English 10H
30 November 2012
Fear to Achieve Goals
In A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens emphasized that violence and fear in many ways. Throughout history it has been shown that fear can be used to manipulate others. This is the main point that Dickens focuses on when he uses fear in his novel. First we see it between the Evermonde brothers and the peasant brother and sister. Next it is shown as Dickens describes the state of the peasants and how the aristocrats have been treated. Then finally we see how brutality of the revolutionaries towards the aristocrats. Dickens uses these examples to show how fear is too often used to control others and achieve goals of the revolution.
Dickens’ first example of violence is when the Evermonde brothers show “no touch of pity” when speaking of the “creature dying there”, or the peasant boy who was stowed away. This is when the peasant boy came to save his sister from being abused and
killed by the brothers. The brothers used the fear of the peasant’s sister being raped which prevented him from retaliating towards the Evermonde brothers ever again. Dr. Manette was even fearful of the men when they said, “’We have been to your residence…in the hope of overtaking you’”, with a manner that was “imperious.” One of his biggest fears was that “they were armed.” The men approached Dr. Manette with a threatening conduct. This shows that they have no limits to who they will try to intimidate by using fear.
Another example of fear is when the aristocrats began to mistreat the lower class, and the justice system started to fall apart. In this time period the wealthy could get away with murder as long as they had a good name. For example, when Marquis Evermonde runs over a young child, killing the child, he simply “threw out a gold coin for the valet to pick up”. The father throws the coin back into the Marquis carriage. When the Marquis says “he should be crushed under the wheels,” he is talking about Gaspard. The...