SQUID for Book the First, Chapter 1

A Tale of Two Cities

“France, less favoured on the whole as to matters spiritual than her sister of the shield and trident, rolled with exceeding smoothness down hill, making paper money and spending it. Under the guidance of her Christian pastors, she entertained herself, besides, with such humane achievements as sentencing a youth to have his hands cut off, his tongue torn out with pincers, and his body burned alive, because he had not kneeled down in the rain to do honour to a dirty procession of monks which passed within his view, at a distance of some fifty or sixty yards (p. 2).”

This quote shows the views of the British towards the French in 1775 and the time that Dickens wrote the novel. Dickens shows very well that he and the people of the Victorian era believe that Britain is and was a superior country, especially to France. He is very contemptuous towards the French in this passage, and even starts out by saying that France is a lesser country when it comes to spiritual matters (heart, soul, and religion) than Britain (“of the shield and trident”). He first commented on how the French were sending themselves into a financial pit, using a smooth and graceful jest to poke at the country of France. He then tells the story of a young man who was killed by the government because the government had been corrupted by the church (“Christian pastors”). This was most likely a reference to the execution of the Chevalier de la Barre, but the passage gets Dickens point across that France had become incredibly corrupt because it had followed the guidance of the church. Throughout the quote he makes the French look like they were awful people in 1775, but this does not just apply to creating the setting for the novel. The French were still regarded as reckless people even after the Victorian era (when Dickens wrote A Tale of Two Cities). The quote shows the distaste of the French both in Dickens era and in 1775, and shows overgeneralizations that could later be proved incorrect in the novel.

Update:
When Dickens was writing this novel in 1859 the Victorian era was over. Yet the British were very much like the French. During the 19th century there were many political reforms in Britain. Numerous political parties were created and a large variety took power for short lengths of time. The government often became corrupt (even if it was only for a short time). During the times of political reform, there were many sentences of death or jail for common people for simple things. In this aspect, as well as many others, the French and British were very similar groups of people. Yet the British were extremely hypocritical, because they were the same as the French in these countless aspects.