Tale of Two Cities

In Dickens famous Tale of Two Cities, there are many symbols through out the novel as well as themes. One of the symbols in this novel was the peasants drinking up the split wine off the streets. This symbolizes the literal meaning that they were starving due to poverty, and also symbolizes the hunger of a new revolution and government. The citizens in poverty all lap up the wine and get monstrous vicious looks in them, and then one of them dips their fingers in the wine and writes "blood" on a window, which foreshadows the the revolutionaries who will fight on the same street later and spill blood. The wine symbolizes the new blood that the people want and the new political powers they want to save them from such horrible poverty and horrible living conditions and economic conditions.

One of the most famous quotes in the whole novel is also one of the most famous quotes opening a novel "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom,
it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of
incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was
the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us,
we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going
direct the other way . . ."

I chose this quote because of Dickens style of writing and the descriptive and the contrasting of exact opposite things and create a fluency like no other author. Dickens uses anaphora to describe the struggle between the good and the evil, the light and the darkness, and the struggle of balance and the struggle to keep that balance.

It also gives a hint into the novel of what it will focus on. It sets up the reader to be prepared to read a story about the fight of good and evil and power.

I thought this novel, well worth its credibility and the title of a classic, was written in an extremely proper and precise way. The descriptive language created vivid images and left no setting unseen. On the other hand, with such descriptive style, it is hard to follow along with the story and follow which character is which. I felt it was also a lot harder getting into the novel than most. Near the middle it was easier to understand it, but I was still unclear on a lot of events happening.

So, all in all, this was not one of my favorite novels, but I was satisfied in reading it because I believe we all should read this book because of how famous it is and all the references there are to this novel.