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Violence Cycles in Tale of Two Cities October 29, 1998 Charles Dickens, one of the most esteemed British writers of the nineteenth century, used to his famous work, A Tale of Two Cities, to give several important messages. One of the most important of these messages was that the use of violence only causes more violence. Specifically, he uses the repression of the France people by their rulers, the callous murder of the son of Gaspard, a poor French peasant, and most dramatically, the incredibly violent acts committed by Madame Defarge, led to her incredibly violent death, and how the use of violence begets more severe and more life-consuming acts. The violent oppression of the French people in Charles Dickens A Tale of Two Cities, by the ruling class of eighteenth century France is infamous throughout history. The aristocrats had no respect whatsoever for the less fortunate of their nation.
Dr. Minette, a prominent physician in France during this time period, describes how one aristocrat treated his servant who failed to answer the door within a pleasing amount of time. one of my two conductors struck the man who opened it [the door], with his heavy riding-glove, across the face. There was nothing in this action to attract my attention, for I had seen common people treated more commonly than dogs. The other of two, being angry likewise, struck the man in a like manner with his arm. To those two aristocrats, their servant was below contempt.
The treatment of the common people by the nobles was so abominable that one man, Ernest Defarge, suggested to another man whose baby had died, It is better for the poor little plaything to die than to live. It has died in a moment, without pain. Could it have lived an hour as happily? The common people considered their lives to be so horrible that many of them wished that they could die a quick and painless death, instead of living their lives, which were full of the violence that the aristocrats inflicted upon them. These acts of violence that had been visited upon the people by the aristocrats eventually caused another, greater violence.
The proletariat, having had all these forcefully repressive acts put upon them, reacted in a way the shows precisely Dickens message: the people of France rebelled. Their first, incredibly violent act was the storming of the Bastille. The Bastille was the prison in Paris that contained all the political enemies of the French crown. The people, seeing this as the symbol of their repression, struck out at it in a unforgettable frenzy. a forest of naked arms all the fingers convulsively clutching at every weapon or semblance of a weapon that was thrown up cannon, muskets, fire and smoke flashing weapons, blazing torches This was the scene at the storming of the Bastille, the culmination of the aggressive acts put upon the people. The aristocrats violent actions begot the violent actions of the people.
The storming of the Bastille, which was the beginning of the French Revolution, was not the only cause of violence in France. The Marquis St. Evremonde had the dubious honor (in the eyes of the people) of being a French aristocrat. He committed an extremely brutal act; he callously murdered the infant son of Gaspard, an ill-fated peasant. Gaspard's son was easily crushed beneath the heavy wheels of the Marquis carriage. The barbarous act on the part of the Marquis St.
Evremonde was followed by another barbaric act on the part of Gaspard. Gaspard, who was extremely distraught over the death of his son, sought vengeance by any means necessary. Gaspard believed that the best way to accomplish this was to punish his sons murderer by killing the murderer, the Marquis. Gaspard stealthily infiltrated the Marquis castle and murdered him in his sleep.
Another violent act followed the murder of the Marquis. Gaspard was caught, and executed by hanging for his crime. However, this unfortunate string of constant reciprocal violence does not end with that. After Gaspard was executed, his friends, a group of revolutionaries who called themselves the Jacquarie, vowed to avenge his death. This new revenge was to take the shape of the extermination of the remaining members of the Marquis family, and the destruction of his castle. The group fulfilled their vow, they killed who they thought was the son of the Marquis, and they destroyed his estate.
So, a chain of violence that begins with one murder multiplies until it ends with the destruction of a castle and the death of four human beings. Throughout the revolution, one harrowing figure stood among the most evil of them all: Madame Defarge, the wife of Defarge, who consoled the Gaspard at the death of his son. In the storming of the Bastille she was very active, and her right hand was occupied with an axe, while in her girdle were a pistol and a cruel knife. Madame Defarge had no qualms about using these most sinister instruments when the opportunity came. After the governor had been killed by the mob, and lay dead upon the street, she put her foot upon his neck, and with her cruel knife - long ready - she hewed off his head. Evidently, Madame Defarge had no problem with carrying out such a gruesome act.
Madame Defarge also had a personal vendetta to fulfill within in the revolution. Her brother, as well as her sister, and her sisters husband had been killed by the same Marquis that killed Gaspard's baby. Even after she thought that she had killed the Marquis son, she was determined to kill the Marquis granddaughter, as well as his daughter-in-law. The Marquis sons wife, Lucy and her daughter, Little Lucy fled France, terrified of what might become of them, if they were to stay. Madame Defarge went to the place where she thought they would be, only to confront the Lucy faithful servant, Miss Press. Miss Press led her to believe that the family remained in the building by blocking the door to the bedroom.
Eventually Madame Defarge saw through the deception and was about to leave the building to find and murder the remainder of the family. Miss Press, however, had no intention of letting this happen. She restrained Madame Defarge by simply holding her around the waist. Madame Defarge resorted to her usual violent methods and attempted to draw the gun she kept at her waist. Just before Madame Defarge fired, Miss Press struck the gun, throwing off Madame Defarge's aim, and deflecting the path of the projectile that the firearm emitted directly into the flesh of Madame Defarge. The chain that begun with the murder Madame Defarge's brother, continued by Madame Defarge's other acts which she justified as revenge for her brothers killings and then ended, with Madame Defarge's causing her own violent death.
Three major things link together into a great chain of death, violence, destruction and revolution. The repression of the people, including the murder of Madame Defarge's brother, the death of Gaspard's infant son, and the execution of Gaspard, all led to the storming of the Bastille, as well as the desire to exterminate the family of Evremonde. The violent acts at the beginning of this story, led to violent acts of the French revolution, which opened the opportunity for the extermination of the family of Evremonde, which caused Madame Defarge to kill herself in attempting that. Charles Dickens A Tale of Two Cities clearly gives the message of what the result of violence is: more violence, which ends in almost all cases, with more and more barbarous violence, until the sinister chain eventually exhausts itself. Bibliography:
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