Dickens makes it clear that, while he does sympathize with the horrible conditions of the common people and deplores the attitudes of entitlement of the nobility, he does not approve of the reactions of the revolutionaries, embodied in the characters of Monsier and Madame Defarge. The vast difference in economic stability between the classes is made clear, especially in the actions of Monseigneur de Evremont when he runs over the peasant child. Dickens sees the...
Dickens makes it clear that, while he does sympathize with the horrible conditions of the common people and deplores the attitudes of entitlement of the nobility, he does not approve of the reactions of the revolutionaries, embodied in the characters of Monsier and Madame Defarge. The vast difference in economic stability between the classes is made clear, especially in the actions of Monseigneur de Evremont when he runs over the peasant child. Dickens sees the Monseigneur’s death as well deserved and the imprisonment of his killer Gaspard as inhuman. These individual actions are understandable. It is the overthrow of the monarchy and the whole of French society that earns his condemnation. The fear of the mob was very real in this period of history (even in America) as an uncontrollable animal. Seeing it from the distance of two generations, Dickens can look beyond the fear that the same might have happened in England. As always, his heart is with the common people and reform of society, but he does not seem to advocate a complete overthrow of the government or British monarchy.
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