Book Review

Title

A Tale of Two Cities

Author

Charles Dickens

Characters

The interesting feature of the novel is the resemblance of both of its protagonists in form but not
in substance. The protagonists in the Tale of Two Cities are two persons of completely different
personalities but with distinctly similar features.

Charles Darnay a French aristocrat by birth who opts to spends his life in England as he finds
French social injustice unbearable. He is very vocal and virtuous about his views on the atrocities
of the French system and has proven his courage to revolt against it towards the end of the novel.
Sydney Carton - an alcoholic lawyer who drags on through existence aimlessly with no real
outlook in life. Although he has undeniably similar physical features with Darnay, unlike him,
Carton is indifferent of the socio-political conditions around him, He eventually transforms into a
virtuous man as he falls in love with Lucie

Lucie Manette - a young compassionate French woman raised in England. She is the love
interest of Carton so much so that he was transformed from one who was indifferent to
everything to someone who values his virtues.
Doctor Manette - Lucies father and a brilliant physician. He was imprisoned for 18 years in
Bastille and has learned shoe making as his hobby. He carries this on during the first part of the
novel, which reflects his inability to overcome his past easily. However, he learns to let go of his
embittered past and becomes a better father to Lucie.
Monsieur Defarge - a revolutionary in Saint Antoine in Paris. He works as a wine seller but in the
past, Monsieur Defarge worked as a servant for Doctor Manette. He is kind towards Dr. Manette
and his wife considers this Defarges waterloo as a dedicated revolutionary in quest for socioeconomic equality.
Madame Defarge wife of Monsieur Defarge and the depiction of a negative revolutionary
whose violent dedication revolution has encouraged several bloodsheds. Madame Defarge is
popularly depicted as a woman knitting the names of the people she wants dead.
Setting

Paris in 1775

Climax

One could consider the Tale of Two Stories as multi-climactic as there have been several crests
and troughs of events that have changed the pattern of the story. But the most significant of these
events is the return of Charles Darnay to France for vacation. During this time, the revolutionary
was on its height and little did he know that he would be its next victim. The King was about to
be killed and the queen as well and the unstable mobocracy dictated Charles Darneys death by
La Guillotine. Although he has been freed on his first imprisonment, he was captured once again
for what the Defarges accusation of being a member of the nobility and a stain on the countrys
name. This time Charles Darnay is irrevocably sentenced to death.
Conflict

Taking the book literally is most unlikely (unless youre a nave reader) because the opening
paragraph of the novel itself asserts the notion that the book is grounded on certain intellectual
notions such as the disparity between France and England during mid-1700s.
Like every Dickens-book, the most important thing to consider in reading A Tale of Two Cities
are the political and social conditions that the author was able to portray so picturesquely.
The most ostensible political and social issue regarded in the book is the French Revolution.
Dickens shows this so vividly yet so vaguely. So vividly does he narrate the conditions during
the revolution that you would not falter to see the pandemonium and the evil that draped the
whole country. So vivid were the facts of the struggle that one could almost smell the blood that
trickles on the wood and blade of La Guillotine. So vivid was the exploitation and indifference of
the aristocrats that one would instantly transform to a revolutionary himself. But what was vague
(at least for me) was how Dickens illustrated these evils but believed that the revolution would
give birth to a benevolent system that would end the atrocities of aristocracy.
It was only during the disclosure of Madame Defarges sentiment that things started to make
sense. In his novel, Dickens drew a line between the cause of the revolution and the individual
intention of the revolutionaries. That the two are separate and distinct and that what the latter
does is to stain with diffusing blemishes the healthy and decent cause of the former.
Question to the Author

Why do the protagonists look alike

Possible Answer

:
To demonstrate that differences can appear with a single
facet. Thus we should not readily accept what is visible of our
socio-political conditions.