Tone, in the chosen passage from Tale of Two Cities, is used not only to show the narrator's emotions, but the people of Saint Antoine’s sentiments as well. Throughout the text, joyous, gloomful, envious, vengeful, and ominous tones are used to give the reader a perspective through the narrator's eyeglass of the events going on. The first of all the tones used is a joyous one, used in the third paragraph. Phrases such as “A shrill sound of laughter and of amused voices” are commonly associated with happiness, and are included to give the reader an idea of the happiness the spilled wine gave the people of Saint Antoine. Not only that, but included words such as “special companionship”, and “frolicsome embraces”, also demonstrate the happiness …show more content…
Gloom is reflected in word choice like “cadaverous faces”, as well as metaphors like “gloom gathered on the scene that appeared more natural to it than sunshine”. This metaphor not only shows the misery of the people but also describes the atmosphere of Saint Antoine’s empty streets, with women and children using ash trays as sources of heat for their fingers and toes, starved of food and warmth. The fourth paragraph changes tone once more to one much more ominous, foreshadowing the future of Saint Antoine. Descriptions of the people of Saint Antoine with the red stained faces and clothes mirror the appearance of a people gone through a revolution. Not only that but the word “Blood”, scrawled upon a wall, also tells of a grim event coming in the near future. Two other examples of this ominous tone--the ship’s crew in “peril of tempest”, and the “birds, fine of song and feather” not realizing their impending doom-- are described, lastly, in paragraphs six and seven. Paragraph five and six show different tones yet again, this time not predicting the anger of the people, but showing it. At this point, the “cloud”, representing the people’s growing contempt for their lack of rights and the necessities to …show more content…
By this time, the people had become fed up with the “cold, dirt, sickness, want” and especially the “ignorance” and lack of compassion the nobles had to their terrible conditions. The old days, when the mill had “ground old people young” are long gone, and now young people are forced to abandon their childhood at an early age and face starvation and suffering with “ancient faces and grave voices”. Because of things like this, their lips “white with what they suppressed”, the people of Saint Antoine are comparable to “wild beasts” tempted to turn at bay. Nothing was in good condition, except the tools and weapons. This detail is included to further show the tension between the two social groups of nobles and commoners, phrases such as “the gunmaker’s stock was murderous” solidifying its purpose even more. The final nail in the coffin to the narrator's tone in paragraphs five and six is the description of the “gaunt scarecrows”, or people of the neighborhood, having nothing to eat or do except watch the lamplighter light the streetlights using pulleys. To flare upon the darkness of their condition, the idea of “hauling up men by these ropes and pulleys”, or hanging the nobles, is given. All this goes on under the noses of the pretentious nobles, or birds “fine of song and feather”, who took no