In A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens used water as a recurring motif to represent the French people’s rising anger about the political climate. Just like a powerful body of water, revolutionary ideologies overflowed throughout the city, spreading anger and determination to bring the government down.

Early on in the book, Dickens describes how Mr. Lorry goes for a walk on the beach in Dover. In this scene, Dickens focuses on what the sea is like, which establishes the notion that water is a destructive and uncontrollable force.

The sea did what it liked, and what it liked was destruction. It thundered at the town, and thundered at the cliffs, and brought the coast down, madly.

Later on in the book, Dickens describes the night that a large mob of people stormed the Bastille in Paris. He writes about the mob that did this as if it were a similar destructive body of water:

With a roar that sounded as if all the breath in France had been shaped into a detested word, the living sea rose, wave upon wave, depth upon depth, and overflowed the city.

Here the use of the phrase “living sea” tells the reader that Dickens is not referring to actual water, but rather the large group of angry people overtaking the city. This powerful imagery immediately brings to the reader’s mind the earlier image of the sea that worked to bring “the coast down.” Just like the sea in Dover, this passionate group of furious people is working together to bring down the government. In describing the people in this way, Dickens points to how the revolutionaries on this night moved as one force, as powerful as nature itself, united in their anger and determination.