During the French Revolution, the blood thirsty mob marched 15,000 people up to the guillotine and decapitated them. The peasants fueled by an oppressive religion and abusive government, exploded into a full atheistic horror. During the French Revolution, the peasant mob overthrew the Notre-Dame cathedral, renaming it the temple of reason, and executed all the church attending members. The author, Charles Dickens, wrote A Tale of Two Cities illustrating this moment in history. Considered by all literary professors as his best work, this novel exemplifies his affection for rhetorical devices. Dickens utilizes imagery and symbolism to expose the violence of a total secular revolution.
In the first part of his novel, Dickens employs imagery to set up the violent environment of the French Revolution. On a street in Paris, in front of the Defarge’s wine shop, a wine cask deliverer spills a cask of red wine. The wine runs down the street. The starving crowd rush to the wine and scoops it out of the muddy street, covering their faces and hands with red scum. A peasant even dips his finger in the wine and writes the word, blood. Right after …show more content…
Dickens states the guillotine, “superseded the cross, models of it were worn on the breast from which the cross was discarded” (284). The author explains the multitude who once believed in the power of love and forgiveness through the cross, traded their beliefs for hatred and vengeance with the guillotine. Secularism became the new religion of France, with the guillotine as their deadly messiah. This intolerant savior held service at the new Temple of Reason, overseeing retribution on its congregation. Veneration of this entity concentrated on liberty and equality, the liberty of hatred and the equality that death bestows. Dickens continuously bridges symbolism and religious undertones to expose the horror of
In the first part of his novel, Dickens employs imagery to set up the violent environment of the French Revolution. On a street in Paris, in front of the Defarge’s wine shop, a wine cask deliverer spills a cask of red wine. The wine runs down the street. The starving crowd rush to the wine and scoops it out of the muddy street, covering their faces and hands with red scum. A peasant even dips his finger in the wine and writes the word, blood. Right after …show more content…
Dickens states the guillotine, “superseded the cross, models of it were worn on the breast from which the cross was discarded” (284). The author explains the multitude who once believed in the power of love and forgiveness through the cross, traded their beliefs for hatred and vengeance with the guillotine. Secularism became the new religion of France, with the guillotine as their deadly messiah. This intolerant savior held service at the new Temple of Reason, overseeing retribution on its congregation. Veneration of this entity concentrated on liberty and equality, the liberty of hatred and the equality that death bestows. Dickens continuously bridges symbolism and religious undertones to expose the horror of