A metaphor is used to convey the intensity of the time with heat.
"Every pulse and heart in Saint Antoine was on high-fever strain and high-fever heat."
This shows the pitch of excitement in everyone, that it has come over them suddenly like an illness.
Dickens uses this next sentence to show that the poor have nothing at all to lose so none of them will be holding back when the time comes to fight.
"Every living creature there held life as of no account and was demented with a passionate readiness to sacrifice it."
Once again, there is mention of something like an illness that has come over all the people to make them act like this.
He uses a simile to describe the centre of events but it eventually turns into a metaphor.
"As a whirlpool of boiling water has a centre point, so, all this raging circled round Defarge´s wine-shop, and every human drop in the caldron had a tendency to be sucked towards the vortex where Defarge himself, already begrimed with gunpowder and sweat, issued orders, issued arms, thrust this man back, dragged this man forward, disarmed one to arm another, laboured and strove in the thickest of the uproar."
Again, the description of heat of the water is there to represent the excitement of the people. The list of the things that Defarge is doing gives a rhythm and it shows that Defarge´s shop is at the centre of things because Defarge is the one in control of everything.
A sinister sentence is used to show that the time is for action.
"Madame, composed as ever, but not knitting to-day. Madame´s resolute right hand was occupied with an axe, in place of the usual softer implements, and in her girdle were a pistol and a cruel knife."
It shows that instead of Madame Defarge using the knitting needles to write down the names of the people they want to kill, the planning is over and they are going to actually do the killing. It is also ironic because although the knitting needles themselves are not a violent weapon, they helped write a list with a violent intent. There is also a transferred epithet, in that the knife is just a tool and cannot be cruel, but the person wielding it must be.
He uses direct speech to make it seem as if you are there, at that time.
" 'Come then!´ cried Defarge, in a resounding voice 'Patriots and friends, we are ready! The Bastille!´"
The exclamations marks make this very dramatic and adjectives making Defarge sound as if he is shouting emphasises this. Addressing the people as "Patriots and friends." Gives a sense of solidarity, everyone is in this together.
Personification is used once again to show that everyone feels the same way in this situation and they must all work together,
"With a roar that sounded as if all the breath in France had been shaped into the detested word, the living sea rose, wave on wave, depth on depth, and overflowed the city to that point."
The personification links in with the one used earlier. An extended metaphor is used from this point onwards describing the people as the sea, this gives an idea of the number of people involved and also that the peasants anger and lust for revenge is an unstoppable force like that of the sea when it is in a storm.
Dickens uses a list of descriptive phrases that is intended to give us the sounds of what is happening at the time.
"Alarm-bells ringing, drums beating, the sea raging and thundering on its new beach, the attack begun."
The list also gives a rhythm as if the sounds are being heard one after another as everyone starts to fight.
Syntax is abandoned in the next quotation and it also carries on through a number of paragraphs, but alters slightly as some of the obstacles the poor are facing are defeated.
"Deep ditches, double drawbridge, massive stone walls, eight great towers, cannon, muskets, fire and smoke."
This breakdown of proper sentences with no main verbs is describing the breakdown of order in the situation the peasants are in, there is chaos everywhere and Dickens´ writing reflects this. The alliteration of the hard t´s and d´s in the descriptive phrases used makes a marching sound of the people trying to take the Bastille.
Dickens uses exclamation marks and direct speech again to give the impression of being there with all those sounds around you.
" 'Work, comrades all, work! Work, Jacques One, Jacques Two, Jacques One Thousand, Jacques Two Thousand, Jacques Five an Twenty Thousand; in the name of all the Angels or all the Devils-which you prefer-work!´ Thus Defarge of the wine-shop, still at his gun, which had long grown hot."
The shouting sounds are there to encourage the other peasants that are fighting with him. The list of the names shows the number involved and gives solidarity because they are all there together. There is also a moral dilemma, because in saying in the name of Heaven or Hell he pulls into question if this act they are doing is for good or for evil, but by finishing with "work!", Dickens is trying to show that it doesn´t matter which you believe but to forget about it and work to fight. Heat once again is mentioned to show the heat of the battle that is going on.
A metaphor is used to again show that the peasants have nothing left to lose.
" 'To me, women!´ cried madame his wife. 'What! We can kill as well as men when the place is taken!´ And to her, with a shrill thirsty cry, trooping women variously armed, but all armed alike in hunger and revenge."
The metaphor shows that the hunger and the want for revenge have made the peasants into a strong and powerful force. The onomatopoeia reflects what they are metaphorically armed with. The quotation also shows that the women were fighting as well as the men and there was no break in line of battle because so many were involved.
He uses descriptive phrases of heat and sound.
"Flashing weapons, blazing torches, smoking wagon-loads of wet straw, hard work at neighbouring barricades in all directions, shrieks, volleys, execrations, bravery without stint,-boom, smash and rattle, and the furious sounding of the living sea."
The syntax is again abandoned and this is showing the chaos of the battle. The images are visual and aural because they show what it would have sounded like to be there. It also shows that the heat of the fight is rising.
Dickens again uses exclamation marks, this time to show the excitement and exultation of the peasants as the Bastille is overthrown.
"Defarge of the wine-shop over the lowered drawbridge, past the massive stone outer walls, in among the eight great towers surrendered!"
There is a sense in this that they are so triumphant that they are not going to stop now until the whole of France is taken.
The last breakdown of syntax is used to show how phased the peasants are by the fact that they have won, the odds were so against them but they are the victors.
"Everywhere was tumult, exultation, deafening and maniacal bewilderment, astounding noise, yet furious dumb-show."
This also gives an impression of what it sounded like at the time but it was like a dumb-show because the noise was so deafening that you wouldn´t have been able to hear much.
Dickens prepares the reader for this event right from the start of the novel.
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."
This is the beginning of the novel and the phrase has many meanings at different points, but early on, it shows that for the aristocracy everything was fine, they were living in luxury and extravagance, but for the peasants it couldn´t have been worse.
When a cask of wine is split in Saint Antoine in France the poor rush to get to it.
"All the people within reach had suspended their business, or their idleness, to run to the spot and drink the wine…
The wine was red wine, and had stained the ground of the narrow street in the suburb of Saint Antoine, in Paris, where it had spilled. It had stained many hands, too, and many faces and many naked feet, and many wooden feet…
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."
This shows the poverty of the people there that would build up to cause the Revolution and it is also an omen of when it will be blood and not wine staining the ground.
Dr Manette is seen as a hero to the people planning the Revolution, because he survived all the years of imprisonment that he had been given from an aristocrat who had found him a nuisance. It angers the poor to see their people treated in this way for doing nothing wrong.
" 'Is he greatly changed?´
'Changed!´
The keeper of the wine shop stopped to strike the wall with his hand, and mutter a tremendous curse. No direct answer could have been more forcible."
Defarge is angered by the way Dr Manette has been changed from being locked up for so long. This shows what fuelled the peasants´ want for something to be done about the rich and led to the Revolution-and it also helps us to understand why the Revolution begins with the storming of the infamous Bastille prison.
Dickens uses this next passage to show exactly the difference between how well off the rich are, compared to the poor who have to scrabble on the floor to get something to drink.
"Yes, it took four men, all four ablaze with gorgeous decoration, and the Chief of them unable to exist with fewer than two gold watches in his pocket, emulative of the noble and chaste fashion set by Monseigneur, to conduct the happy chocolate to Monseigneur´s lips…
It was impossible for Monseigneur to dispense with one of these attendants on the chocolate and hold his high place under the Heavens. Deep would have been the blot upon his escutcheon if his chocolate had been ignobly waited on by only three men; he must have died of two."
This shows the difference in the statures of the people in society when a man can be waited on by four men to serve him a drink and some people have nothing to drink at all. This passage contrasts with the people drinking spilled wine in the street and helps to emphasise the huge gulf between rich and poor. Dickens adopts a sarcastic tone here to imitate the petty outrage that Monseigneur might feel if deprived of one servant.
When a child is killed under the horses of Monsieur the Marquis, Dickens shows how the rich thought of the poor.
" 'Dead!´
The people closed round, and looked at Monsieur the Marquis… Monsieur the Marquis ran his eyes over them all, as if they had been mere rats come out of their holes… He threw out a cold coin for the valet to pick up, and all the heads craned forward that all the eyes might look down at it as it feel… 'Pick up that, philosopher and vendor of wine,´ said the Marquis, throwing him another gold coin, 'and spend as you will. The horses there; are they right?´
Without deigning to look at the assemblage a second time, Monsieur the Marquis leaned back in his seat, and was just being driven away with the air of a gentleman who had accidentally broken some common thing, and had paid for it, and could afford to pay for it; when his ease was suddenly disturbed by a coin flying into his carriage, and ringing on its floor."
The aristocracy think of the peasants as something that is useless and only there for their benefit, like being their servants and when Monsieur the Marquis kills a child he thinks that throwing down one gold coin can pay for the life he has just taken. This is why the poor hate the rich so much.
Monsieur the Marquis is later killed and this is an omen of what is to happen to all the aristocracy when the Revolution takes place.
"It was like a fine mask, suddenly startled, made angry, and petrified. Driven home into the heart of the stone figure attached to it, was a knife. Round its hilt was a frill of paper, on which was scrawled:
'Drive him fast to his tomb. This from JACQUES.´"
This sinister omen is just a one off during the planning of the Revolution but it is also a type of warning and message to the others.
The two chapters 'Knitting´ and 'Still Knitting´ are all about how the Revolution is being planned. Madame Defarge is secretly encoding the names of all those involved and all those that are to be killed into her knitting, because it is dangerous to write anything down on paper. Although the Defarges have been planning for fourteen years, using these chapter titles it shows that the time for waiting is almost over and that the time for action will be soon. They know their task is important but they also know that the Revolution might not be in their lifetime. Despite this, they plan relentlessly and their dedication is undiminished.
The passage describing the storming of the Bastille is very effective. Dickens intended to show us what it was like to be there at that time and he has showed this well giving us visual and sound images throughout it. He generated feeling that what the peasants are doing is justified because he has prepared us by showing us just how persecuted they were by the rich. It moves the audience because against all the overwhelming odds the poor are still going to carry on and fighting for what they believe in, because they have nothing to lose-everything they had had been taken from them by the aristocracy. Dickens emphasises this and shows how desperate and violent the peasants become to win. As you read the passage, you cannot help getting caught up in the excitement and the danger of what the peasants are trying to do. You feel the atmosphere of the time and place as if you were there with them and you feel that what they are doing is the right thing, because for many years they have been downtrodden by the aristocracy. It is now their time to rise up and take a stand against their oppressors and you feel this with them. I especially like the breakdown of syntax because the marching sound that comes with it in the rhythm makes you feel like you are among the crowd, hurrying to overthrow the Bastille and you can almost feel the excitement as they start to fight. I also like the sinister remarks about Madame Defarge and the way it implies that the knife is there not just for show but that she will most definitely be using it, because it brings in the emotion of the peasants and what they feel about the rich. It shows that to get their revenge they will go to any lengths and this makes you think of how the rich and the guards must be terrified to see this type of person coming towards them, and knowing that they want you dead.