French Revolution And The English Social Reform example essay topic

Comparing the French Revolution and the English Social Reform is like comparing a tempest storm to a spring rain, yet both were times of misery and turmoil. Dickens, in A Tale of Two Cities, depicts these revolts well through usage of vivid detail. Both occurring in the late seventeenth century, "it was the best of times" for the wealthy aristocrats, and "it was the worst of times" for the slum-dwelling poor (I, 1, p. 1). It is a tale of two cities (Paris and London), both stricken with tyranny by the "large jaw", their king, and the "fair face", their queen, and all those wealthy oppressors under the royal crown (I, 1, p. 1).

The rise of the English Social Reform was due to the negligence of the anarchy towards its people due to pressing matters in the revolting America, in which England wished to maintain authority. Therefore, "there was scarcely an amount of order and protection to justify much national boasting" (I, 1, p. 2). For instance, "highway robberies" and burglaries prowled in the cities, while "thieves snipped off diamond crosses from the necks of noble lords" (I, 1, p. 2-3). On the contrary, the hangman was always in demand with his hands tied "stringing up long rows of miscellaneous criminals", burning bodies, and "taking the life of an atrocious murderer and to-morrow of a wretched pilferer who had robbed a farmer's boy of sixpence (I, 1, p. 3). And through this all, the "large jaw" and the "fair face" made empty talk and empty promises, causing the people of England to become furious and defaming the Crown to tyranny (I, 1, p. 1). The French Revolution, or the tempest storm of reformations, was far more severe and outrageous than in England.

Bursting out in 1789, the revolution was a bloody affair of revenge and fury against the French aristocrats, including the "large jaw" and the "fair face" (I, 1, p. 1). Rise of the revolution wasn't because of negligence due to foreign matters but because of the negligence to the welfare of France. But its people saw the aristocrats as arrogant and ignorant to the matters of the nation as they " [made] paper money and [spent] it" (I, 1, p. 2). France "entertained herself" though, "sentencing a youth to have his hands cut off, his tongue torn out with pincers, and his body burned alive, because he had not kneeled down in the rain to do honour to a dirty procession of monks (I, 1, p. 2). In addition to those gruesome details, Dickens illustrates foreshadowing by using a dropped and broken barrel of red wine to symbolize bloodshed that "the time was still to come, when that wine too would be spilled on the street-stones, and when the stain of it would be red wine upon many there" (I, 5, p. 24-26). The French revolution was a time of disarray, relentless massacre, and terrifying revenge against the tyrannous aristocrats.

Although the French Revolution ended in 1799, lasting for ten years, it is an example of the danger of tyranny. Although the English Social Reform can hardly be compared to the gravity of the French Revolution, the revolution is a reminder of what the English Social Reform could have been and a warning or foreshadowing, which is what Dickens was trying to do, of what was inevitable.