The themes of revolution and bloodlust are shown throughout A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens with the presence of Alcohol, which is used to bring the common people together, house a band of revolutionaries, and symbolize the outcome of the country as a whole. Dickens used wine flooding the street as a conceit to the spilling of blood in the revolution to show how people are brought together through the theme of bloodlust. When a wine casket burst and flooded the “rough, irregular stones of the street” (Dickens 31) all the people “suspended their business” (Dickens 30) to drink the wine, which “stained the ground” (Dickens 32) red and left “a tigerish smear about the mouth” (Dickens 32) that resembled “BLOOD” (Dickens 32). This conceit…show more content… Carton’s unhealthy addiction of wine in the beginning of the book correlates with the troubled and dangerous destiny of the whole of France. When Carton is sitting at the bar and drinks “a pint of wine” and finishes “in a few minutes” we can clearly see how he is drinking himself to death in the same way that France is drinking itself to death with its bloodlust (Dickens 89). As the novel continues on Carton is affected by the character of Lucie and the beacon of hope that she radiates. This allows Carton to decide that that his life was not so worthless and ultimately led to a decline in his addiction. This is made evident when Carton and Lucie are having a private conversation and Carton tells Lucie that she “stirred shadows” that he thought “had died out of” him (Dickens 157). Later in the story before Carton switches places in the prison with Charles Darnay, we see Carton have the self-restraint to drink wine in small amounts as more of a social event than a physical dependence. This improvement from addiction to moderate amounts foreshadows the events after this scene because we can see how the fate of France will no longer be mass death to all people, but instead through marginal bloodlust and the omnipresent hope radiating from characters such as Lucie, the destiny of France is changed for the better. The presence of alcohol is used in a variety of ways by Charles Dickens to show the presence of the themes of bloodlust and revolution. The alcohol was used in conjunction with many different characters to further and fully show these themes that are prevalent throughout the whole
