Tale Of Two Cities: Saint Antoine

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.

Growing up in suburbia, I struggled to find my place as a first-generation American. I did not appreciate being called “African-American” because it is an inaccurate way of describing my heritage, but I felt pushy and pretentious if I told people to call me Caribbean-American. My dad’s family still lives in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and we visit them every few years, so I had to confront these issues during my family’s last trip to St. Vincent.

Charles Dickens, an author, an editor, an illustrator, and a great mind. There are many words we can associate with Charles Dickens, but most importantly Charles was a creator. He created many famous stories that are shared with the world like A Christmas Carol and Oliver Twist. A Tale of Two Cities is a novel that is reflected back to Charles' life, from a child through adulthood. Charles' life influenced A Tale of Two Cities because of where he lived, how he grew up, and how he grew as a writer.

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.

Tale of Two Cities Charles Dickens, a meticulous British novelist, imposes ambiguity in the personalities of Sydney Carton, Madame Defarge, and Ernest Defarge to reveal the preeminent theme of his novel that people are dynamic. Sydney Carton is an extremely ambiguous character in The Tale of Two Cites. Sydney Carton transforms from debauchery to admirable. At first, Carton is a drunkard, and he is willing to help out C.J. Stryver at any time of day. Carton made Stryver, one of most respected lawyers in London, a brilliant and popular lawyer.

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens is historical fiction that takes place during the French Revolution. The novel begins right as the Revolution begins to start, and lower-class citizens begin to revolt against the oblivious aristocracy who so poorly treated them before. Moreover, Dickens himself is known for his carefully constructed plots and complicated characters. The characters he creates are known as being idealized, and creatures one can look up to in all different aspects of life. Specifically, the characters in A Tale of Two Cities make monumental sacrifices throughout the novel out of the love they have for one another.

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.

In the book, A Tale of Two Cities, author, Charles Dickens used a certain motif frequently. He used the motif of doubles. Whether it has to do with personality, looks, or dialogue, the author can successfully compare or contrast two characters or scenes. This book takes place during the French Revolution and tells the story of two cities during this time with this double technique. This motif made the book more interesting in a way that the reader could easily analyze and contrast two moments in the book. This occurred frequently with main characters, Jerry Cruncher, Charles Darnay, Sydney Carton, Mr. Cly, and Mr. Basard. Moreover, this idea of doubles connects to a one of the themes in the book, which could be that you should be careful who you trust because people may not always seem who they are.

There are a wide variety of main characters in Tale of Two Cities. The books main focuses is on Charles Darnay, a man who left to go to England because of his hatred for his aristocratic family. When he reached England, he meets Lucie, a beautiful and kind girl with many suitors. One of which, is Sydney Carton, a man who looks strikingly similar to Darnay and knew that he did not deserve Lucies love but would die to make her happy. He also met Lucies father, Doctor Monet, who was imprisoned for almost sharing dark secrets about an aristocrat, and learned to be a shoemaker in prison. After his imprisonment, he was found in a wine shop in France run by two revolutionaries Monsieur Defarge and Madame Defarge, by a banker named Mr. Lorry,

“’You’d be in a Blazing bad way, if recalling to life was to come into fashion, Jerry.’” (Pg. 21) From when Dr. Manette is released from imprisonment, to Carton’s last thoughts, resurrection is always present throughout the novel. A Tale of Two Cities describes the French Revolution, and how it impacted the lives of his main characters, including, Dr. Manette, Jerry Cruncher, and Sydney Carton. The theme of resurrection is a recurrent subject Dickens uses to show the transformation of his character’s lives, Jerry Cruncher and his ironic title, “Resurrection Man,” Dr. Manette’s, “recalled to life,” and Sydney Carton’s self sacrifice.

Charles Dickens’ novel, A Tale of Two Cities, depicts the lives of various people living in England and France during the French Revolution. Two of Dickens’ characters are Lucie Manette and Madame Defarge. Though these two female characters are not as developed as some of the male characters in the book, they both play an important part in the novel. After reading A Tale of Two Cities, the reader learns about Lucie Manette and Madame Defarge and their similarities and differences. Lucie Manette plays a central role throughout the story.

The protagonist of A Tale of Two Cities for me was simply unquestionable. It had to be Charles Darnay! It was the result of Darnay’s actions that allowed us to have an intriguing story such as this. Charles Dickens mainly followed the life of Darnay, and without Darnay, there wouldn’t have even been a story. It was the fact that Charles was an Evremonde that allowed the story to have the climaxes and the significant scenes that it had. There would have been no trial that introduced Stryver and Carton, no returning to France that got Darnay locked up, no romance with Lucie, and most importantly, there would have ultimately been no sacrifice at the guillotine. Without Charles, it would have just been an average history book filled with historical content.

Throughout Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens uses many literary devices to enhance and deepen the meaning of the novel. Dickens uses satire to give the book a little bit of humor, metaphors to help give the reader a better understanding of what was happening in France, and finally uses symbolism multiple times to give certain topics deeper meaning in the story. During the book, Dickens describes certain people in the aristocracy in France like the Monseigneur. When describing this man, Dickens gives examples of his daily lifestyle and his cook was “unable to exist with fewer than two gold watches in his pocket”(Dickens 105). In this passage, Dickens is using a joke to prove of out of hand the upper class was in France before the revolution.

One of the most peculiar things about Dickens is how he would always make sure his head pointed North while he slept, for he felt it would improve his writing. (Shortlist.com) The main genre he wrote about during his career was realistic fiction, however, A Tale of Two Cities was historical fiction. He had a talent for creating characters that the reader can connect with, and they cause the reader to get absorbed in the story. For example, in The Tale of Two Cities, Dickens developed the characters of Sydney Carton, Charles Darnay, and Lucie Manette.

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.