Tale of Two Cities

Metaphor Analysis

Stone
Stone facades and structures figure prominently in the story and almost always reflect some characteristics of the persons or action being described. For instance, the Marquis St. Evrémonde stone chateau and its various carved images are used to convey the unyielding arrogance of its inhabitant and the manner in which he becomes simply another feature in its statuary. This line begins when the peasant woman asks for an engraved stone to mark her husband's pauper grave. The Marquis rudely refuses and then returns to his chateau, described as a "heavy mass of a building" and a "stony business altogether" (114). The stony face closest to his window is said to have its mouth open and to appear "awe-stricken" at the sight of its master's dead body. The Marquis' face in death is characterized as being like "a fine mask, suddenly startled, made angry and petrified" (125). Later in the story, the image of the bloody grindstone outside Tellson's Paris office acts as a metaphor for the hard, unyielding fury of the mob and serves as contrast to the interior apartment which shelters the Manette's and Mr. Lorry. Stone is also used as a metaphor for the inevitability of fate as in the chapter entitled "Drawn to the Loadstone Rock" (Book II, Chapter 24) that details Darnay's decision to return to France clearly illustrates.
Footsteps
The footsteps that echo outside the Manette's Soho home are in Lucie's fancy symbolic of the numerous people that she believes will enter into her family's life. She perceives them as dangerous to her life and Carton immediately states "I take them into mine" which foreshadows his willingness to sacrifice himself to the Paris mob in Darnay's place. Later in the story the symbolic footsteps are shown to be those of the Paris mob when Mr. Lorry visits the Soho home at the start of the revolution and remarks that the echoing footsteps are "very numerous and very loud" that evening. The next scene is that of the storming of...