Throughout the novel “A Tale of Two Cities” Charles Dickens uses an extreme amount of figurative language. The type of figurative language that truly rises to the top is when Dickens uses sarcasm and wit to portray a point. This type of figurative language is of course Satire, and Dickens uses it frequently throughout his novel “A Tale of Two Cities” in order to emphasize his points on the state of the world in the time period of the French Revolution and Reign of Terror.
The first example of satire describes the Judicial system of France during the revolution. “That, for these reasons, the jury, being a loyal jury (as he knew they were), must positively find the prisoner guilty, and make an end of him, whether they liked it or not.” (81). This quote directly shows Dickens’ wit in the way he describes the laughable court process of France in the late 1700s. He describes the thought process of the attorney general as one of confidence in a win because of the social climate of France at the time.
Anyone accused of treason surely must have been guilty, this was the thought process that held in France and the jury knew it. Dickens describing the Jury as loyal directly shows satire as they are clearly not a loyal and good jury but instead a jury that wants to convict and send a man to death for a crime that there is no evidence of him committing. Truly Dickens expertly chooses his phrasing to almost make light of the horrible conditions of the French courts and convey how ridiculous the trials really were as almost everyone got the guilty sentence. This makes it even more incredible that Darnay gets out of execution due to Carton’s quick thinking and Law skill.
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A second example of satire from book 2 is in Chapter 7, it says “Monseigneur had the other truly noble idea that the world was made for them.”(107). This quote is clear satire that describes an ideal of the Monseigneur as “noble” when really he means it is an ideal that most nobles have. With this piece of satirical context Dickens further explains how the upper class of France believed they were far above the human quality of lower classes to the extent of believing that the world was made for only the upper class. This shows how disgusting the views of the Nobles were and sways the reader further and further to the side of the revolutionaries.
