illustration of a guillotine

A Tale of Two Cities

by Charles Dickens

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Student Question

What do the woodman and the farmer symbolize in A Tale of Two Cities?

Quick answer:

In A Tale of Two Cities, the Woodman symbolizes the tumbrils, which transport victims to the guillotine, while the Farmer represents Death, who harvests lives for the guillotine. Both figures, traditionally seen as life-improving, are paradoxically agents of destruction, highlighting the grim reality of the Revolution.

Expert Answers

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The Woodman symbolizes the tumbrils (the carts that take the victims of the Revolution to the guillotine), as he chops down the wood to make the carts. The trees are cut down for the sake of people who will also be cut down. The tumbrils are then delivered to the Farmer (Death), who harvests the people for the guillotine. The tool of a woodman is an axe, which symbolizes the act of cutting. The tool of Death is traditionally a scythe, as he harvests them from the earth to be presented to the grave. Though both a woodman and a farmer are usually shown to be people whose deeds improve people’s lives, in the paradox (as shown in the first paragraph of the novel) they are the means of destruction. The people will find themselves, as the peasant woman tells the Monseigneur, under “little heaps of grass.”

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