Humanism

In the novel, A Tale of Two Cities Charles Dickens opens with an anaphora, about how the world is throughout the novel. A reoccurring theme throughout this story is the battle between good and evil. Most of the novel is about the struggles each force has and how most of the time good triumphs over evil. In A Tale of Two Cities, the triumph of love, the death of the Marquis, and the contrast between Sydney Carton and Charles Darnay shows how good triumphed over evil.

The French Revolution was a movement from 1789 to 1799 that brought an end to the monarchy, including many lives. Although A Tale of Two Cities was published in 1859, it was set before and during the French Revolution and had over 200 million copies sold. The author, Charles Dickens, is known for being an excellent writer and displays several themes in his writings. Sacrifice is an offering of an animal or human life or material possession to another person. Dickens develops the theme of sacrifice throughout the story by the events that occurred involving Dr. Manette, Mr. Defarge, and Sydney Carton.

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.

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 Robert Alter’s literary analysis of A Tale of Two Cities, The Demons of History in Dickens’s Tale, his central emphasis converges with the ideal that the novel tends to stray from his preceding works. Alter essentially deems A Tale of Two Cities as an “uncharacteristic expression of his genius (94),” which he believes is a result of his distinctive writing style, deviating from his jollyness, humor, and warmth. He primarily believes that Dickens attempts to convey a strong sense of emotion by means of melodramatic storytelling to “persist in a kind of splendid, self-transcending unevenness (94).” Additionally, Alter claims Dickens utilizes a distinguishable contrast between the elements of “picturesque” and “dramatic immediacy” to enhance Dickens’s focus on

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 the literature art of “A Tale Of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens, a loyalty to warfare, causes suffering to family and social class. A theme that is dominant in the feel and the writing style of the novel. Charles Dickens is excellent at providing a deep and personal meaning to fictional based characters; make you feel for them, sometimes more than these in real life.

Shusterman’s comments on the duality of human nature correlate with Charles Dickens’s perspective on the matter; Dickens further portrays such thoughts in his novel a Tale of Two Cities. This unprecedented story is set in both England and France during the year of 1775, although it also continues through the years of the French revolution. As an Englishman, Dickens hints at his disgust towards the aristocratic French society by using satire and descriptions of

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 this essay, I will argue that one of the underlying motives in Charles Dickens' novel A Tale of Two Cities (1859) is the reinforcement of Christian values in 18th century Victorian England. Dickens was very concerned with the accepted social norms of industrialized England, many of which he felt were very inhumane. Christian values were challenged, largely due to the recent publication of Darwin's Origins of a Species, and philosophy along with literature was greatly affected. In 1859, the industrial age was booming, making many entrepreneurs rich. However, the majority of the lower economic class remained impoverished, working in unsafe and horrific environments as underpaid

Manette sacrifices his sanity by allowing Charles Darnay to marry Lucie and by giving up the comfort of his shoemaker’s bench. On the wedding day of Lucie and Darnay, Darnay keeps his promise and tells Dr. Manette about his past and family. Although Darnay is the nephew of the Marquis St. Evermonde, who threw Dr. Manette in jail for eighteen years, Dr. Manette still allows him to marry Lucie. Dr. Manette does this because Lucie loves Darnay and Dr. Manette loves her. After the wedding is over and Lucie and Charles have left for their honeymoon, Mr. Lorry, Miss Pross, and Dr. Manette are sitting in the shade and “Mr. Lorry [observes] a great change to have come over the Doctor; as if the golden arm uplifted there, had struck him a poisoned blow” (149). The change in demeanor is a physical foreshadowing of how Dr. Manette sacrifices his sanity for the happiness of Lucie Manette. He does not want to show Lucie how much the marriage affects him; however, once she is gone he lets the façade drop. When Miss Pross, Mr. Lorry, and Dr. Manette get back to the Manette household, Dr. Manette has a relapse of his past habits from jail of shoemaking, not talking and going insane. After nine days, he returns to normal and has a conversation with Mr. Lorry when the shoemaker’s bench comes up. As Mr. Lorry attempts to coax Dr. Manette into ridding himself of it, Dr. Manette talks about how “it is such an old companion” and a comfort, that he is afraid of getting rid of it (157). Mr. Lorry urges “him to sacrifice it…for his daughter’s sake” (158). Upon hearing this, Dr. Manette realizes that the “old companion” must go so that he can focus on his relationship with Lucie and her upcoming family (157). He allows the removal of the shoemaker’s bench, but asks for the disposal to be when he is not around. The sacrifice that Dr. Manette makes here ultimately sets him up for another relapse later on in the book; however he

A Tale of Two Cities, set in the era of the impending French Revolution, describes the life of the tyrannical nobility, the raging mob, and the dynamic central figures of the book. To portray these dynamic characters, Charles Dickens’ uses themes and motifs such as resurrection, secrecy, sacrifice, shadows, imprisonment and the women of the revolution knitting. Of these themes, sacrifice for happiness is most prevalent in Dickens’ writing, because he uses it to portray that, in order for someone to be truly happy, sacrifice is vital.

Within A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, there have been many references to the French Revolution throughout the book that help to contribute to the main message of the novel including elements analyzed by the following articles. The theme of violence as a tool to emphasize the significance of extremity for self-preservation in “Forms of Violence on the novel” by John Kucich and the theme of sacrifice from revolution in “Unwilling Sacrifices” by Russell L Keck contribute to the message that violence in unwilling sacrifices causes the deterioration of society in A Tale of Two Cities.

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.

Sacrifice, even when it comes to one’s ultimate end, is crucial in order to survive as a productive race. In the book Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, he illustrates the hardships of the early-nineteenth-century lifestyles. With the resurrection of an evicted man, the novel sprouts from a broken family recovering and growing. This novel incorporates many grand gestures and adventures, such as the French Revolution, treason trials, and the sacrifice of one’s own life in the name of love.