Identify symbols in the novel. Tell what the symbols represent.
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Anonymous
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While reading a Tale of Two Cities I became aware of three recurring symbols that appear frequently in the three books. Those symbols are blood red stains, the shoemaker's bench, and the echoing footsteps. The blood red stains that in chapter 5 are wine represents the blood of the aristocrats that will be shed once the revolution takes place. Later in the novel the stains are indeed the blood that has been shed by the revolution. The shoemaker's bench represents Doctor Manette's past that he cannot escape. When he is stressed he continually goes back to the bench and works. The same way that one dwells on a particularly painful and traumatic memory. The echoing footsteps represent the approaching revolution. Lucie comments that she believes that the footsteps are those of people that will soon enter their lives. She is all too right as the revolution devastates her family. The revolution affects everyone.
Another symbol that I noticed was imprisonment was shown over and over in the book. Manette is imprisoned for a very long period of time and has new life upon being released "Eighteen years...Gracious creator of day! To be buried alive for eighteen years" (25). Darnay is also imprisoned until Carton takes his place and Carton is somewhat imprisoned in himself because until the end of the novel he feels as though his life has no purpose.
I found that there were some references of darkness in the novel. Right from the beginning as Jarvis Lorry makes his way with the mail. As Lorry seems to be drifting in and out of sleep, he keeps a bold picture of digging someone up out of a grave, which in turn is a dark place as well. I think that this darkness represents apprehension that Lorry feels.Another example is in meeting Lucie, we find her in a darkened room only lit by a candle. When we come to know Manette he is making shoes in a dark room above a wine shop. The room he is in "was dim and dark"(69). It also says, "Such a scanty portion of light was admitted through these means, that it was difficult, on first coming, to see anything" (69). This description seems like Manette has been kept a secret involving a dark past that is very mysterious.
There were two other symbols within the novel that I noticed. The first is that of the Marquis. He represents all that is corrupt within the French aristocracy. He symbolizes the self-indulgent characteristics and reckless abandon for the poor by the aristocracy. The other symbol is Madame Defarge's knitting. She calmly knits the names of people she condemns to death into a cloth which symbolizes how reckless the revolutionaries are in their sentencing of people to death.
4 comments:
While reading a Tale of Two Cities I became aware of three recurring symbols that appear frequently in the three books. Those symbols are blood red stains, the shoemaker's bench, and the echoing footsteps. The blood red stains that in chapter 5 are wine represents the blood of the aristocrats that will be shed once the revolution takes place. Later in the novel the stains are indeed the blood that has been shed by the revolution. The shoemaker's bench represents Doctor Manette's past that he cannot escape. When he is stressed he continually goes back to the bench and works. The same way that one dwells on a particularly painful and traumatic memory. The echoing footsteps represent the approaching revolution. Lucie comments that she believes that the footsteps are those of people that will soon enter their lives. She is all too right as the revolution devastates her family. The revolution affects everyone.
Another symbol that I noticed was imprisonment was shown over and over in the book. Manette is imprisoned for a very long period of time and has new life upon being released "Eighteen years...Gracious creator of day! To be buried alive for eighteen years" (25). Darnay is also imprisoned until Carton takes his place and Carton is somewhat imprisoned in himself because until the end of the novel he feels as though his life has no purpose.
I found that there were some references of darkness in the novel. Right from the beginning as Jarvis Lorry makes his way with the mail. As Lorry seems to be drifting in and out of sleep, he keeps a bold picture of digging someone up out of a grave, which in turn is a dark place as well. I think that this darkness represents apprehension that Lorry feels.Another example is in meeting Lucie, we find her in a darkened room only lit by a candle. When we come to know Manette he is making shoes in a dark room above a wine shop. The room he is in "was dim and dark"(69). It also says, "Such a scanty portion of light was admitted through these means, that it was difficult, on first coming, to see anything" (69). This description seems like Manette has been kept a secret involving a dark past that is very mysterious.
There were two other symbols within the novel that I noticed. The first is that of the Marquis. He represents all that is corrupt within the French aristocracy. He symbolizes the self-indulgent characteristics and reckless abandon for the poor by the aristocracy. The other symbol is Madame Defarge's knitting. She calmly knits the names of people she condemns to death into a cloth which symbolizes how reckless the revolutionaries are in their sentencing of people to death.
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