The era surrounding the French Revolution was a horribly bloody and violent period of history – the best of times and the worst of times. The violence carried out by French citizens on their compatriots created a horrible scene in the cities and countryside of France. Charles Dickens uses a palate of images of storm, wine, and blood in A Tale of Two Cities to paint exactly how extremely brutal this period was. Dickens's use of storm imagery throughout his novel illustrates to the reader the trembling, fierce, and explosive atmosphere. period in which the events take place. Dicken's use of illustrating storms throughout the novel serves the important purpose of showing the reader how the events of the French Revolution not only affected the life of Charles Darnay, but also the well-being of France in its whole. In the streets of Saint-Antoine, as the wine cart crashes, spilling wine everywhere, a storm seems to settle over Paris, casting shadows and fear in the same way that a strong storm sows doubt and fear. worry in the hearts of men, “now that the cloud settled on Saint Anthony, whom a momentary glow had driven from his sacred face, the darkness was thick: cold, dirt, illness, ignorance and need” (33). The imagery of a storm in the streets of Saint-Antoine foreshadows the coming ferocity and brutality of the French Revolution and the terror it struck in the hearts of most men. As Defarge, one of the leading revolutionaries, converses with his wife in the wine merchant, Dickens recounts the common man's attempts to subjugate the nobility to storms: "It does not take long to strike a man with lightning” (177). The lightning he speaks of can be related to the ferocity and speed of the revolution...... middle of paper ......underestimated power, and the blood it produced recalls the brutality of the French Revolution, a period that Dickens so accurately paints red with the blood of the deceased and the lust it aroused in the Devil. The bloody imagery that Dickens writes about so beautifully in A Tale of Two Cities, in an impeccable yet bloodthirsty manner, embodies the savagery of the French Revolution. Dickens frequently uses imagery to highlight the violence committed during the French Revolution. The incredibly eloquent yet vivid illustration of rebellion comes to life as the era is painted using a palace of storms, wine and blood. Through his colorful and dramatic portrait of the French Revolution, Dickens shows how the times surrounding A Tale of Two Cities were undeniably the best and worst of times. Works Cited A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens