A fine example of Dickens prison motif is when Darnay comes into prison and sees his fellow inmates.
“Ghosts all! The ghost of beauty, the ghost of stateliness, the ghost of elegance, the ghost of pride, the ghost of frivolity, the ghost of wit, the ghost of youth, the ghost of age, all waiting their dismissal from the desolate shore, all turning on him eyes that were by the death they had died in coming here” (Page 265).
We see, from this passage, exactly how Dickens feels about prison. We see that prison is no friendly place. It is place where men become "ghosts" of themselves and are stricken "by the death they die in coming there." Also, Dickens is making a point about the injustice of a prison. In this case, eight different ghosts are mentioned. It seems no one is spared from imprisonment. This desolate shore, is one that contains any and all, and destroys them.
Becoming a shell of one self as a result of prison is not a new idea in the book. Dr. Manette, a man who was imprisoned in the Bastille, becomes a shoe making shell of himself. He even relapses when triggered with a memory. It is clear that to Dickens, prison is an unjust, life changing event.
This should come as no surprise. After all, Dickens own parents were taken away from his and imprisoned when he was just a little boy for what some would see as an unjustifiable reason.
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I would have to agree in the fact that this passage utilizes anaphora to give the prison the connotation that no one is safe, not even the innocent Charles Darnay. Within that respect I saw this passage going further as to saying that as they all suffered death from their imprisonment, Darnay will also suffer just as they did. It could also be a metaphorical death that not everyone dies, but everyone dies on the inside. This could be attributed to the relapse that occurs for Dr Manette because part of him died while he was kept in the Bastille.
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