"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. . ." Maybe one of the most famous opening lines ever penned. Dickens begins his novel by describing the events of the day and comparing the cities of London and Paris. So, here is a little background info on what life was like.
London: In London there was widespread crime and violence because of an ineffective judicial system. King George III was on the throne. The colonies in America are beginning their revolutionary rumblings but the citizens in England are more concerned with superstitions and the supernatural.
France: In France there was wide spread hunger and poverty. The citizens of Paris were on the breaking point. Revolution was imminent. Luis XVI was on the throne, believing his dynasty would last forever. The French Aristocracy was more indulgent and wasteful than the British and seemed to take delight in Lording their position over the impoverished working class.
In both cities the monarchy's were seemingly unaware of the suffering of the masses or the ability unsettled masses have to create anarchy.
For whom was it the best of times? Life was better in London than it was in Paris, but life was best of all if you were one of the ruling class.
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ReplyDeleteWhile it makes it difficult at times to discern what he is telling us, I love the creative images he tosses about to tell the tale. If someone could send the decoder ring, that would be splendid.
ReplyDeleteI thought that The Woodman (Fate) and the Farmer (Death) comparison helped capture the direness of the age. Particularly Dickens claim that a stinky outhouse well outside of Paris is a better place to be since the alternative is being carted as livestock and produce as reaped by Death's harvest. "It is likely enough that in the rough outhouses of some tillers of the heavy lands adjacent to Paris, there were sheltered from the weather that very day, rude carts, bespattered with rustic mire, snuffed about by pigs, and roosted in by poultry, which the Farmer, Death, had already set apart to be his tumbrels of the Revolution" (pg 4). At least... I think that is what he said.