A Tale of Two Cities

<Violence and Revolution>

 The novel takes place in Paris during the French Revolution.  Tyranny of the French aristocracy is shown through high taxes, unjust laws, a complete indifference for the poor, thus there was no food; the noblemen pressed peasants to give up every cent they earned to have exorbitant parties for them. All this made peasants outrage and eventually the revolution broke out. The ideals of the revolution were based on equality, fraternity and liberty. Of course, they were perfectly reasonable but the question is at which cost?

  Throughout the novel, noblemen were the main evidence of the aristocracy exploiting and oppressing the nation´s poor. Their abuse of power is clearly exemplified by the unfair imprisonment of Dr. Manette by Marquis St. Evrémonde. Other evidence is when Monseigneur only briefly stops to toss a coin toward the child´s father whom he has just run over. Also, the Marquis, raping peasants along with other mistreatments of the lower classes, provide some justification for the goals of the French mob; freedom was needed.

 However, the way in which revolutionaries fought for this liberation was not the correct one. As it is said: “practise what you preach” was not what actually happened. They fought against cruelty with more cruelty and they only reproduced the same they had suffered. The scenes in which the people sharpened their weapons at the grindstone and dance the grisly Carmagnole came across as deeply macabre. Now, the peasants used their newly discovered power to persecute the aristocrats through mass executions and imprisonment. Streets full of blood relate how nothing had changed. It is summarized in the final chapter “Sow the same seed of rapacious license and oppression over again, and it will surely yield the same fruit according to its kind.”

 Though revolution is a great symbol of transformation and change and their reasons were entirely understandable, peasants have only reproduced a bloody and violent revolution that in fact did not have any positive consequence. The French revolutionaries come to abuse their power just as much as the nobility did.

 By showing how the revolutionaries use oppression and violence to further their own selfish and bloodthirsty ends, in A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens suggests that whoever is in power, nobles or peasants,  will fall to the temptation to exercise their full power. In other words, Dickens shows that while tyranny will inevitably lead to revolution, revolution will lead just as inevitably to tyranny. The only way to break this cycle is through the application of justice and mercy.     

GEORGE III

Britain under rule of a mentally diseased King

  George III reigned Britain for almost sixty years. He is remembered for getting mad. It is almost impossible to believe that one of the most powerful kingdoms in the whole world was about to lose its great power because of its King illness. At that time,  the best doctors determined that the King was going mad.  Everybody seemed to be on alert  because of his mental disease but not for good reasons; they were  trying to take advantage of it. Needles is to say that this is the reason why he was known as the “mad” King.

 King George was the ruler of Great Britain and Ireland from 1760 until his death in 1820. He was remembered for losing thirteen colonies and he was the third Hanoverian monarch and the first one to be born in England and to use English as his first language. He was a loving husband and father but very strict; he wanted his children to be disciplined. Despite this, his eldest son disgusted the king; he went to parties, drank in excess and gambling. In fact, they disliked each other. The king referred to his son as the fat, and he ridiculed his father.

  King George´s disease was, later known, called Porphyria. This disease causes a lot of pain, aches, blue urine and mental disorders. At the beginning of his disease and without finding a logical explanation for his behaviour doctors isolated him, treating him as an insane man. He was forced to wear a straitjacket and to obey the doctor's orders. Despite his illness, George III was a dedicated and diligent king and won the respect of his politicians. In fact, when his illness drove him off the political scene, people realised how much they needed him. Although he was ill, he continued to reign Great Britain and Ireland. His behaviour was very criticized by his eldest son, who was a traitor as well as some members of the Parliament. King George's eldest son pushed him into a public breakdown so that he could become Regent.

Time went by and he could recover successfully. His illness was stabled and, this allowed him to rule England for many more years. He became very popular and loved by people of Great Britain. He ruled as long as his illness allowed him to do. All in all, he also became famous and well known as The Mad King.