It may seem to the naked eye that Dickens favors the upper classes, but what he is really doing is inflating them as a technique to be able to deflate them later.
A Tale of Two Cities explores the excess and debauchery that existed prior to the French Revolution. To be exact, the years prior to it were truly ridiculous as far as the pomp and ceremony in France with Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI and eventually in England during the regency of George III's son, the future George IV.
The life in Versailles, or "in court" was excessive, arrogant, glittery, and financially unsound while life outside of court, the slum districts, and the poor were truly miserable (Hence, the story "Les Miserables"). The aristocracy truly turned a blind eye on what was going on, and their vacuous lives were frivolous, backstabbing, and superficial.
The best technique to contrast life before and after the revolution would then be to elevate the aristocracy in print the same way that they elevated themselves, so that the fall from grace is all the more dramatic towards the conclusion.
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