It has become my intention of late to read more classic literature and broaden my scope of literary works. I have been enjoying the books thus far, and have just finished "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens.
I really enjoyed this book set during the French Revolution. It was a tale of mystery, intrigue, love, hate, revenge, honor, courage, and devotion.
Yet, through all of this, I was shocked and sickened by some of Dickens' descriptions of horror behind this Revolution. The blood that flowed for the name of "Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity!" was unimaginable. And yet, it gives truthful insight into the sinful nature of mankind.
An interesting example of this is in chapter 35, entitled "the Wood Sawyer". So as not to ruin the book for anyone else still planning on reading it, I will spare some of the details.
It is in this chapter that Lucie sees a wild display of the nature of man's sinfulness when it is given reign to control. Lucie is waiting beside the shop of a wood cutter. She is hoping for a chance to see her husband, who is in prison, or a least allow him to see her. While she is waiting, she sees some of the citizens of Paris dancing the wild Carmagnole.
Dickens describes the scene:
"There could not be fewer than five hundred people, and they were dancing like five thousand demons. There was no other music than their own singing. They danced to the popular Revolution song, keeping a ferocious time that was like a gnashing of teeth in unison. Men and women danced together, women danced together, men danced together, as hazard had brought them together. At first, they were a mere storm of coarse red caps and coarse woollen rags; but, as they filled the place, and stopped to dance about Lucie, some ghastly apparition of a dance-figure gone raving mad arose among them. They advanced, retreated, struck at one another's hands, clutched at one another's heads, spun round alone, caught one another and spun round in pairs, until many of them dropped. While those were down, the rest linked hand in hand, and all spun round together: then the ring broke, and in separate rings of two and four they turned and turned until they all stopped at once, began again, struck, clutched, and tore, and then reversed the spin, and all spun round another way. Suddenly they stopped again, paused, struck out the time afresh, formed into lines the width of the public way, and, with their heads low down and their hands high up, swooped screaming off. No fight could have been half so terrible as this dance."
What is interesting about this dance is the continued description that Dickens makes:
It was so emphatically a fallen sport--a something, once innocent, delivered over to all devilry--a healthy pastime changed into a means of angering the blood, bewildering the senses, and steeling the heart. Such grace as was visible in it, made it the uglier, showing how warped and perverted all things good by nature were become.
Why is it that good things become perverted? Why is something innocent, delivered over to devilry?
The Bible tells us in Romans 3, that all men have sinned and have fallen far short of the glory of God. This means that man is so far from the standard of God's holiness that he is far short of reaching it. He will never reach it! The point is that sin has perverted all that was good in the world. It started in the the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve disobeyed God and sin entered the world. Because of sins effects, man is now separated from God and unable--apart from Christ--to have fellowship with God.
So to answer Dickens questions: Why is it that good things become perverted? Why is something innocent, delivered over to devilry? The answer is: sin.
What I found enlightening in this section is the way that Mr. Dickens pointed out this truth. In the midst of brutal murder and gruesome war, there is the past-time of dancing. Once a good activity, now turned sour.
But don't we always do that?
Solution: Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! As we continue more and more to see the downfall of the sin filled society around us, may we ever live to glorify God in the face of Jesus Christ!
Thank you, Bekah. Your analysis was interesting and helpful.
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