Foreshadowing in A Tale of Two Cities.
Charles Dickens uses foreshadowing in A Tale of Two Cities to warn of three upcoming events. The use of foreshadowing leads to a heightened level of suspense and curiosity, which urge the reader to continue on in a quest to solve the mystery. .
The first use of foreshadowing is the breaking of the wine cask in Chapter Five of Book One. The wine is spilled on the same street as the plotters of the revolution live. The cask erupted out front of the Defarge's wine shop, the same place from which the revolution would erupt. The blood-red wine stained the ground that it had fallen on. It stained red the hands of those who touched it, the mouths of those who drank it, and those who were the greediest acquired a "tigerish" smear around their mouths. This is the ground that would be reddened by the blood of many nobles and the thirsty peasants were the same that would shed and stain their hands red with so much blood. When all of the wine has been scooped up and there was none left, a tall joker named Gaspard writes on the wall of a building the word BLOOD with his wine covered finger. After the Marquis de Evremonde ran over Gaspard's young child with his horse and carriage, Gaspard sheds the first blood of the revolution when he slays the Marquis for revenge. .
The second use of foreshadowing is introduced in Chapter Four of Book Two. When Dr. Manette is first introduced to Charles Darnay, Dr. Manette gives no verbal sign of recognition. However, "His face had become frozen, as it were, in a very curious look at Darnay: an intent look, deepening into a frown of dislike and distrust, not even unmixed with fear." No one seems to have noticed, or if they did it was attributed to fatigue. This thread reappears in Charles Darnay's his desire to confide his real name to Dr. Mannette and Dr. Manette's vehement desire not to learn of his name until the morning of his daughter's wedding to Charles.
