A Study of Verbs Related to Violence in <i>A Tale of Two Cities</i>

Chen Cheng

doi:doi:10.11648/j.ellc.20200501.11

| Peer-Reviewed

A Study of Verbs Related to Violence in A Tale of Two Cities

Chen Cheng

Published in English Language, Literature & Culture (Volume 5, Issue 1)

Received: 23 October 2019 Accepted: 12 December 2019 Published: 4 January 2020

Views: Downloads:

Download PDF

Share This Article

Twitter
Linked In
Facebook

Abstract

Almost every Englishman is aware, however slightly, of the wonderful novels of Charles Dickens. A Tale of Two Cities, one of the historical fictions, set in the context of the French Revolution, begins with the miserable plight of the French people living under the exploitation of the aristocrats in the years leading up to the revolution and ends with the exceedingly blind and terrifying revolt and vengeance demonstrated by the revolutionaries. It has been vastly studied from different aspects, like the territory and disciplinary frontier-crossings, revelation of personal and national identity, uses of caricatures and ironies. We apply the quantitative method to the study of verbs related to violence so as to uncover Dicken’s attitudes towards the French Revolution and investigate deeper into the double theme - violence, madness, terrorism and love, reason, forgiveness. “How does Dickens’s approval of the capital punishment influence his writing of A Tale?” “As readers are drenched in the heart-rending sentiment and intoxicated by the sacrificial love at the end, why do hatred and violence, as claimed by many commentators, serve as the main theme of the novel? In fact, the answer is embedded in the use of verbs related to violence. We will first compare the political stands of Burke, Carlyle and Dickens, and then proceed to the two lists of words related to violence and a diagram displayed on AntConc, followed by the analysis of the three main characters in A Tale - Doctor Mannette, Madame Defarge and Sydney Carton.

Published in	English Language, Literature & Culture (Volume 5, Issue 1)
DOI	10.11648/j.ellc.20200501.11
Page(s)	1-12
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

A Tale of Two Cities, Verbs, Violence, Quantitative Method, Charles Dickens’s Attitude

References

[1]	Colin Jones. “French Crossings: I. A Tale of Two Cities” Transactions of the Royal Historical Society. 12 (2010) 20: 1-26.
[2]	Boyd, Richard. "'The Unsteady and Precarious Contribution of Individuals': Edmund Burke’s Defense of Civil Society." The Review of Politics 61.3 (1999): 465-91.
[3]	Gottschalk, Louis and Edmund Burke. “Reflections on Burke’s ‘Reflections on the French Revolution’”. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 100. 5 (1956): 417-29.
[4]	Carlyle, Thomas. The French Revolution ED. A. H. R. Ball. New York: Dover Publications, 2005.
[5]	Dickens, Charles. A Tale of Two Cities. New York: Dover Publications, 1999.
[6]	Gallo, Max. Révolution Française: Le Peuple et le Roi. Saint-Amand-Montrond: XO editions, 2008: 288.
[7]	Marylu, Hill. Thomas Carlyle Resartus; Reappraising Carlyle’s Contribution to the Philosophy of History, Political Theory, and Cultural Criticism. Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson UP, 2010: 88.
[8]	[8Boyd, Richard. "'The Unsteady and Precarious Contribution of Individuals': Edmund Burke’s Defense of Civil Society." The Review of Politics 61.3 (1999): 472.
[9]	Marylu, Hill. Thomas Carlyle Resartus; Reappraising Carlyle’s Contribution to the Philosophy of History, Political Theory, and Cultural Criticism. Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson UP, 2010: 94.
[10]	Joshi, Priti. "Mutiny Echoes: India, Britons, and Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities". Nineteenth-Century Literature 62.1 (2007): 49.
[11]	Jones, Gareth Stedman, "The redemptive power of violence?: Carlyle, Marx and Dickens", History Workshop Journal 65 (2008): 20.
[12]	Tambling, Jeremy. Dickens, Violence and Modern State: Dreams of the Scaffold. New York: St Martin's Press, 1995.
[13]	Sanders, Andrew. “Dickens’s French Historical Novel.” Charles Dickens et la France. Ed. Sylvère Monod. Lille: Presses Universitaires de Lille, 1978. 61-68.
[14]	Alter, Robert. "The Demons of History in Dickens' 'Tale'." NOVEL: A Forum on Fiction 2.2 (1969): 135-42.
[15]	Collins, Philip. "Dickens and French Wickedness." Charles Dickens et la France. Ed. Sylvère Monod. Lille: Presses Universitaires de Lille, 1978. 35-46.
[16]	Hutter, Albert D. "Nation and Generation in A Tale of Two Cities". PMLA 93. 3 (1978): 448-62.
[17]	Monod, Sylvère. “Dickens’s Attitudes in A Tale of Two Cities." Nineteenth-Century Fiction 24.4 (1970): 488–505.
[18]	Vega-Ritter, Max. "Histoire et Folie dans A Tale of Two Cities". Cahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens, 52 (2002): 81-100.

Cite This Article

Plain Text BibTeX RIS

APA Style

Chen Cheng. (2020). A Study of Verbs Related to Violence in A Tale of Two Cities. English Language, Literature & Culture, 5(1), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20200501.11

Copy | Download

ACS Style

Chen Cheng. A Study of Verbs Related to Violence in A Tale of Two Cities. Engl. Lang. Lit. Cult. 2020, 5(1), 1-12. doi: 10.11648/j.ellc.20200501.11

Copy | Download

AMA Style

Chen Cheng. A Study of Verbs Related to Violence in A Tale of Two Cities. Engl Lang Lit Cult. 2020;5(1):1-12. doi: 10.11648/j.ellc.20200501.11

Copy | Download

@article{10.11648/j.ellc.20200501.11,
  author = {Chen Cheng},
  title = {A Study of Verbs Related to Violence in A Tale of Two Cities},
  journal = {English Language, Literature & Culture},
  volume = {5},
  number = {1},
  pages = {1-12},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ellc.20200501.11},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20200501.11},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ellc.20200501.11},
  abstract = {Almost every Englishman is aware, however slightly, of the wonderful novels of Charles Dickens. A Tale of Two Cities, one of the historical fictions, set in the context of the French Revolution, begins with the miserable plight of the French people living under the exploitation of the aristocrats in the years leading up to the revolution and ends with the exceedingly blind and terrifying revolt and vengeance demonstrated by the revolutionaries. It has been vastly studied from different aspects, like the territory and disciplinary frontier-crossings, revelation of personal and national identity, uses of caricatures and ironies. We apply the quantitative method to the study of verbs related to violence so as to uncover Dicken’s attitudes towards the French Revolution and investigate deeper into the double theme - violence, madness, terrorism and love, reason, forgiveness. “How does Dickens’s approval of the capital punishment influence his writing of A Tale?” “As readers are drenched in the heart-rending sentiment and intoxicated by the sacrificial love at the end, why do hatred and violence, as claimed by many commentators, serve as the main theme of the novel? In fact, the answer is embedded in the use of verbs related to violence. We will first compare the political stands of Burke, Carlyle and Dickens, and then proceed to the two lists of words related to violence and a diagram displayed on AntConc, followed by the analysis of the three main characters in A Tale - Doctor Mannette, Madame Defarge and Sydney Carton.},
 year = {2020}
}

Copy | Download

TY  - JOUR
T1  - A Study of Verbs Related to Violence in A Tale of Two Cities
AU  - Chen Cheng
Y1  - 2020/01/04
PY  - 2020
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20200501.11
DO  - 10.11648/j.ellc.20200501.11
T2  - English Language, Literature & Culture
JF  - English Language, Literature & Culture
JO  - English Language, Literature & Culture
SP  - 1
EP  - 12
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2575-2413
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20200501.11
AB  - Almost every Englishman is aware, however slightly, of the wonderful novels of Charles Dickens. A Tale of Two Cities, one of the historical fictions, set in the context of the French Revolution, begins with the miserable plight of the French people living under the exploitation of the aristocrats in the years leading up to the revolution and ends with the exceedingly blind and terrifying revolt and vengeance demonstrated by the revolutionaries. It has been vastly studied from different aspects, like the territory and disciplinary frontier-crossings, revelation of personal and national identity, uses of caricatures and ironies. We apply the quantitative method to the study of verbs related to violence so as to uncover Dicken’s attitudes towards the French Revolution and investigate deeper into the double theme - violence, madness, terrorism and love, reason, forgiveness. “How does Dickens’s approval of the capital punishment influence his writing of A Tale?” “As readers are drenched in the heart-rending sentiment and intoxicated by the sacrificial love at the end, why do hatred and violence, as claimed by many commentators, serve as the main theme of the novel? In fact, the answer is embedded in the use of verbs related to violence. We will first compare the political stands of Burke, Carlyle and Dickens, and then proceed to the two lists of words related to violence and a diagram displayed on AntConc, followed by the analysis of the three main characters in A Tale - Doctor Mannette, Madame Defarge and Sydney Carton.
VL  - 5
IS  - 1
ER  -

Copy | Download

Author Information

Chen Cheng

Foreign Language Department, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China

Download PDF

Sections

Plain Text BibTeX RIS

APA Style

Chen Cheng. (2020). A Study of Verbs Related to Violence in A Tale of Two Cities. English Language, Literature & Culture, 5(1), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20200501.11

Copy | Download

ACS Style

Chen Cheng. A Study of Verbs Related to Violence in A Tale of Two Cities. Engl. Lang. Lit. Cult. 2020, 5(1), 1-12. doi: 10.11648/j.ellc.20200501.11

Copy | Download

AMA Style

Chen Cheng. A Study of Verbs Related to Violence in A Tale of Two Cities. Engl Lang Lit Cult. 2020;5(1):1-12. doi: 10.11648/j.ellc.20200501.11

Copy | Download

@article{10.11648/j.ellc.20200501.11,
  author = {Chen Cheng},
  title = {A Study of Verbs Related to Violence in A Tale of Two Cities},
  journal = {English Language, Literature & Culture},
  volume = {5},
  number = {1},
  pages = {1-12},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ellc.20200501.11},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20200501.11},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ellc.20200501.11},
  abstract = {Almost every Englishman is aware, however slightly, of the wonderful novels of Charles Dickens. A Tale of Two Cities, one of the historical fictions, set in the context of the French Revolution, begins with the miserable plight of the French people living under the exploitation of the aristocrats in the years leading up to the revolution and ends with the exceedingly blind and terrifying revolt and vengeance demonstrated by the revolutionaries. It has been vastly studied from different aspects, like the territory and disciplinary frontier-crossings, revelation of personal and national identity, uses of caricatures and ironies. We apply the quantitative method to the study of verbs related to violence so as to uncover Dicken’s attitudes towards the French Revolution and investigate deeper into the double theme - violence, madness, terrorism and love, reason, forgiveness. “How does Dickens’s approval of the capital punishment influence his writing of A Tale?” “As readers are drenched in the heart-rending sentiment and intoxicated by the sacrificial love at the end, why do hatred and violence, as claimed by many commentators, serve as the main theme of the novel? In fact, the answer is embedded in the use of verbs related to violence. We will first compare the political stands of Burke, Carlyle and Dickens, and then proceed to the two lists of words related to violence and a diagram displayed on AntConc, followed by the analysis of the three main characters in A Tale - Doctor Mannette, Madame Defarge and Sydney Carton.},
 year = {2020}
}

Copy | Download

TY  - JOUR
T1  - A Study of Verbs Related to Violence in A Tale of Two Cities
AU  - Chen Cheng
Y1  - 2020/01/04
PY  - 2020
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20200501.11
DO  - 10.11648/j.ellc.20200501.11
T2  - English Language, Literature & Culture
JF  - English Language, Literature & Culture
JO  - English Language, Literature & Culture
SP  - 1
EP  - 12
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2575-2413
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20200501.11
AB  - Almost every Englishman is aware, however slightly, of the wonderful novels of Charles Dickens. A Tale of Two Cities, one of the historical fictions, set in the context of the French Revolution, begins with the miserable plight of the French people living under the exploitation of the aristocrats in the years leading up to the revolution and ends with the exceedingly blind and terrifying revolt and vengeance demonstrated by the revolutionaries. It has been vastly studied from different aspects, like the territory and disciplinary frontier-crossings, revelation of personal and national identity, uses of caricatures and ironies. We apply the quantitative method to the study of verbs related to violence so as to uncover Dicken’s attitudes towards the French Revolution and investigate deeper into the double theme - violence, madness, terrorism and love, reason, forgiveness. “How does Dickens’s approval of the capital punishment influence his writing of A Tale?” “As readers are drenched in the heart-rending sentiment and intoxicated by the sacrificial love at the end, why do hatred and violence, as claimed by many commentators, serve as the main theme of the novel? In fact, the answer is embedded in the use of verbs related to violence. We will first compare the political stands of Burke, Carlyle and Dickens, and then proceed to the two lists of words related to violence and a diagram displayed on AntConc, followed by the analysis of the three main characters in A Tale - Doctor Mannette, Madame Defarge and Sydney Carton.
VL  - 5
IS  - 1
ER  -

Copy | Download