hands of a furious peasantry.

Works CitedDickens, Charles and George Woodcock. A Tale of Two Cities. London: Penguin Books, 2012. Print.eNotes. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. Detroit, Michigan: Gale Cengage, 2012. Document from the website. .Fukuyama, Francis and Francis Fukuyama. The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011. Print.Gale Cengage. "Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens." Novels for Students (2012): 1-4. Document from Website. .Lawday, David.

The Giant of the French Revolution: Danton, a Life. New York: Grove Press, 2009. Print.Reader, Keith. The Place De La Bastille: The Story of a Quartier. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2011. Print.