From Poverty to Prosperity: The Fight for Freedom
“I see a beautiful city and a brilliant people rising from this abyss, and, in their struggles to be truly free, in their triumphs and defeats, through long years to come, I see the evil of this time… gradually making expiation for itself and wearing out” (Dickens 343). These words from A Tale of Two Cities were spoken by Sydney Carton in the midst of the French Revolution. He prophesies that the revolution will end, France will become beautiful, and the citizens will prosper. Carton captures the spirit of the revolution, where he is willing to die for the advancement of the revolution, as he knows that it will help others and generations to come. Both the French revolutionaries and the…
Citizens in America were tired of British laws and regulations being forced upon them by Britain, specifically extraneous amounts of taxation. A British officer in Boston wrote a letter expressing his opinions on the large amounts of taxation: “What, in God’s name, are ye all about in England? Have you forgot us?” (McCollough 9). Patterson indicates that the revolutionaries in America wrote a document, the Declaration on the Causes and Necessities of Taking Up Arms (“the Declaration”), to address the British Parliament as to why they were in a state of rebellion. The Declaration on the Causes and Necessities of Taking Up Arms starts off with the colonists questioning the legitimacy of the government’s unfair power: “does God grant to government ‘unbounded authority never rightfully resistible, however severe and oppressive’ or is it ‘instituted to promote the welfare of mankind’?” (Patterson). Furthermore, the Declaration points out the revolutionaries’ displeasure with the government taking their property, martial law enforced in Boston, a naval blockade of the colonies, and bloodshed that was a result of the Battle of Lexington, which killed over 122 people and left over 213 injured (Patterson). Similarly, “French Revolution” indicates that the reasons for the commencement of the French Revolution were the criticism of the monarchy and societal structure in France, extraneous amounts of debt due to an expansion of the military during the American Revolution, excessive amounts of poverty and unemployment, and the lack of power held by lower class citizens (“French Revolution”). To demonstrate this point, A Tale of Two Cities characterises the upper-class citizens as “Monseigneur,” who are held at the top of the societal ranking system in France. The novel recognizes them for looking down…
