Inhumanity in "A Tale of Two Cities"

A detailed Summary of Inhumanity in "A Tale of Two Cities"

A revolution is a situation where both sides feel they are right, but can a person in a neutral position decide who is right and who is wrong? In many cases, no. That is the problem presented in Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities. In his novel, he shows us a revolution where no one is right; no one is even being rational. Revolutionaries, like Madame Defarge, are killing innocent people to get revenge, and aristocrats, like the Marquis St. Evremonde, are using their power to hurt the less fortunate. By the end of the revolution and the novel, Dickens clearly expresses that there is no one idea or opinion that is right. The only way to be humane is to recognize the negative aspects and the inhumanity of both sides. Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton had that point of view and are saved because of it.

The first characters to show very irrational and inhumane actions were the revolutionaries during the French Revolution. "A large cask of wine had been dropped and broken, in the street."(36) The cask broke in the streets of a poverty stricken town where the people were poor and looking for a way to end their suffering. The people rushed to the wine and began scooping it up with their hands. These ravenous actions are no

Dickens shows that in a revolution, those who have extreme opinions act in extremely inhumane ways. But those who can perform the ultimate, unselfish self-sacrifice are truly humane in an inhumane world. In the face of the very selfish view of the revolutionaries and the aristocracy, Sydney Carton performs the most human act. He is able to see the wrong in both groups and realize that neither is right. Characters like Sydney Carton in A Tale of Two Cities contain a gift of unselfishness and compassion unlike any other on earth.

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There are a few characters that do not act in the extreme ways the other characters do. They aren't killing anyone. They seem neither revolutionary nor aristocratic in nature. These characters are the people who are able to live out their lives happily or, in the case of Sydney Carton, end their lives happily. Charles Darnay was an aristocrat based on lineage. His uncle, having been the Marquis, makes this so, but Darnay does not embody the normal qualities of an aristocrat. He is aware of others' feelings, not just his own, or those of the rich. He even defies the way his own family treats others. When speaking to his uncle, the Marquis, about how the Marquis treats the people Darnay says, "...so that the miserable people who can not leave it and who have been wrung to the last point of endurance may, in another generation, suffer less." (129) In this statement, Darnay states not only the blatant suffering of the people on his uncle's land, but also the fact that they!

The Marquis shows again his inhumanity when he is riding in his carriage in town. The carriage runs over and kills a small baby. The father is hysterical and cries out, "Dead."(116) The Marquis feels no shame for what he has done. To show this, he throws a coin out the window at the father, as if to say that a coin should make up for his loss.

Yet, a point that

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Approximate Word count = 1322
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels