A Tale of Two Cities Essays: The French Revolution :: Tale Two Cities Essays

France and England in A Tale of deuce Cities - The french Revolution   Introduction In the eighteen-fifties, Charles hellion was concerned that social problems in England, particularly those relating to the condition of the poor, ability provoke a mass reaction on the scale of the French Revolution. In a letter written in 1855, for example, he refers to the agitation of the time as follows I believe the discontent to be so much the worse for smouldering, instead of blazing openly, that it is extremely uniform the prevalent mind of France before the breaking out of the premiere Revolution, and is in risk of exposure of being turned into such a devil of a blaze as never has been beheld since. (qtd. in I. Collins 42) At the beginning of A Tale of Two Cities (1859), two once again expresses his concern. The novel opens in 1775, with a comparison of England and pre-revolutionary France. While drawing parallels between the two countries, Dickens also alludes to his o wn time "the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only" (1 bk. 1, ch. 1). The rest of the chapter shows that Dickens regarded the condition to be an evil one, since he depicts both countries as rife with poverty, injustice, and emphasis due to the irresponsibility of the ruling elite (1-3 bk. 1, ch. 1). As the novel unfolds, however, England becomes a safe haven for those escaping the violence perpetrated by the French Revolution. In this musical composition, I shall argue that A Tale of Two Cities reflects the popular confidence in the stability of England in the eighteen-fifties, despite Dickenss suggestions at the beginning. A Tale of Two Cities thus becomes a novel about the England and the English of Dickenss time. And yet, many mess today would believe that the novel is essentially about the French Revolution, which brings me to m y spot point. If in the nineteenth century the novel served to affirm the stability of Britain, in this century it has been greatly influential in the formation of the popular part of the French Revolution, mainly thanks to film and television adaptations. The purpose of this paper is to look at the popular reception of the novel from the time of its first publication in 1859 to the nineteen-nineties.