Charles Dickens’ father spent many years in debtor’s prison when Charles was young, so Charles had to work in an atrocious factory in order to get his father released. Some parts of these experiences are reflected in one of his most famous books, A Tale of Two Cities. In this book, almost everyone experiences or inflicts inhumanity at one point or another, which rang true for Dickens in his own life. The theme of inhumanity and hate is very predominant in A Tale of Two Cities, and Dickens shows this in different groups of characters. In the ever-present struggle between love and hate, hate is the weaker theme; however, humanity must always be fighting against hate and inhumanity, as shown by the English law system, the French Aristocracy, and…show more content… When Dickens first introduces this idea in Book One, he describes the effect Dr. Manette’s wrongful imprisonment via the brothers took on him, saying, “This time, a pair of haggard eyes had looked at the questioner, before the face dropped again. The faintness of the voice was pitiable and dreadful. It was not the faintness of physical weakness… Its deplorable peculiarity was, that it was the faintness of solitude and disuse. It was like the last feeble echo of a sound made long and long ago”(29). Dickens is showing the reader what the nobles could and did do and how they used their power to perform extremely inhumane acts on the peasants and the middle class. He is showing how much one could suffer from these inhumane acts; Dr. Manette was imprisoned for so long that his life had been drained out of him and he is now just an echo of a great man. Later on in the book, the Marquis, one of the Evrémonde brothers, is driving his carriage extremely quickly through the streets of St. Antoine in Paris when he runs over and kills a child. Dickens depicts the aftermath of the accident very vividly when he says, “As the tall man …came running at the carriage, Monseigneur the Marquis clapped his hand…on his sword-hilt. ‘Killed!’ shrieked the man, in wild desperation… ‘Dead!’… ‘It is extraordinary to me,’ said he, ‘that you cannot take care of yourselves and your children.’… He threw out a gold coin …”(84). Gaspard, the tall man, is in a state of utter despair, grief, and shock from seeing his child suddenly getting run over and killed by this reckless nobleman who turns out to be the Marquis. The Marquis, however, has absolutely no pity for Gaspard and blames it on the peasant by saying that he should have kept his child out of the road. The Marquis promptly throws a gold coin to Gaspard as if the coin would make up for the loss of the child, showing absolutely
