A Tale of Two Cities

4 Pages 887 Words

‘Imagery'

I ask you to believe that he has a heart that he very, very seldom reveals, and that there are deep wounds in it. My dear, I have seen it bleeding." Charles Dickens uses different stylistic techniques when he writes but the most effective technique is imagery. All the different uses of imagery that Dickens' uses creates different images, moods, and feelings on how the reader takes in the book. Different kinds of imagery that he uses is animal imagery, water imagery, and blood imagery.

One example of imagery that Dickens' uses is blood imagery. In the novel, "A Tale of Two Cities" the use of blood imagery is very important. A number of events are foreshadowed through blood imagery. A wine cask had broken in the streets of St. Antoine which gathered everybody in the street to come and drink it. Everyone gathered until the very last drop of the wine was finished. "The wine was red wine, and had stained the ground of the narrow street in the suburb of Saint Antione, in Paris, where it was spilled. It had stained many hands, too, and many faces, and many naked feet, and many wooden shoes. The hands of the man who sawed the wood left red marks on the billets; and the forehead of the woman who nursed her baby was stained with the stain of the old rag she wound her head again." (Dickens, pg 37) This is an example of blood imagery and of how the streets and the people were going to be covered in blood because of the revolution that was coming. Another example of blood imagery is, "No sooner was the acquittal pronounced, than tears were shed as freely as blood at another time, and such fraternal embraces were bestowed upon the prisoner by as many of both sexes as could rush at him........."(Dickens, 282) This quote is talking about the coming revolution that is going to take place and how much bloodshed that will take place. This at least gives the reader more suspenseful and more images to expand their readi...