A Tale of Two Cities

In A Tale of Two Cities, there are two characters, which are identified as lawyers. C.J. Stryver is one lawyer, and Sydney Carton is another lawyer. C.J Stryver was an arrogant, egotistical man who believed he was the best lawyer that existed. Sydney Carton was a succesfull lawyer, who did not like to be in the spotlight. So C.J. Stryver would not have been a successful lawyer without the help of Sydney Carton.

In a Tale of Two Cities, famous author Charles Dickens stated, “These are the best of times; these are the worst of times…” Being a teenager in today’s society, it is really easy to apply that quote to my personal feelings on this time in my life. Teenage years, also called adolescence, is a generally confusing time filled with many ups and downs. These ups and downs represent what is described as the best, and the worst, times of our lives.

The literature that came out of the French Revolution often shares common themes of death, rebirth, and destruction. Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens is much the same way. Throughout the novel, Dickens clearly supports the revolution but also depicts the brutality of the revolutionaries. Dickens uses powerful metaphors of a sea to symbolize the revolutionaries destroying old France and the belittling name of “Jacques” to depict the narcissistic views of the French aristocracy to show his support for the revolution.

In A Tale of Two Cities the author, Charles Dickens, wrote in ways that influenced the audience’s opinions. It was obvious that the author wished to modify the ways of the late French Society. A few examples of this occurrence are his descriptions of the royals/high-status-people and problems that the lower classes faced .

In a Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens juxtapositions suspense and humor in an intricate tale of love and loyalty.

In a Tale of Two Cities, a novel written by Charles Dickens, conflict can only be resolved by the actions of once slovenly appearing characters. This is done by the changing of their outlooks on life despite their previous hardships. Dr. Manette exemplifies heroism from his transformation of being a psychotic bastille survivor into a healthy father and mentor. However, Carton shows even more heroism, mainly for his commitment, and braveness. Although the hardships Carton faced were not as difficult to overcome compared to Manette, Carton had to transform completely by himself and made the ultimate sacrifice in the end.

Sydney Carton, “one of Dickens’s most loved and best-remembered characters” (Stout 29), is not just another two-dimensional character; he seems to fly off the pages and into real life throughout all the trials and tribulations he experiences. He touches many hearts, and he even saves the life of Charles Darnay, a man who looks surprisingly similar to him. In Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities, Sydney Carton is a selfish man of habit, a cynic, a self-loathing drunk, and an incorrigible barrister until he meets Lucie Manette; throughout the novel Sydney is overcome by his noble love for Lucie and transforms from a cynic to a hero as he accomplishes one of the most selfless acts a man can carry out.

Humanity is inherently flawed. Charles Dickens illustrates this in his novel A Tale of Two Cities as he writes about the lives of the Manettes and the people they draw around them. In this novel, Dickens uses Sydney Carton, a main character in the novel and the lover of Lucie Manette, to reveal his thoughts about the inherent nature of humanity. The characteristics of humanity change and mutate with the experiences of each person and the workings of their own mind, as illustrated by Mr. Stryver’s inhumane and thoughtless treatment of Sydney, the first time Sydney saves Charles Darnay’s life, and Sydney’s love for Lucie Manette.

A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens, is a suspenseful novel taking place before and during the French Revolution in the late 1700s. The audience is taken on a journey through time, learning about how the Revolution affected two main families, the Manettes and the Evrémondes. Throughout the novel, Dickens makes the reader question what drives man-kind to sacrifice? The answer is love and happiness result in sacrifices. The characters, such as Charles Darnay, Doctor Manette, and Sydney Carton prove this as they commit sacrifices to start a new life, for a loved one, or for the benefit of other people.

In the Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens utilizes Sydney Carton to show the theme that love has transformative powers. At the beginning of the novel Carton is presented as a lazy alcoholic who has no real prospects in life and doesn't seem to have any in the near future. However, as the novel progresses he reveals a versatile personality of nobility, loyalty, selflessness, and unconditional love for Lucie Manette. This love will transform him into a hero of sorts, fulfilling his potential he squanders working as background attorney for Stryer.

Giving up something can be hard, but end the end you will really learn something from it. In A Tale of Two Cities the author Charles Dickens uses the forgiveness of Dr. Manette, the love of Sydney Carton, and the disguise of Charles Darnay to contribute to the theme of the novel that rebirth is possible through sacrifice.

Oliver travels through many places throughout the book. He goes through many cities and also the countryside. Charles Dickens describes both the locations in a very different way. He has a total opposite opinion on both the places. He explains the city as a place where the criminals, unsafe and disgusting. The countryside, however, is described as splendid, safe, and place where the rich people live.

In the story, The Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens, the quote “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” relates to the six chapters in many ways among the three points: family and love, Hope and despair, and fate. To begin with, family and love explains how the father and daughter meet, also how they interact with each other after realizing who each other is, "A strange thrill struck him when she did so, and visibly pass over his frame; he laid the knife down’ softly, as he sat staring at her". (Page 43) Furthermore, Hope and Despair,

In the novel Tale of Two Cities, author Charles Dickens defines character Madame Defarge’s symbolism of knitting as an expression of how it weaves its way in the themes of fate and duality. Throughout the novel Dickens uses knitting in a way of affecting other people’s lives, for instance, the Evremonde family, related blood Charles Darnay with wife Lucie, and their daughter. It affects especially in Lucie Manette’s character, for she is the one who knits the lives of all the characters with her “golden thread” expressing her ability to create a knitted circle of family and friends. To Madame Defarge’s knitting represents her element of fate, her ability to express her vengeance for the misfortune of her family 's fate. The symbolism of Madame Defarge’s knitting is the ability to share the duality with Lucie’s “golden thread” revealing the duality between their two characters, for instance, Lucie’s nurturing pleasant nature, compared to Madame Defarge’s ruthless villains like composers.

A Tale of Two Cities is exactly as the title suggests: a tale of two cities. The two cities that the novel focuses on are London, England and Paris, France. London is still upset after losing the Revolutionary War with America, which the French had supported, while Paris is on the brink of its very own revolution: the French Revolution. While these two cities may seem so far away that the events could not be connected anyway, a person could not be more wrong. The story mainly follows two families whose lives become more intertwined as the story moves along. Those two families are the Manettes and the Defarges. Through the actions and inactions of one Charles Darnay, these two families will meet unconventionally and for the worst.