Duality In A Tale Of Two Cities By Charles Dickens

The novel, A Tale of Two Cities, was written by Charles Dickens and was published in 1859. A Tale of Two Cities is a historical fiction based during the French Revolution. As two groups of people who both live in London and Paris find themselves in a situation that affects all of them, which ends with some deaths and suffering. Charles Dickens purpose for writing A Tale of Two Cities was to inform and amplify the readers mind on human nature. Throughout the book Charles Dickens uses many themes and characteristics, that bring out human nature in all his characters, to broaden the view of the readers.

Parallelism is a balance within one or more sentences of similar phrases or clauses that have the same grammatical structure. In the first paragraph of A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens explains disputable ideas about the aspects of pre-revolutionary France. He shows the similarities between the French and English Nobility by using parallelism.

In A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens uses the concept of direct opposites to contrast pairs of object and people several times. One significant instance of this can be seen within Dickens’ use of the time skip from the years before and then during the revolution. Before the start of the revolution, Paris, overall is a regulated city with laws still present. The peasants of the city at this point are profoundly oppressed and regarded as the lowest members of society. While the aristocrats are given the ability to enjoy luxurious lifestyles and control the the lives of the peasants at their own whim. This can be seen through the Marquis’ heartless response to his vassals, “I would ride over any of you very willingly, and exterminate you from the

A Tale of Two Cities has several recurring themes, including the failure of the French Revolution. In the book, the peasants defeated the aristocrats by imprisoning and murdering them. Although many of the imprisonments and executions were unjust, the peasants had gain complete power. The peasants’ revolution did not end the tyranny that existed with the aristocrats ruling, but created a new tyranny with lack of justice and mercy.

Instead of a single main protagonist focused upon, the novel revolves around the lenses of various characters, dealing with their own stories and conflicts, while the overarching event, the French Revolution, is increasing in intensity. Because most of the characters belong to the upper class, they are later persecuted by the revolt. Dickens, at first, witness this uprising as inherently good, as the lower class will no longer stand against discrimination from the wealthy. The beginning of the novel gives off the impression that this would most likely become nonviolent, seeking justices by new laws and regulation. The main protagonist, dislike his aristocrat's upbringing, originally see this upset as something positive that will help relinquish the ills of society. Instead of this wishful thinking, the poorer citizen goes through exceeding lengths. At times such as back then, moral guidance becomes muddled. Dickens illustrates that although some of the powerful were corrupt and brutal to those of lower class, the reaction of the proletariat was unwarranted. Varying characters were affected by the events that took place, for must were or higher status. Families aware shatter as mobs were formed to storm the streets, seeking anyone to exact anger towards. And just as historical documents confirm, public executions took place as well. Dickens writes that evil, the one

With its famous opening line, "it was the best of times, it was the worst of times,"(3)A Tale of Two Cities easily portrays that this book is clearly going to have duality or dualism. The first paragraph also clearly tells you that the whole book is about duality, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way”(3) – this whole paragraph clearly is announcing, THIS WHOLE BOOK IS

Doubles and Duality in A Tale of Two Cities Charles Dickens incorporates endless amounts of parallelism and opposites continuously throughout his novel based on the French Revolution, both of these devices are seen within the title of the novel: A Tale of Two Cities, and its famous opening conveying the similarities and differences between London and Paris during the time of the revolution and the time Dickens was writing the novel. The novel opens with Dickens listing opposing statements about the two cities, however, not making it clear which city is which. He describes it being “the best of times” and “the worst of times” and continuing with similar lines about foolishness and wisdom, darkness and light, belief, and many other descriptions. As the novel starts off, it seems

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us…” (Dickens, 1). These are the famous introductory lines of “A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens. They bring to mind the famous lines of the witches in Macbeth, “When shall we meet again/In thunder, lightning, or in rain? /When the hurly burly's done/When the battle's lost and won.”

First off, Charles Dickens’ very first paragraph says, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way-in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only…(Dickens 5)”. This is how he introduces duality in the book. I think that it is important that Charles Dickens used duality because he did not only want us to know that he used it but also explained the dualities throughout the story. The two cities London, England and Paris, France are complete

When people go through traumatic experiences, they often tend to have a different perspective of the world around them. Dickens puts his characters through many distinct personal struggles that end up shaping who they are. Although each of these struggles was particular to each of the characters, they all were affected in some way, whether that be in a positive or negative light. Throughout the course of the novel A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens toys with the idea of personal change to develop the ambiguity of the characters Sydney Carton, Ernest Defarge, and Madame Defarge.

“it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair … we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way…” asserts Charles Dickens in reference to the French Revolution (Dickens 1). This infamous rebellion began as a respectable, even gallant, cause: an uprising against the inhumane way the aristocracy treated the peasants. However, as long as man has the ability to hate, he is going to want revenge. This added emotion often fuels the will of the oppressed, causing them to be even more unmerciful and barbarous towards the ones who tormented and harassed them. Soon, they became even more frenzied and blood thirsty, transforming into animals obsessed

In the sociopolitical novel, A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens analyzes the events of one of the bloodiest revolutions in history, the French Revolution, characterized by its violence after no less than 40,000 people were sentenced to death. The violence of the revolution put irreversible change into motion, helping to bring greater equality between French citizens as a result of the upheaval, and causing political changes that affected millions. Through his changing tone, Dickens conveys that rebellion is necessary to amend the ever-growing divide between the social classes, but the mindless nature of the violence, as a result of mob mentality, is excessive, and blood is unnecessarily spilled.

While the Victorian people called for romantic intrigue and petty drama in the literature of their time, Dickens’ added complexity to his novels not to satisfy the frivolous needs of Victorians but to further the theme of irony in his novel. In A Tale of Two Cities, irony is an ever-present theme and is woven into the plot seamlessly by author Charles Dickens. Coincidence is a complementary theme to irony in this novel. Dickens’ constant implementation of situations of coincidence and chance leads to a greater sense of irony throughout this book. Dickens adds complexity to the plot and further enforces the theme of irony in the novel through circumstances of coincidence, including the indictments of Charles Darnay, the life and associates of Dr. Manette, and Madame Defarge’s need for and path to revenge.

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

People all over the world practice their own religion or spirituality in their own different way. For many years being able to freely practice religion has been a very long battle. Soldiers and civilians together have died, fought, petitioned, and taken action, time and time again for the same result: freedom and acceptance to practice their beliefs without judgment. In the Victorian Era in England, which took place in 1837 through 1901, the beginning of the era had a high population of Christian believers but as the years went by, that began to change. Religious beliefs and the Church were being questioned and with the industrial revolution on the rise, people became more educated and slowly drifted away from spirituality. In Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, he references this shift in attitudes towards religion.