contrast AND CONTRAST

Compare and contrast

Compare and Contrast

Bleak House by Charles Dickens

Dickens expresses his concern about social problems. Specifically, he seems to be saying that as a result of the way in which the lower class in England is treated, a reaction on the scale of the French Revolution may arise. Dickens does so by comparing England and France at the beginning of and throughout the novel. Dickens takes special note of the conditions--claiming each country to be evil, and full of poverty, injustice and violence due to the irresponsibility of the leaders.

Dickens is alleging that those in the position to regulate and enforce laws are the sole cause of the unfavorable conditions plaguing the poor and lower classes. To compound these allegations, Dickens even goes as far as to criticize the highest instruments of the law in each country--the king. Upon further examination, however, it becomes apparent that Dickens is comparing the stability of England with the chaos of France. He does so by discussing the lawlessness in France and the relative peace in England. Thus, one can conclude that England appears to be stable for the time being. One such example illustrating the stability of England is when Lucie Manette locates her father, Dr. Manette.

He had been imprisoned in the Bastille in France, and Lucie explains how they will go to England to be at peace and rest. This only suggests that Dickens is satirizing the laws of France, and the incompetence of the authorities (Bowen, 53).

Additionally, the depiction of France as the novel unfolds becomes increasingly dangerous. Violent acts are committed by mobs, most specifically, the storming of the Bastille, when Madame Defarge decapitates the governor. With all of this mind, it becomes obvious to the reader that Dickens is viewing the laws and the instruments of the law, specifically those of France, in a perspective which can be classified as a warning to England. Additionally, it is also important to examine the specific cruelty during the French Revolution, and the specific contribution that it serves to form Dickens views, which are reflected directly in his writing.

It is important to recognize that Dickens is presenting the time leading up to the French Revolution to the reader--a period of chaos, injustice and unfair treatment. Obviously, one can see how the laws are failing miserably if such chaos is allowed to progress in a societal environment. Hence we can assume that Dickens is satirizing the law through the character of Charles Darnay. At one point in the novel, we learn that Darnay is being tried for treason because he attempted to rescue an employee of his family's however; Darnay is identified as being a member of an aristocratic family.

The Eyes of the Poor from Paris Spleen 1869 by Baudelaire

One of the origin texts of scholarly modernism Set in a modern, built-up Paris, the prose parts in this volume constitute a farther exploration of the terrain Baudelaire had covered in his verse masterpiece, the town and its ...