Tale of 2 cities

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A Tale of Two Cities

During the 17th century France had the monarchy system, this was not a reputable system as many people who were rich or were upper class could take advantage of the poor, lower classes. During the time France was in debt due to the costly war which they had lost and the high spending of the royal family. The higher classes enjoyed special privileges, without having to work hard and also to their delight they did not have to pay taxes, but on the other hand the common people did not have power and freedom in politics. They worked hard and had to pay heavy taxes. They were basically owned by the more upper class people. The inequality upset many people but they had no power, so they had to do what they were told. Also the lower class people were abused in many ways, they would be killed if they didn’t follow the marquis commands and they were thought of as scum. When Louis XVI finally called the ministers to solve financial difficulties, it was too late. Many people couldn’t afford to buy food and almost half the country’s population was in hunger. The hungry people of Paris, who suffered from bad harvest, burst out their anger by attacking the Bastille prison. They captured the prison after a surprising day; this is supposedly to have sparked the start of the French Revolution. The anger spread to other parts of France and many people began to protest.

Charles Dickens uses a variety of techniques to imply the contrast between the cities, London and Paris. Some of the techniques he uses are oxymoron and irony. Throughout the whole of chapter one he uses oxymoron. “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times”. This technique is used to show the difference at the time for different classes, the upper class and the lower class, and to show how different their lifestyle was.  Also in the first paragraph Dickens uses irony to conceal the true meaning of the paragraph which is describing how things were in London and Paris, “it was the age of wisdom; it was the age of foolishness”. He does this to get the reader interested in the story and build his own image of the two cities. One other technique he uses is hyperbole. “It was the season of light; it was the season of darkness”. He does this to show us how different the lower class and higher class is by using exaggeration.

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The Marquis St. Evremend is a rich, selfish and aristocratic man who owns a chateau and acres of land. He is ruthless and doesn’t care about anyone else but himself, he treats people as though he owns them; and treats them as scum. One day the Marquis assaulted one young lady who got badly hurt, to the young lady’s defence her brothers came to protect her, but subsequently the Marquis sent them to their deaths. One doctor called Dr. Manette heard about the young ladies injuries and went to tend to her, unluckily the Marquis heard about this and banished ...

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