illustration of a guillotine

A Tale of Two Cities

by Charles Dickens

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Literary devices in "A Tale of Two Cities."

Summary:

In "A Tale of Two Cities," Charles Dickens employs various literary devices, including foreshadowing, symbolism, and irony. Foreshadowing is evident in the recurrent mentions of the revolution. Symbolism is prominent with the use of the guillotine representing the Reign of Terror. Irony is seen in the contrasting fates of characters like Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton.

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What are some literary devices in Book 1 of "A Tale of Two Cities"?

A master of literary techniques, Charles Dickens uses them to great effect in his novel set in two cities, London and Paris. In his opening passage, which leads to the comparisons of the kings and queens of both England and France as well as the social conditions, there is beautiful

  • Parallelism - the use of components in a sentence that lend a balance in sound and rhythm as well as grammatical structure. The first sentence is so often repeated, but there are many other examples in the first chapter, such as begins the second paragraph:

There were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a plain face, on the throne of England; there were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a fair face, on the throne of France.

  • Symbolism - That which exists on a literal level within a work but also represents...

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  • something figurative.  At the end of the first chapter, the Woodman, who represents the wood cut for the guillotine, and the Farmer, who represents the peasants and those whose tumbrils were used to cart the aristocrats to the guillotine, are symbolic of Fate and Death respectively.  These symbols reappear throughout the narrative.
  • Doppelgangers - doubles of characters; doubling is a literary technique that goes along with the parallelism. One example of very close doubling is with the characters of Sydney Carton and Charles Darnay, who not only look alike, but could have been similar if Carton were not so dissipated. Another pairing is with Mr. Lorry and Dr. Manette.
  • Foils - These are characters who are in contrast to one another, a contrast that points to the shortcomings of one character and the sterling qualities of another. For instance, Mr. Lorry is a serious man of integrity whose entire life is spent working for Tellson's bank. Jerry Cruncher, on the contrary, is a loafer and engages in grave robbery, a crime. 
  • Irony - A contrast between what is perceived and what is real. Cruncher ironically calls himself "an honest tradesman," but in reality he engages in criminal activity.
  • Comic relief - Jerry Cruncher is also a comic figure, as is his miniature, little Jerry, who is delighted to sit in for his father as the runner of errands for Mr. Lorry. Jerry is ridiculous as he harasses his wife for praying over him for his sins, and he calls her "Aggerawayter" [Aggravator]. Even his appearance is humorous:

[his hair] was so like smith's work, so much more like the top of a strongly spiked wall than a head of hair, that the best of players at leap-frog might have declined him, as the most dangerous man in the world to go over.

  • Metaphor - "The Wine Shop," Chapter 5, is a metaphoric passage as the spilling of the wine and the general hysteria is comparable to the Revolution's spilling of blood and hysteria that follows. Further, in Chapter 5 there are more metaphors: "scarecrows" for the peasants; the "shoemaker" for Dr. Manette as a prisoner. 
  • ForeshadowingHints of the revolution to come is in Chapter 5, also.

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.

  • Metonymy -relation on the grounds of close associations. In Chapter 6 Dr. Manette is referred to by his prisoner number: "One Hundred and Five North Tower"
  • Repetition - Used for effect to emphasize importance and the dominance of an idea.

...as the darkness closed in...The darkness deepened and deepened..." Ch.6

  • Hyperbole - Obvious exaggeration is in the above description of Jerry "the most dangerous man" to jump over.
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What literary devices are used in A Tale of Two Cities?

There are several literary devices used in A Tale of Two Cities, such as antithesis or paradox, metaphor, imagery, foreshadowing, parallelism, hyperbole, and other devices.

In the opening of the novel, Dickens incorporates both antithesis and anaphora to set the mood and the tone of the narrative.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

This passage also contains parallelism, which Dickens uses several times throughout the novel. For example, he uses parallelism to compare the British and French royals.

There were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a plain face, on the throne of England; there were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a fair face, on the throne of France.

Throughout the novel, he also uses a lot of imagery, metaphors, and similes. For example, in Chapter 5 ("The Wine Shop"), Dickens writes:

The wine was red wine, and had stained the ground of the narrow street in the suburb of Saint Antoine, in Paris, where it was spilled. It had stained many hands, too, and many faces, and many naked feet, and many wooden shoes. The hands of the man who sawed the wood, left red marks on the billets; and the forehead of the woman who nursed her baby, was stained with the stain of the old rag she wound about her head again. Those who had been greedy with the staves of the cask, had acquired a tigerish smear about the mouth; and one tall joker so besmirched, his head more out of a long squalid bag of a night-cap than in it, scrawled upon a wall with his finger dipped in muddy wine-lees—blood.

The red wine mentioned here is a metaphor for blood. The people aren't only hungry for food and thirsty for water or wine, they're also hungry and thirsty for blood—they seek change and they want a revolution. Dickens also uses foreshadowing here, as this scene repeats later in the novel, when the revolutionaries are covered in blood. The spilling of the wine metaphorically presents and foreshadows the spilling of blood, as well as the chaos that ensues with the start of the revolution.

Dickens also uses hyperbole. For example, he presents Jerry Cruncher as a grumpy, stubborn and uneducated man, who also happens to be "the most dangerous man in the world":

Except on the crown, which was raggedly bald, he had stiff, black hair, standing jaggedly all over it, and growing down hill almost to his broad, blunt nose. It was so like Smith’s work, so much more like the top of a strongly spiked wall than a head of hair, that the best of players at leap-frog might have declined him, as the most dangerous man in the world to go over.

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In A Tale of Two Cities, what stylistic devices does Dickens use?

Such a ponderous question cannot fully be addressed by one posting.  But, here are some of the most salient literary devices:

ANTITHESIS/THESIS

The very title of A Tale of Two Cities suggests this conflict of contrasts. The opening paragraph of this great novel employs this literary device which summarizes the major themes,

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness.... 

Antithesis also involves characters who both contrast and reflect one another. For instance, Mr. Lorry and Ernest DeFarge both work or have worked for Dr. Manette.  They consider themselves as businessmen; however, Defarge is unredeemed at the end of the novel because of his wife's hatred for the Evremondes, while Mr. Lorry's connection to the Manette family and the Darnays saves him from a life without love in Tellson's Bank.

Also, while Dr. Manette's experiences mirror those of Madame Defarge regarding the injuries dealt to her family, Madame Defarge is figuratively imprisoned by the evil of retaliation and he is "brought back to life" from his imprisonment in the Bastille.

DOPPELGANGER

Most salient among the doubles in this novel are Sydney Carton and Charles Darnay, two characters whom some critics feel are but two sides of the same psyche.  In fact, several times in the narrative, Carton reflects upon how he sees what he could have been in Darnay.  Their physical resemblance is what saves Darnay from a treason charge in England and death by the guillotine in France.  Of course, they both are in love with Lucie Manette.

Other doubles are Mr. Lorry and Doctor Manette; while Mr. Lorry has been imprisoned in Tellson's Bank [see Chapter 1 of Book the Second], Dr. Manette has spent fourteen years in the Bastille.  Both older men are reborn/resurrected by the presence of Lucie Manette, the physician's daughter, who helps to restore his mind and gives him a purpose to live and who also provides Mr. Lorry a family that he has never had.

SYMBOLISM

The red wine spilled in St. Antoine becomes symbolic of the bloodshed to come as well as foreshadowing "the time to come."

The shoemaker is symbolic of the imprisoned and mentally tortured Dr. Manette.

The Monseigneur symbolizes the effete aristocracy of France.

The stone symbolizes the cruelty and cold-heartedness of the Marquis d'Evremonde.

Madame Defarge's knitting symbolizes the methodical and insistent coming of the bloody French Revolution.

The Vengeance  is a character symbolic of the blood-thirsty revolutionaries.

The wood-sawyer is symbolic of Fate for the aristocrats in the form of the guillotine.

METAPHOR

Dickens uses metaphoric chapter titles to engage his readers who purchased this work in installments:

The night shadows are the inner feelings of people, inscrutable to others.  Sydney Carton has "old shadows" stirred up after meeting Darnay, for instance.

The jackal and the fellow of no delicacy are ironic metaphors for the nature of Sydney Carton.

The honest tradesman is also an ironic metaphor for Jerry Cruncher.

Echoing footsteps are the marching revolutionaries

loadstone rock is a metaphor for the magnetic ore that drew ships off couse.  (Darnay is drawn to France)

Tellson's bank is a prison

Another interesting rhetorical device that Dickens uses is the switch to the present tense as in Chapter 21 (bk. 2) to create suspense. 

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The best way to respond to this question is to perhaps merely quote the first paragraph of this story and let it speak for itself. What is notable about this novel and the stylistic devices that Dickens uses is parallelism, which we can see stylistically enacts the relationship between the two cities, London and Paris, that the title of this great work refers to. Note the many examples of parallelism in the opening paragraph:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way...

The series of parallelisms then that open the novel introduce the way in which the fates of London and Paris are going to be closely intertwined and also foreshadow the parallel nature of so much of the plot. Characters resurface, such as Barsad, at critical moments, events are repeated, such as Darnay facing two trials, and images such as the golden thread and the shadow dominate this excellent novel from start to finish as the fate of Paris and London is shown.

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