Dickens contrasts the calm of life in Soho with the turbulence in Saint Antoine. Time has passed quietly for Lucie and her family, but Mr. Lorry's agitated visit indicates that their time of tranquility is over. Mr. Lorry seems to anticipate trouble when he tells the Doctor, "these hurries and forebodings by which I have been surrounded all day long, have made me nervous without reason."The "hot, wild night"reflects his restlessness, and as a literal storm takes place in England, a storm of violence rises in France.
The storming of the Bastille, which occurred on July 14, 1789, began the French Revolution, and Dickens blends history with fiction in his recreation of the event. The revolutionaries did kill and behead seven guards as well as the governor of the Bastille, De Launay. They also freed seven bewildered prisoners. For the sake of the story, though, Dickens places the Defarges at the center of the incident, with Defarge coordinating the tactical aspects of the attack and Madame Defarge leading the women in a frightening display of bloodlust.
Additionally, the violence and chaos of mobs that Dickens has hinted at previously in the novel explode here with full force. He describes the mob as "a whirlpool of boiling waters,"a "raging sea,"and a "howling universe of passion and contention."For Dickens, the mob is a potent force that is mindless, heartless, and inescapable.
