Consider the events leading up to the French Revolution, the Revolution itself, and its aftermath, particularly from the perspective of the characters. Is the French Revolution is justified?

In A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, tensions are rising throughout the book between the Third Estate and the First and Second Estate. This eventually led up to the French Revolution, a ten-year struggle for power, where French commoners rose and challenged the monarchy in place. This was due to how poorly the Third Estate was treated, which made it seem as if revenge is necessary. Once the French Revolution breaks out, the revolutionaries go on a killing spree, as they start to lose their sight on what they are fighting for. Even though the violence of the revolutionaries escalated out of control and clouded their vision of righteousness, the French Revolution was ultimately justified because of how poorly and cruelly the 3rd Estate was being treated by the aristocracy. Though the revolutionaries committed various acts that were deemed immoral and unrighteous, the revolution is justified because of how awful the 1st and 2nd Estate treated the 3rd Estate before the Revolution. The revolutionaries may have committed immoral acts to the aristocracy because of their sight for revenge, like killing the prisoners in mass, but since the upper classes committed worse acts towards the 3rd Estate, the revolution is justified. In Chapter 7 of the second book, the Marquis gets angry after he does not get what he wants, so he orders his carriage to drive down the village roads fast, making people scramble for their lives. The carriage proceeds to turn a corner where a fountain is, and when doing so, “one of its wheels [comes] to a sickening jolt, and there [is] a loud cry from a number of voices, ” (Dickens 111). After the Marquis realizes he had just run over a child, he scolds the peasants for not taking care of themselves. This further justifies the revolt that stopped the cruel actions by the aristocracy from continuing. Furthermore, another action that was deemed cruel was that of Foulon, a member of the aristocracy who had faked his death. When tasked with the problem of starving commoners, Foulon proceeded to “[tell] the famished people that they [should] eat grass, ” (Dickens 219). This action caused an increase in tensions between the upper and lower class and was ultimately justified when Foulon was killed and beheaded by the revolutionaries, but the revolutionaries go a little overboard by shoving Foulon’s mouth with grass. Due to this, the 3rd Estate was seen as violent and out of control, losing sight of the righteousness they fought hard for; however, the revolution was justified because of Foulon’s actions towards the commoners. Additionally, the revolution was ultimately justified because the aristocracy thought they could solve all of their mishaps and problems by simply giving money for the unlawful acts committed against the poor; therefore causing tension between the aristocracy and the 3rd Estate over time. Whenever there was an issue with the 3rd Estate, the aristocracy thought and believed that they could easily solve the problem by throwing money at the commoners. Before Doctor Manette is imprisoned, he is taken in by the Evremonde brothers to help a woman, and when Doctor Manette realizes what they did to her and her family he is in shock. The next day, when Doctor Manette opens his door, a “‘rouleau of gold was left on [his] door in a little box, with [his] name on the outside, ’” (Dickens 327). The rouleau of gold on his doorstep was a bribe from the Evermonde brothers to keep Manette’s mouth shut, and when Manette eventually does tell the authorities, he is thrown in prison. This action further exemplifies that the revolution was justified, because of the 3rd Estate’s unfair treatment. Another example of the 3rd Estate’s maltreatment is when the Marquis throws a gold coin at the father after running over the child. In Chapter 7, just after the Marquis runs over Gaspard’s child and scolds the people, the Marquis thinks he can make up for the child’s loss by simply throwing a gold coin at the child’s father. The Marquis does not feel bad whatsoever, he just “[throws] out a gold coin for the valet to pick up” (Dickens 111), which causes Gaspard to seek revenge and go kill the Marquis. The killing of the child by the Marquis shows how the revolution was justified because commoners like Gaspard wanted revenge against the aristocracy for actions like this. The commoners were being treated as dogs instead of real people as they are being thrown “treats” for whenever the aristocracy does something to them that harms them. The throwing of the coin from the Marquis is an example of how the aristocracy uses their wealth to solve all of their problems; therefore causing the people to want to revolt because the aristocracy thought of the commoners as items, rather than real people. Though there are many reasons why the revolution is unjustified due to the clouded vision of the revolutionaries, there are more examples that prove that the revolution is justified. Over the course of the French Revolution, the revolutionaries lost sight of what they were aiming for, which was righteousness, and they instead sought to execute anyone who opposed the revolution. However, as the time before the revolution showed, the revolutionaries had some reason to be as crazed and blood-thirsty they were, because of their poor treatment. Since the 3rd Estate was treated so poorly, the commoners were forced to go crazy and hellish because of all of their built-up anger and suffering. Overall, the revolution is ultimately seen as justified because of the unjust treatment of the commoners due to the spoiled aristocrats.