Oppression in A Tale of Two Cities In the book A Tale of Two Cities, one of the many themes present is that of oppression. There are many examples of this throughout the book, some more obvious than the others. We can see right away in the beginning that the French peasants are under a hideous oppression by the French aristocracy. All the people of the towns that are described are starved and in great …showed first 75 words of 568 total…

…showed last 75 words of 568 total…he was no longer able to give up drinking, no matter how much he wanted to. Alcohol now virtually controlled his life, dictating what he could or could not do. This was an awful example of self-induced oppression. Oppression is such a powerful theme in A Tale of Two Cities, probably to demonstrate how people can put it upon themselves, and how they can break free from it if they believe in their cause enough.