Tale Of Two Cities Revenge Analysis

How far would one go to achieve revenge? The novel, A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, is about life before and during the French Revolution. It focuses on everyday people who are trying to get through a difficult time, rich or poor the revolution touches everyone. The most important theme in the novel is that the actions people take to get revenge lead to self destruction. Revenge leading to self destruction is a very important theme in the novel as shown in the death of Foulon, the death of the Marquis Saint Evrémonde, and Madame Defarge wanting to kill the Evrémonde’s.

The peasants of Saint Antoine killing Foulon is the first example of revenge in the novel. Foulon is a wealthy man who tells the people if they are starving, to go eat grass. The author writes, “‘Does everybody here recall old, Foulon, who told the famished people that they might eat grass” (Dickens 229). After the peasants find out Foulon has been captured, they set off to find him, seeking revenge. In the next quote the peasants find Foulon and torture him. Before they kill him, they stuff his mouth full of grass as he once

Revenge is shown in the novel in three main examples. The first one is when the peasants take the life of Foulon. The second example is when Gaspard kills the Marquis. The final example of revenge found is when Madame Defarge goes after the Evrémonde’s for the death of her family. Some people may argue that people don’t always thrive for revenge, but throughout the whole novel, the peasants cannot resist the urge to get their revenge. In the real world, many people seek revenge to get justice for something someone did to them. One example of people getting revenge in the real world is when Aaron Burr killed Alexander Hamilton for sabotaging his election and chance at becoming president. Self destruction in A Tale Of Two Cities is caused by people seeking