Use of Nature
Dickens’ use of nature to mirror humane emotion is effective especially during dramatic events in the story. Natural phenomena and the element of weather can play a certain role in conveying the emotions of events and the characters themselves. In many epic works of literature, stormy weather conveys anguish, rain represents sorrow and so on. In Dickens’ novel, A Tales of Two Cities, natural weather elements also have the power and force to communicate different emotions of characters with the reader.
An example of Dickens’ use of nature to mirror human emotion is in Book the Second, Chapter Five. This is the scene where Sydney Carton emerges from Stryver’s office after a long night of hard work. An inscription from the book states, “When he got out of the house, the air was cold and sad, the dull sky overcast, the river dark and dim, the whole scene like a lifeless desert. And wreaths of dust were spinning round and round before the morning blast, as if the desert-sand had risen far away, and the first spray of it in its advance had begun to overwhelm the city, “(Dickens 95).
Upon envisioning this weather, we should think of the type of character that Sydney is and the life he leads, to see how his emotion is mirrored in the weather. Carton is a man who feels particularly depressed about his life and cannot find his true inner happiness. And after his repetitive slaving for Stryver, he walks out, still contemplating the situation of his gloomy life. The weather in this scene mirrors Carton’s feelings of sorrow and despair in the form of a ‘barren wasteland’ type of weather.
In another scene, Book the Second, Chapter 9, another example of Dickens’ use of nature presents itself. A line from the story states, “Lighter and lighter, until at last the sun touched the tops of the still trees, and poured its radiance over the hill… The carol of the birds was loud and high, and, on the weather-beaten still of the great window of the bed-chamber of...