The Reasoning Behind Dickens.

There are many reasons in which Charlies Dickens decided to write his famous novel, A Tale of Two Cities. 


First off, he wanted to display the corruption and confusion within the feudal system. Dickens thought that the ways of the king and the monarchy were twisted; therefore, he wrote this novel to expose those horrible laws that he wished he could have changed. Dickens's tone towards what the future lies ahead for the people raised by these laws seems slightly optimistic with a touch of cynicism. 


"I see a beautiful city and a brilliant people rising from this abyss, and, in their struggles to be truly free, in their triumphs and defeats, through long years to come, I see the evil of this time and of the previous time of which this is the natural birth, gradually making expiation for itself and wearing out."

Second, he knew that during the time period of the French Revolution, many people in England feared a similar even reoccurring in their country. They had just recently suffered a huge loss in the American Revolution and didn't want a repeat of that misery. Dickens used A Tale of Two Cities to emulate those fearful emotions held by the British. His use of symbolism between wine and blood foreshadowed the soon to come revolution in which things within the country would change for the good, the bad or the ugly.

"The time was to come, when that wine too would be spilled on the street-stones, and when the stain of it would be red upon many there."

Lastly, Dickens wrote this historically based story after being scarred for life by his father's presence in a debtor's prison. This was said to mess up his thinking for a while because after his father was released from jail, they took Dickens out of school to work. Dickens loved school so much, so leaving it was a trigger to his quasi-insanity. The imagery Dickens used throughout the novel was very descriptive, even when it came to elements the reader couldn't actually see. 

"The faintness of the voice was pitiable and dreadful. […] Its deplorable peculiarity was, that it was the faintness of solitude and disuse. It was like the last feeble echo of a sound made long and long ago."