In A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens criticizes the social injustice that occured during the French Revolution through excessive mortality, a clear distinction between classes, and the irrationality of the government system.
Dickens includes a myriad of unnecessary deaths in his novel to reflect the abuse the French people endure. Preceding the revolution, many peasants were killed at the merciless hands of the wealthy. Monseigneur’s carriage recklessly races through the streets when he runs over a child. He does not accept the blame for the death he caused, and provides an insensate apology to the distraught father by throwing a gold coin in his general direction. The Marquis becomes a symbol of the ruthless aristocratic cruelty that the revolutionaries seek to overcome. After the Marquis’ brother rapes a young woman, kills her husband, and stabs her brother, he receives no immediate punishment for his violent actions. However, Madame Defarge dedicates the entirety of her life seeking justice for her family through revenge on the Evrémondes. She informs her husband of her tenacity when she says, “Then tell Wind and Fire where to stop, but don’t tell me” (354). During the reign of terror, the rebels went to extreme measures to massacre all nobles along with any others who were opposed to the radical ideas of the revolution. As a young seamstress, falsely sentenced to death, approaches the guillotine, Sydney Carton commands her, “Keep your eyes upon me, dear child, and mind no other object” (388). Before she dies, she finds consolation in the idea that one day the new Republic may provide a fair life for poor people. Similarly to the seamstress, Charles Darnay was condemned to his annihilation, not because of his own crimes, but because his relation to the Evrémondes. After his third trial in France, it becomes evident to him that his cessation is not only unjust but also inevitable. A majority of the maltreatment all people experienced during the revolution stemmed from the willingness of both sides to kill without feeling remorse.
The contrast between the conditions in the lives of the upper and lower classes exemplifies inequity. Dickens displays his sympathy for the hungry peasants when he writes, “Not before dark night did the men and women come back to the children, wailing and breadless. Then, the miserable bakers’ shops were beset by long files of them, patiently waiting to buy bad bread; and while they waited with stomachs faint and empty…” (235). Throughout every stage of the revolution, the poor are always malnourished. When a barrel of wine spills onto the street of Saint Antoine, the poor fall on their knees to drink. The peasants are so famished that they resort to scooping wine out of the dirt; this scene illustrates how dire their situation is. In A Tale of Two Cities Dickens exaggerates the differences between the two classes by comparing the poverty of the peasants to the prestigious lives of the aristocracy. He does this primarily through the character of the Marquis. Amidst the deprivation of the poor, Dickens uses sardonic tone as he describes Monseigneur’s lifestyle; “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.” In this quote, Monseigneur represents the entire aristocratic class because they all abide in significantly better conditions than the lower class. Class struggle plays an essential role in the injustice created during the epoch of revolution.
A flawed government contributes to the unfairness that the society experiences in A Tale of Two Cities. The court system represents the lack of order and consistency in both the French and English governments. For many citizens, the court acts as a source of entertainment where they can watch someone be sentenced to death. At Charles Darnay’s first trial, the murmur of the excited audience is referred to as the “buzzing of blue flies”. Dickens criticizes the justice system when he writes, “Death is Nature’s remedy for all things, and why not Legislation’s? Accordingly, the forger was put to Death; the utterer of a bad note was put to Death; the unlawful opener of a letter was put to Death; the purloiner of forty shillings and sixpence was put to Death; the holder of a horse at Tellson’s door, who made off with it, was put to Death” (56). The justice system is flawed in that it is unable to distinguish between severe and insignificant crimes, in both of which death is always the sentence. Dickens emphatically states that the French Revolution was inevitable; “Crush humanity out of shape once more, under similar hammers, and it will twist itself into the same tortured forms. Sow the same seed of rapacious license and oppression over again, and it will surely yield the same fruit according to its kind” (385). If a government organizes and treats its people poorly, then they are bound to revolt against the injustice that they receive. In other words, an oppressed people will seek justice.
While Dickens did not sympathize with the gruesome and often irrational results, he did sympathize with the unrest of the lower class due to the social injustice they endured. Dickens shows that no society is perfect, not even after a revolution.