A Tale of Two Cities

A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens, narrates the frustrations of the common people toward Foulon, a French magistrate. The people rejoice when Foulon is imprisoned since he treated them awfully. The nature of the French Revolution is the common people’s elation at the downfall of the aristocracy. Dickens utilizes personification, motif, and symbolism to describe the relationship between the common people and Foulon.

Dr. Manette does not have as prominent of a role in the movie as the book, as well as Lorry and Jerry Cruncher.

The triumph of love, the death of Madame Defarege, and the triumph of Charles Darnay in trial shows how good triumphed over evil. The theme of

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens deals with many coincidences that impact the plot and

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.

This book may be analyzed as a story of two totally different cities, London and Paris, as Charles Dickens writes in this book, “Every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other.” where he describes how isolated

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

During the French Revolution, over 40,000 people died, and over 12,000 of these people did not even have a trial. The French Revolution was over sixty years before A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens was released, but there were still many injustices and inhumane acts that took place in England during his lifetime. The inhumanity Dickens experienced during his lifetime is seen throughout the novel very clearly. Dickens portrays the inhumane people in the novel as successful at first, but they all eventually meet their horrific demise. Men are corrupted and doomed by the hatred and inhumanity towards his fellow man, and this is shown clearly through the Evrémonde brothers, Madame Defarge, and the revolutionaries.

A Tale of Two Cities, a book written by Charles Dickens in 1859, describes the situation of France and the French Revolution. At the end of Chapter Six, Dr. Manette, Lucie Manette, Charles Darnay, Sydney Carton, and Miss Pross are at a Tea Party. A turbulent storm occurs and incites an eerie mood within the characters. Charles Darnay starts telling a story about a paper he found. After telling the story, Dr. Manette begins to feel ill. Following this is a section which contains multiple literary elements. In Chapter Six, Dickens utilizes descriptive literary devices, such as imagery, personification, and anaphora, to foretell the French Revolution and set the mood of the passage.

Charles Dickens utilizes themes in his novel, A Tale of Two Cities, to enrich the plot and intensify the meaning of the text to the reader. Dickens wrote the novel sixty years after the French Revolution; however, he compared his present time period to that of the past using universal themes and motifs. Even though Dickens uses many themes, one of the most important and most frequent themes is that of sacrifice. In fact, most of Dickens characters make sacrifices in the name of love. Dickens exemplifies the theme of sacrifice in the name of love with the sacrifices of several characters including: Doctor Manette, Miss Pross, and Sydney Carton.

“As the dialogic counterpart to willing sacrifice, which rehabilitates broken familial relationships and fractured societies in Dickens' work, the concept of unwilling sacrifice marks the degeneration of society on both the microcosmic and macrocosmic level.” Unwilling sacrifice occurs in the novel when the revolutionaries force people to die. Unwilling sacrifice brings down society because you are forcing things to happen which are not natural. On the macrocosmic scale, the revolutionaries are going against nature and laws that would also bring them down and everything together down. On the microcosmic scale, the revolutionaries are ruining the Manettes lives. Madame Defarge causes many unwilling sacrifices that deteriorate society and contributes to its downfall. The unlawful injustice of Madame Defarge against Darnay deteriorates society. Darnay was an unwilling sacrifice that didn’t deserve to be sentenced to death as he tried to right the wrongs of the aristocrats. Dr. Manette was significantly impacted by Darnay’s unjust trial. Dr. Manette was recalled to life by his daughter, Lucie, from his traumatic past in the Bastille. Dr. Manette could not handle the trauma of his son in law dying and thus reverts briefly back to who he once was. Dr. Manette is a herioc character who tries to help society, but was denied help in retunr to save his son in law. The unequal balance of light and dark degenerated society. Every person that dies unwillingly contributes to the fall. To Madame Defarge the end defines the mean. For things to change not only do the executors must change, but also the nature of the sacrifices. Unwilling sacrifices manifest the darker aspects of humanity. Dickens used the idea of unwilling sacrifices in France has a warning to England not to repeat France’s mistakes as those began to define the French revolution.

Charles Dickens utilizes doubles and contrasts to enhance the plot of Dickens uses parallels in characters, social classes, and events that compliment each other to strengthen the plot. Its themes of violence in revolutionaries, resurrection, and sacrifice also help support the story.

A Tale of Two Cities, written by Charles Dickens, takes place during the French Revolution. The book centers on the heroic attempts of Sydney Carton and Charles Darnay. Sydney Carton puts on the façade of being insolent and indifferent, but his true nature is expressed in the book when he puts others first, defends Charles, and dies for the ones he loves. Charles Darnay is a once wealthy aristocrat whose attempts at heroism include going back to France, his financial sacrifice, and the noble way in which he was willing to face his death.

The French Revolution mainly took place in the city of Paris during the late 1700’s. The Revolution did not only affect the people of France, but also the citizens of England as well. The French Revolution is known as one of the most brutal and inhumane periods of history. If one studied the beliefs and views of the people involved at the time, one would see a reoccurring theme of “ being recalled to life”. Born from the world of literature, Charles Dickens’ novel, A Tale of Two Cities takes a deeper look at the culture of the late 1700’s, in both England and France. Dickens uses the character of Lucie Manette to further examine one of the major themes presented in the novel, consisting of the belief of one being

Charles Dickens wrote A Tale of Two Cities in order to enlighten the average Briton about the events of the French Revolution. The novel compares and contrasts cities of London and Paris, which represent French and British society, through the eyes of Dickens’ human characters. The two cities play such a large part in the novel that they become characters themselves, and the contrasting societies of the two cities become a conflict. In Charles Dickens’ classic, A Tale of Two Cities, the individualistic society of London champions the first feudalistic and later socialistic society of Paris.