A Tale of Two Cities

A Tale Of Two Cities Charles Dickens
In a brief note, Dickens mentions the source of travelers react warily, fearing that they have
inspiration for A Tale of Two Cities: a play in come upon a highwayman or robber. Mr. Lorry,
which he acted, called The Frozen Deep, written however, recognizes the messenger’s voice as
by his friend Wilkie Collins. He adds that he that of Jerry Cruncher, the odd-job man at
hopes that he can further his readers’ Tellson’s, and accepts his message. The note
understanding of the French Revolution—“that that Jerry passes him reads: “Wait at Dover for
terrible time”—but that no one can truly hope Mam’selle.” Lorry instructs Jerry to return to
to surpass Thomas Carlyle’s The French Tellson’s with this reply: “Recalled to Life.”
Revolution (published in 1837). Confused and troubled by the “blazing strange
message,” Jerry rides on to deliver it.
Summary: Chapter 3: The Night Shadows

Summary: Chapter 1: The Period
A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every
It was the best of times, it was the worst of
human creature is constituted to be that
times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age
profound secret and mystery to every other. . . .
of foolishness. .
The narrator ponders the secrets and mysteries
As its title promises, this brief chapter
that each human being poses to every other:
establishes the era in which the novel takes
Lorry, as he rides on in the mail coach with two
place: England and France in 1775. The age is
strangers, constitutes a case in point. Dozing, he
marked by competing and contradictory
drifts in and out of dreams, most of which
attitudes—“It was the best of times, it was the
revolve around the workings of Tellson’s bank.
worst of times”—but resembles the “present
Still, there exists “another current of impression
period” in which Dickens writes. In England, the
that never cease[s] to run” through Lorry’s mind
public worries over religious prophecies,
—the notion that he makes his way to dig
popular paranormal phenomena in the form of
someone out of a grave. He imagines repetitive
“the Cock-lane ghost,” and the messages that a
conversations with a specter, who tells Lorry
colony of British subjects in America has sent to
that his body has lain buried nearly eighteen
King George III. France, on the other hand,
years. Lorry informs his imaginary companion
witnesses excessive spending and extreme
that he now has been “recalled to life” and asks
violence, a trend that anticipates the erection of
him if he cares to live. He also asks, cryptically,
the guillotine. Yet in terms of peace and order,
“Shall I show her to you? Will you come and see
English society cannot “justify much national
her?” The ghost’s reaction to this question
boasting” either—crime and capital punishment
varies, as he sometimes claims that he would
abound.
die were he to see this woman too soon; at
Summary: Chapter 2: The Mail other times, he weeps and pleads to see her
immediately.
On a Friday night in late November of 1775, a
mail coach wends its way from London to Summary: Chapter 4: The Preparation
Dover. The journey proves so treacherous that
The next morning, Lorry descends from the
the three passengers must dismount from the
coach at the Royal George Hotel in Dover. After
carriage and hike alongside it as it climbs a
shedding his travel clothes, he emerges as a
steep hill. From out of the great mists, a
well-dressed businessman of sixty. That
messenger on horseback appears and asks to
afternoon, a waiter announces that Lucie
speak to Jarvis Lorry of Tellson’s Bank. The
Manette has arrived from London. Lorry meets
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the “short, slight, pretty figure” who has establishes an uneasy, mysterious mood
received word from the bank that “some through the use of remote, desolate settings,
intelligence—or discovery” has been made supernatural or macabre events, and violence,
“respecting the small property of my poor dominated much of fiction from the late
father . . . so long dead.” After reiterating his eighteenth century through the end of the
duties as a businessman, Lorry relates the real nineteenth century. Such classics as
reason that Tellson’s has summoned Lucie to Frankenstein (1818), by Mary Shelley, and
Paris. Her father, once a reputed doctor, has Wuthering Heights (1847), by Emily Brontë,
been found alive. “Your father,” Lorry reports to helped establish a strong tradition of gothic
her, “has been taken to the house of an old themes in British literature of this period. Jerry
servant in Paris, and we are going there: I, to Cruncher’s mysterious appearance during the
identify him if I can: you, to restore him to life, treacherous nighttime journey, and Lorry’s
love, duty, rest, comfort.” Lucie goes into shock, macabre visions of disinterring a body, hearken
and her lively and protective servant, Miss back to the eerie and supernatural feel of A
Pross, rushes in to attend to her. Tale of Two Cities’ gothic predecessors.
Analysis: Chapters 1–4 The obscurity that permeates these pages

points to the “wonderful fact” that Dickens
The opening sentence of the novel makes clear,
continuously ponders: every person in every
as the title itself does, the importance of
room in every house that he passes possesses a
doubles in the text:
secret, unknown to anyone—even closest
It was the best of times, it was the worst of friends, family, and lover. As the novel
times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age progresses, the reader witnesses Dickens
of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was digging—much as Lorry anticipates having to
the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of “dig” the doctor out of his ruinous prison
Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the experience—for the secrets that provide his
spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. . . . characters with their essences and motivations.
Doubles prove essential to the novel’s In typical Dickensian manner, this project of
structure, plot, and dominant themes. The idea discovery happens bit by bit: secrets emerge
of resurrection, a theme that emerges in these only very slowly. Although the horrible effects
early pages, would not be possible without of Doctor Manette’s incarceration become clear
some form of its opposite—death. In order to in the next few chapters, the reader doesn’t
pave the way for the first such resurrection— learn the causes of these effects until the end of
the recalling to life of the long-imprisoned the novel. This narrative tactic owes much to
Doctor Manette—Dickens does much to the form in which Dickens wrote much of his
establish a dark, ominous tone suggestive of work. A Tale of Two Cities was published as a
death. From the mist-obscured route of the serial piece—that is, in weekly installments
Dover mail coach to the darkly paneled room in from April 20 to November 26, 1859. The
which Lorry meets Lucie Manette, the opening original serial format provides the reason for
chapters brim with gloomy corners and the novel’s relatively short chapters and specific
suggestive shadows. chapter subheadings, which, read in sequence,
offer a skeletal outline of the plot. For example,
These descriptions of darkness and secrets also the first three chapters of the second book bear
contribute to the gothic atmosphere of the
novel’s opening. Gothic literature, a genre that
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the subheadings “Five Years Later,” “A Sight,” the fifth floor and sends them out, Mr. Lorry
and “A Disappointment,” respectively. approaches from the corner and begs a word
with Defarge. The men have a brief
In addition to his plentiful literary talents,
conversation, and soon Defarge leads Lorry and
Dickens also possessed a shrewd businessman’s
Lucie up a steep, dangerous rise of stairs. They
sense. He remained keenly aware of what his
come to a filthy landing, where the three men
reading public wanted and, unlike most artists
from the wine shop stand staring through
of his caliber, unapologetically admitted to
chinks in the wall. Stating that he makes a show
aiming for the largest possible readership. As he
of Doctor Manette to a chosen few “to whom
had done previously, with A Tale of Two Cities,
the sight is likely to do good,” Defarge opens
Dickens set his sights on writing a so-called
the door to reveal a white-haired man busily
popular novel. One means of hooking readers
making shoes.
into the story was to create a climate of
suspense. Within the first four chapters, Chapter 6: The Shoemaker
Dickens already leaves the reader with many
Manette reports, in a voice gone faint with
questions that need to be answered, creating a
“solitude and disuse,” that he is making a lady’s
sense of excitement and anticipation.
shoe in the “present mode,” or fashion, even
Summary: Chapter 5: The Wine-shop though he has never seen the present fashion.
When asked his name, he responds, “One
The wine was red wine, and had stained the
Hundred and Five, North Tower.” Lucie
ground of the narrow street. . . .
approaches. Noticing her radiant golden hair,
The setting shifts from Dover, England to Saint Manette opens a knot of rag that he wears
Antoine, a poor suburb of Paris. A wine cask around his neck, in which he keeps a strand of
falls to the pavement in the street and everyone similarly golden curls.
rushes to it. Men kneel and scoop up the wine
At first, Manette mistakes Lucie for his wife and
that has pooled in the paving stones, while
recalls that, on the first day of his
women sop up the liquid with handkerchiefs
imprisonment, he begged to be allowed to keep
and wring them into the mouths of their babies.
these few stray hairs of his wife’s as a means of
One man dips his finger into the “muddy wine-
escaping his circumstances “in the spirit.” Lucie
lees” and scrawls the word blood on a wall.
delivers an impassioned speech, imploring her
The wine shop is owned by Monsieur Defarge, a father to weep if her voice or her hair recalls a
“bull-necked, martial-looking man of thirty.” His loved one whom he once knew. She hints to
wife, Madame Defarge, sits solemnly behind the him of the home that awaits him and assures
counter, watchful of everything that goes on him that his “agony is over.” Manette collapses
around her. She signals to her husband as he under a storm of emotion; Lucie urges that
enters the wine shop, alerting him to the arrangements be made for his immediate
presence of an elderly gentleman and a young departure for England. Fearing for Manette’s
lady. Defarge eyes the strangers (they are Lorry health, Lorry protests, but Lucie insists that
and Lucie) but pretends not to notice them, travel guarantees more safety than a continued
speaking instead with three familiar customers, stay in Paris. Defarge agrees and ushers the
each of whom refers to the other two as group into a coach.
“Jacques” (a code name that identifies
Analysis: Chapters 5–6
themselves to one another as revolutionaries).
After Defarge directs the men to a chamber on
3
In Chapters 5 and 6, Dickens introduces the cites as a defining impetus behind the peasants’
reader to the first of the novel’s two principal imminent uprising, serves as a perfect example
cities: Paris. The scramble for the leaking wine of how the author uses repetition to emphasize
that opens “The Wine-shop” remains one of the his point:
most remembered (and frequently referenced)
Hunger was pushed out of the tall houses . . .
passages in the novel. In it, Dickens prepares
Hunger was patched into them with straw and
the sweeping historical backdrop against which
rag and wood and paper; Hunger was repeated
the tale of Lucie and Doctor Manette plays out.
in every fragment of the small modicum of
Although the French Revolution will not erupt
firewood that the man sawed off; Hunger
for another fourteen years, the broken wine
stared down the smokeless chimneys . . .
cask conveys the suffering and rage that will
Hunger was the inscription on the baker’s
lead the French peasantry to revolt. The scene
shelves . . . Hunger rattled its dry bones among
surrounding the wine cask contains a
the roasting chestnuts in the turned cylinder;
nightmarish quality. In clambering to feed on
Hunger was shred into atomies in every farthing
the dregs, the members of the mob stain
porringer of husky chips of potato. . . . (Chapter
themselves with wine. The liquid smears the
5)
peasants’ hands, feet, and faces, foreshadowing
the approaching chaos during which the blood With this repetition, Dickens demonstrates that
of aristocrats and political dissidents will run as hunger dominates every aspect of these
freely. The ominous scrawling of the word peasants’ lives—they cannot do anything
blood on the wall similarly prefigures the without being reminded of their hunger. The
violence. Dickens here betrays his conflicted presence of the word hunger at the opening of
ideas regarding the revolution. While he each clause reflects the fact that hunger is the
acknowledges, throughout the novel, the peasants’ first thought and first word—they
horrible conditions that led the peasantry to have no means to escape it. Reading the
violence, he never condones the peasants’ passage aloud, we become paralleled with the
actions. In his text the mob remains a poor. We encounter “Hunger” at each breath.
frightening beast, manifesting a threat of
danger rather than the promise of freedom: In addition to setting the stage for revolution—
“Those who had been greedy with the staves of both the historical upheaval in France and the
the cask, had acquired a tigerish smear about more private but no less momentous changes in
the mouth.” his characters’ lives—Dickens establishes the
unabashedly sentimental tone that
Dickens uses several techniques to criticize the characterizes many of the relationships in the
corrupt circumstances of the peasants’ novel, especially that between Doctor Manette
oppression. He proves a master of irony and and Lucie. As she coaxes her father into
sarcasm, as becomes clear in his many biting consciousness of his previous life and identity,
commentaries; thus we read, “[France] Lucie emerges as a caricature of an innocent,
entertained herself . . . with such humane pure-hearted, and loving woman. Most modern
achievements as sentencing a youth to have . . . readers find her speech and gestures rather
his body burned alive”(Book the First, Chapter saccharine: “And if . . . I have to kneel to my
1). Dickens also makes great use of anaphora, a honoured father, and implore his pardon for
rhetorical device wherein a word or phrase having never for his sake striven all day and lain
appears repeated in successive clauses or awake and wept all night . . . weep for it, weep
sentences. His meditation on hunger, which he for it!” Indeed, as a realistically imagined
4
woman grieving over a family tragedy, Lucie his wife for “praying against” him; he throws his
proves unconvincing. Her emotions, her speech, muddy boot at her. Around nine o’clock,
and even her physical beauty belong to the Cruncher and his young son camp outside
realm of hyperbole. But Dickens does not aim Tellson’s Bank, where they await the bankers’
for realism: he employs these sorts of instructions. When an indoor messenger calls
exaggerations for the sake of emphasis and for a porter, Cruncher takes off to do the job. As
dramatic effect. young Jerry sits alone, he wonders why his
father’s fingers always have rust on them.
The Parisian revolutionaries first began
addressing each of other as “Jacques” during Summary: Chapter 2: A Sight
the Jacquerie, a 1358 peasant uprising against
The bank clerk instructs Cruncher to go to the
French nobility. The nobles contemptuously
Old Bailey Courthouse and await orders from
referred to the peasants by the extremely
Jarvis Lorry. Cruncher arrives at the court,
common name of “Jacques” in order to
where Charles Darnay, a handsome, well-bred
accentuate their inferiority and deny their
young man, stands trial for treason. Cruncher
individuality. The peasants adopted the name
understands little of the legal jargon, but he
as a war name. Just as the fourteenth-century
gleans that Darnay has been charged with
peasants rallied around their shared low birth,
divulging secret information to the king of
so too do Dickens’s revolutionaries fight as a
France (Louis XVI): namely, that England plans
unified machine of war. For example, at the
to send armed forces to fight in the American
storming of the Bastille in Book the Second,
colonies. As Darnay looks to a young lady and
Chapter 21, Defarge cries out, “Work, comrades
her distinguished father, a whisper rushes
all, work! Work, Jacques One, Jacques Two,
through the courtroom, speculating on the
Jacques One Thousand, Jacques Two Thousand,
identity of the two. Eventually, Cruncher
Jacques Five-and-Twenty Thousand . . . work!”
discovers that they will serve as witnesses
Book the Second: The Golden Thread Chapters against the prisoner.
1–4
Summary: Chapter 3: A Disappointment
Summary: Chapter 1: Five Years Later
The Attorney-General prosecutes the case,
It is now 1780. Tellson’s Bank in London prides demanding that the jury find Darnay guilty of
itself on being “very small, very dark, very ugly, passing English secrets into French hands. The
very incommodious.” Were it more welcoming, Solicitor-General examines John Barsad, whose
the bank’s partners believe, it would lose its testimony supports the Attorney-General’s
status as a respectable business. It is located by case. The cross-examination, however,
Temple Bar, the spot where, until recently, the tarnishes Barsad’s pure and righteous
government displayed the heads of executed character. It reveals that he has served time in
criminals. The narrator explains that at this debtor’s prison and has been involved in brawls
time, “death was a recipe much in vogue,” used over gambling. The prosecution calls its next
against all manner of criminals, from forgers to witness, Roger Cly, whom the defense attorney,
horse thieves to counterfeiters. Mr. Stryver, also exposes as a dubious,
untrustworthy witness. Mr. Lorry then takes the
Jerry Cruncher, employed by Tellson’s as a
stand, and the prosecution asks him if, five
runner and messenger, wakes up in his small
years ago, he shared a Dover mail coach with
apartment, located in an unsavory London
the accused. Lorry contends that his fellow
neighborhood. He begins the day by yelling at
5
passengers sat so bundled up that their [Lucie’s] sympathy and compassion . . . ?” When
identities remained hidden. The prosecutors Darnay comments that Carton has been
then ask similar questions of Lucie, the young drinking, Carton gives his reason for indulging
woman Darnay had noticed earlier. She admits himself so: “I am a disappointed drudge, sir. I
to meeting the prisoner on the ship back to care for no man on earth, and no man on earth
England. When she recounts how he helped her cares for me.” After Darnay leaves, Carton
to care for her sick father, however, she seems curses his own image in the mirror, as well as
to help his case—yet she then inadvertently his look-alike, who reminds him of what he has
turns the court against Darnay by reporting his “fallen away from.”
statement that George Washington’s fame
might one day match that of George III. Doctor
Manette is also called to the stand, but he The courtroom scenes that open the second
claims that he remembers nothing of the trip book of the novel allow Dickens to use a
due to his illness. wonderful range of language. He employs a
technique known as free indirect style, which
Mr. Stryver is in the middle of cross-examining
fuses third-person narration with an interior
another witness “with no result” when his
point of view. He reveals the charges for which
insolent young colleague, Sydney Carton, passes
Darnay is being tried while rooting the reader in
him a note. Stryver begins arguing the contents
the uneducated mind (and ear) of the
of the note, which draws the court’s attention
spectators: “Charles Darnay had yesterday
to Carton’s own uncanny resemblance to the
pleaded Not Guilty to an indictment denouncing
prisoner. The undeniable likeness foils the
him (with infinite jingle and jangle) for that he
court’s ability to identify Darnay as a spy
was a false traitor to our serene, illustrious,
beyond reasonable doubt. The jury retires to
excellent, and so forth, prince. . . .” The
deliberate and eventually returns with an
juxtaposition of formal (“our serene, illustrious,
acquittal for Darnay.
excellent”) and informal (“and so forth”) speech
Summary: Chapter 4: Congratulatory produces a comical effect by highlighting the
unrefined crowd’s zealous craving for the juicy
Doctor Manette, Lucie, Mr. Lorry, Mr. Stryver,
details of the case, even as they recognize the
and Darnay exit the courtroom. The narrator
decorum of their setting.
relates that Manette has established himself as
an upright and distinguished citizen, though the Dickens also uses these scenes to implement
gloom of his terrible past descends on him from another of his favorite literary devices, parody.
time to time. These clouds descend only rarely, The Attorney-General’s long, self-important,
however, and Lucie feels confident in her power and bombastic speech at the opening of
as the “golden thread” that unites him to a past Chapter 3 offers a highly comical imitation of
and present “beyond his misery.” Darnay kisses legalese and serves indirectly to ridicule the
Lucie’s hand and then turns to Stryver to thank Attorney-General, as well as the entire legal
him for his work. Lucie, Manette, and Stryver system. Thus the Attorney-General’s informs
depart, and a drunk Sydney Carton emerges the jury:
from the shadows to join the men. Lorry
[I]f statues were decreed in Britain, as in
chastises him for not being a serious man of
ancient Greece and Rome, to public
business. Darnay and Carton make their way to
benefactors, this shining citizen [his witness]
a tavern, where Carton smugly asks, “Is it worth
would assuredly have one. That, as they were
being tried for one’s life, to be the object of
6
not so decreed, he probably would not have To rely less upon character than upon incident,
one. and to resolve that his actors should be
expressed by the story more than they should
The Attorney-General melodramatically touts
express themselves by dialogue, was for him a
the virtues of his witness, John Barsad, and
hazardous, and can hardly be called an entirely
absurdly deifies him, as though Barsad were a
successful, experiment.
great figure from antiquity. When he explains
that Barsad would not in fact have such a statue As Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton take the
erected in his honor, as no such practice exists stage in this section, Forster’s comment
in England, his words again produce a comical becomes particularly pertinent. Darnay makes
effect. They draw attention to the fact that the as uninteresting a hero as Lucie does a heroine.
attorney’s first sentence glorified Barsad to the Both characters prove rather one-dimensional
point of irrelevant hypotheticals. Moreover, the in their goodness and virtue. Only the
redundant nature of the Attorney-General’s supposedly loveless Carton promises more
statement highlights his obliviousness to the depth. He descends into the darkness of
emptiness of his words. alcoholism while others bask in the glow of
Darnay’s acquittal. Reading of this, one cannot
The passage makes clear how Dickens’s comical
help but suspect that elaborate secrets dim his
characterizations have won him the admiration
past.
of generations of readers. A Tale of Two Cities,
however, is far from a comic novel; and perhaps Summary: Chapter 5: The Jackal
in withholding humor from the book, Dickens
Sydney Carton, the “idlest and most
sacrificed some opportunity to put his greatest
unpromising of men,” makes his way from the
talents to work. Dickens’s most “Dickensian”
tavern to Mr. Stryver’s apartment. The men
novels abound with hilariously grotesque
drink together and discuss the day’s court
characters, whose speech (usually vulgar) and
proceedings. Stryver, nicknamed “the lion,”
appearance (usually freakish) are rendered with
compliments his friend, “the jackal,” for the
extreme exaggeration. With his impeded
“rare point” that he made regarding Darnay’s
speech, violent temper, mysteriously rusty
identification. However, he laments Carton’s
fingers, and muddy boots, Jerry Cruncher comes
moodiness. Ever since their days in school
as close as any other character to this sort of
together, Stryver observes, Carton has
caricature. But with A Tale of Two Cities,
fluctuated between highs and lows, “now in
Dickens was making a conscious decision to
spirits and now in despondency!” Carton shrugs
steer away from his trademark characters, in
off Stryver’s accusation that his life lacks a
order to write a novel in shorter and more
unified direction. Unable to match Stryver’s
frequent installments than usual. He
vaulting ambition, Carton claims that he has no
determined to strip the story of dialogue, upon
other choice but to live his life “in rust and
which he often relied to flesh out his characters
repose.” Attempting to change the subject,
and further his narration, in favor of describing
Stryver turns the conversation to Lucie, praising
the story’s action. By shifting his attention from
her beauty. Carton dismisses her as a “golden-
character to plot, Dickens crafted A Tale of Two
haired doll,” but Stryver wonders about
Cities into a rather un-Dickensian novel. His
Carton’s true feelings for her.
biographer, John Forster, doubted the benefits
of such a move: Summary: Chapter 6: Hundreds of People
7
Four months later, Mr. Lorry, now a trusted term—an accomplice in the commission of
friend of the Manette family, arrives at Doctor menial or disreputable acts—the name seems
Manette’s home. Finding Manette and his fitting. Alongside his colleague Stryver, Carton
daughter not at home, he converses with Miss seems little more than an assistant. He lacks
Pross. They discuss why the doctor continues to ambition; in the courtroom he spends his time
keep his shoemaker’s bench. staring at the ceiling; outside of it, he spends his
time getting drunk. Carton accepts his pathetic
Their conversation also touches on the number
state—he says to Stryver matter-of-factly, “you
of suitors who come to call on Lucie. Miss Pross
have fallen into your rank, and I have fallen into
complains that they come by the dozen, by the
mine.” Yet, for all of his supposed indifference,
hundred—all “people who are not at all worthy
he betrays his desire for a better, more exalted
of Ladybird.” In Miss Pross’s opinion, the only
life. Carton alludes several times to the
man worthy of Lucie is her own brother,
respectable life that he might have lived. At the
Solomon Pross, who, she laments, disqualified
end of Chapter 4, he admits to hating Darnay
himself by making a certain mistake. Lorry
because the man reminds him of what he could
knows, however, that Solomon is a scoundrel
have been. He echoes this sentiment in Chapter
who robbed Miss Pross of her possessions and
5, telling Stryver, “I thought I should have been
left her in poverty. He goes on to ask if Manette
much the same sort of fellow [as Darnay], if I
ever returns to his shoemaking, and Pross
had had any luck.” These feelings evidence his
assures him that the doctor no longer thinks
resentful awareness of Darnay as his double—a
about his dreadful imprisonment.
successful and happy double, and thus a
Lucie and Manette return, and soon Darnay mocking one. Carton views Darnay as a
joins them. Darnay relates that a workman, concrete manifestation of a life he might have
making alterations to a cell in the Tower of led, a life preferable to his own. The closing of
London, came upon a carving in the wall: “D I the chapter alludes to the secret longings of a
G.” At first, the man mistook these for some man who will not admit to having any:
prisoner’s initials, but he soon enough realized
In the fair city of this vision, there were airy
that they spelled the word dig. Upon digging,
galleries from which the loves and graces
the man discovered the ashes of a scrap of
looked upon him, gardens in which the fruits of
paper on which the prisoner must have written
life hung ripening, waters of Hope that sparkled
a message. The story startles Manette, but he
in his sight. A moment, and it was gone.
soon recovers.
Climbing to a high chamber in a well of houses,
Carton arrives and sits with the others near a he threw himself down in his clothes on a
window in the drawing room. The footsteps on neglected bed, and its pillow was wet with
the street below make a terrific echo. Lucie wasted tears.
imagines that the footsteps belong to people
A great gulf exists between the life that Carton
that will eventually enter into their lives. Carton
leads and the life that he imagines for himself,
comments that if Lucie’s speculation is true,
between the type of man that he is and the
then a great crowd must be on its way.
type of man that he dreams of being. Carton’s
Analysis: Chapters 5–6 complex and conflicted inner life paves the way
for his dramatic development, which eventually
Dickens devotes Chapter 5 to the character of elevates him out of his jackal status.
Sydney Carton, whom he nicknames “the
jackal.” Given the secondary meaning of the
8
Dickens employs masterful foreshadowing in while in prison. Lorry assures Lucie that her love
Chapter 6, as he uses these scenes both to hint and devotion can recall her father to life, and
at Carton’s eventual ascendance into glory and indeed they do.
to anticipate two vital plot turns. The discovery
Summary: Chapter 7: Monseigneur in Town
of the mysterious letter in the Tower of London,
and Manette’s distress upon hearing of it, Monseigneur, a great lord in the royal court,
foreshadows the moment when, during a later holds a reception in Paris. He surrounds himself
trial, the prosecution will confront the doctor with the greatest pomp and luxury. For
with a letter he wrote while imprisoned in the example, he has four serving men help him
Bastille. As the second trial forms the dramatic drink his chocolate. The narrator tells us that
core of the latter half of the novel, the discovery Monseigneur’s money corrupts everyone who
of this second letter forms a crucial part of the touches it. Monseigneur parades around his
plot and dictates the course of the characters’ guests briefly and then returns to his sanctuary.
lives. By introducing the story of a first and Miffed at Monseigneur’s haughtiness, one
parallel letter, Dickens prepares the reader for guest, the Marquis Evrémonde, condemns
the discovery of the second. As soon as the Monseigneur as he leaves. The Marquis orders
second letter surfaces, the reader will instantly his carriage to be raced through the city streets,
recognize it as important. The second event delighting to see the commoners nearly run
that Dickens foreshadows is the French down by his horses. Suddenly the carriage jolts
Revolution itself. The “hundreds of people” to to a stop. A child lies dead under its wheels. The
which the title of Chapter 6 owes its name Marquis tosses a few coins to the boy’s father, a
refers not to Lucie’s suitors (whose numbers man named Gaspard, and to the wine shop
Miss Pross clearly exaggerates) but to the owner Defarge, who tries to comfort Gaspard.
multitude of angry, mutinous revolutionaries As the Marquis drives away, a coin comes flying
who, as Lucie and Carton foretell, will soon back into the carriage, thrown in bitterness. He
march into the characters’ lives. curses the commoners, saying that he would
willingly ride over any of them. Madame
Defarge watches the scene, knitting the entire
The year is 1775, and social ills plague both time.
France and England. Jerry Cruncher, an odd-job
Chapter 8: Monseigneur in the Country
man who works for Tellson’s Bank, stops the
Dover mail-coach with an urgent message for The Marquis arrives in the small village to which
Jarvis Lorry. The message instructs Lorry to wait he serves as lord. There, too, the people live
at Dover for a young woman, and Lorry wretched lives, exploited, poor, and starving. As
responds with the cryptic words, “Recalled to he looks over the submissive faces of the
Life.” At Dover, Lorry is met by Lucie Manette, a peasants, he singles out a road-mender whom
young orphan whose father, a once-eminent he passed on his journey, a man whose fixed
doctor whom she supposed dead, has been stare bothered him. He demands to know what
discovered in France. Lorry escorts Lucie to the road-mender was staring at, and the man
Paris, where they meet Defarge, a former responds that someone was holding onto the
servant of Doctor Manette, who has kept bottom of the carriage. The Marquis continues
Manette safe in a garret. Driven mad by on his way and soon comes upon a peasant
eighteen years in the Bastille, Manette spends woman, mourning at a rustic graveside. The
all of his time making shoes, a hobby he learned woman stops him and begs that he provide her
9
husband’s grave with some stone or marker, waited on by only three men; he must have
lest he be forgotten, but the Marquis drives died of two.
away, unmoved. He arrives at his chateau and,
Dickens’s choice of the word escutcheon,
upon entering, asks if Monsieur Charles has
referring to a family coat-of-arms, is key to our
arrived from England.
understanding of Monseigneur. For this
Chapter 9: The Gorgon’s Head emblem represents what the he sees as a
power inherent to his family’s bloodline, an
Later that night, at the Marquis’ chateau,
innate nobility that he thinks justifies his absurd
Charles Darnay, the nephew of the Marquis,
lavishness. Dickens undercuts Monseigneur’s
arrives by carriage. Darnay tells his uncle that
reverence for this symbol of his own power by
he wants to renounce the title and property
commenting on his ridiculous fear that he might
that he stands to inherit when the Marquis dies.
damage his reputation should he prove
The family’s name, Darnay contends, is
insufficiently ostentatious in the frivolous act of
associated with “fear and slavery.” He insists
drinking chocolate. Moreover, in noting
that the family has consistently acted
Monseigneur’s deep interest in the ritual of
shamefully, “injuring every human creature
imbibing his little treat, Dickens contrasts him
who came between us and our pleasure.” The
with the more loftily motivated characters in
Marquis dismisses these protests, urging his
the novel. While the novel’s worthy characters
nephew to accept his “natural destiny.” The
act according to selfless and righteous goals,
next morning, the Marquis is found dead with a
the Monseigneur conducts himself according to
knife through his heart. Attached to the knife is
base and earthly instincts.
a note that reads: “Drive him fast to his tomb.
This, from Jacques.” Dickens uses the Marquis St. Evrémonde to give
a similar portrait of the aristocracy as elitist. The
Marquis displays no sympathy for Gaspard, the
In Chapter 5 of Book the First, we read a father of the boy whom his carriage crushes.
description of the French public squabbling over Rather, he believes that his noble blood justifies
the spilled contents of a broken wine cask; this his malicious treatment of his plebian subjects.
passage, in its indictment of the greed and In tossing the coins to Gaspard, he aims to buy
viciousness of the mob, forms the backbone of his way out of the predicament and rid his own
Dickens’s criticism against the impending conscience of the nuisance of Gaspard’s grief.
revolution. In this section, in contrast, Dickens He believes that it is the commoner’s lot in life
expresses an equal disapproval for the to struggle and suffer. Likewise, he has no
aristocracy whose vile mistreatment of the doubt that his nephew’s rightful station is to
peasantry contributes to the revolution. Again, dominate commoners, referring to his
Dickens uses sarcasm to great effect as he nephew’s noble blood as his “natural destiny.”
describes the Monseigneur’s ridiculous
Dickens sets up the Marquis as a representative
dependence on his serving men:
of the French aristocracy and, as such, a direct
It was impossible for Monseigneur to dispense cause of the imminent revolution. Using a
with one of these attendants on the chocolate device called personification, he creates human
and hold his high place under the admiring manifestations of such abstract concepts as
Heavens. Deep would have been the blot upon greed, oppression, and hatred. The Marquis, so
his escutcheon if his chocolate had been ignobly exaggeratedly cruel and flamboyant, hardly
seems an actual human being—hardly a realistic
10
character. Instead, the Marquis stands as a applauds Darnay for speaking so “feelingly and
symbol or personification of the “inhuman so manfully” and asks if he seeks a promise
abandonment of consideration” endemic to the from him. Darnay asks Manette to promise to
French aristocracy during the eighteenth vouch for what he has said, for the true nature
century. of his love, should Lucie ever ask. Manette
promises as much. Wanting to be worthy of his
Dickens advances this impression of the
confidence, Darnay attempts to tell Manette his
Marquis’ character in the opening passage of
real name, confessing that it is not Darnay.
Chapter 9, when he describes the nobleman’s
Manette stops him short, making him promise
chateau:
to reveal his name only if he proves successful
It was a heavy mass of building, that chateau of in his courtship. He will hear Darnay’s secret on
Monsieur the Marquis, with a large stone court- his wedding day. Hours later, after Darnay has
yard before it, and two stone sweeps of left, Lucie hears her father cobbling away at his
staircase meeting in a stone terrace before the shoemaker’s bench. Frightened by his relapse,
principal door. A stony business altogether with she watches him as he sleeps that night.
heavy stone balustrades . . . and stone faces of
Summary: Chapter 11: A Companion Picture
men, and stone heads of lions, in all directions.
As if the Gorgon’s head had surveyed it, when it Late that same night, Carton and Stryver work
was finished, two centuries ago. in Stryver’s chambers. In his puffed-up and
arrogant manner, Stryver announces that he
The repetition of the word stone solidifies, as it
intends to marry Lucie. Carton drinks heavily at
were, our impression of the man who lives in
the news, assuring Stryver that his words have
the chateau. His heart, Dickens suggests,
not upset him. Stryver suggests that Carton
possesses the same severity as the castle’s
himself find “some respectable woman with a
walls. The mention of the Gorgon—one of three
little property,” and marry her, lest he end up ill
Greek mythological sisters who had snakes for
and penniless.
hair and turned anyone who looked at them to
stone—foreshadows the death of the Marquis. Summary: Chapter 12: The Fellow of Delicacy
For by the end of the chapter, the chateau has
The next day, Stryver plans to take Lucie to the
one more stone face added to its collection—
Vauxhall Gardens to make his marriage
the dead Marquis’ face, which the narrator
proposal. On his way, he drops in at Tellson’s
describes as “like a stone mask, suddenly
Bank, where he informs Mr. Lorry of his
startled, made angry, and petrified.” Lying dead
intentions. Lorry persuades Stryver to postpone
on his pillow, the Marquis serves as a warning
his proposal until he knows for certain that
of the violence and bloodshed to come,
Lucie will accept. This admonition upsets
initiated by the masses who can no longer abide
Stryver. He almost insults Lucie as a “mincing
the aristocracy’s heartless oppression of them.
Fool,” but Lorry warns him against doing so.
Summary: Chapter 10: Two Promises Lorry asks that Stryver hold off his proposal for
a few hours to give him time to consult the
A year later, Darnay makes a moderate living as
family and see exactly where Stryver stands.
a French teacher in London. He visits Doctor
Later that night, Lorry visits Stryver and reports
Manette and admits his love for Lucie. He
that his fears have been confirmed. If Stryver
honors Manette’s special relationship with his
were to propose, the Manettes would reject his
daughter, assuring him that his own love for
offer. Stryver dismisses the entire affair as one
Lucie will in no way disturb that bond. Manette
11
of the “vanities” of “empty-headed girls” and and profound than that of his counterpart. The
begs Lorry to forget it. reader certainly believes Darnay as he informs
Manette, “Dear Doctor Manette, I love your
Summary: Chapter 13: The Fellow of No
daughter fondly, dearly, disinterestedly,
Delicacy
devotedly. If ever there were love in the world, I
Carton, who frequently wanders near the love her,” but this declaration, while direct,
Manettes’ house late at night, enters the house seems rather vapid and unimaginative. The
one August day and speaks to Lucie alone. She alliteration of “dearly, disinterestedly,
observes a change in his face. He laments his devotedly” highlights the flat—almost bored—
wasted life, despairing that he shall never live a tone of the declaration as it slogs through its
better life than the one he now lives. Lucie sequence of adverbs. The closing sentence
assures him that he might become much seems almost a parody of Romantic love poetry.
worthier of himself. She believes that her Darnay touts his love as a great force of the
tenderness can save him. Carton insists that he universe but does so with the most mundane
has declined beyond salvation but admits that possible phrasing, and the repetition of the
he has always viewed Lucie as “the last dream word love is dogged and uninspired.
of [his] soul.” She has made him consider
Carton’s words, on the other hand, betray a
beginning his life again, though he no longer
deep psychological and emotional struggle,
believes in the possibility of doing so. He feels
suggesting the existence of feelings more
happy to have admitted this much to Lucie and
complex, perhaps even more worthy of
to know that something remains in him that still
reciprocation, than Darnay’s:
deserves pity. Carton ends his confession with a
pledge that he would do anything for Lucie, In my degradation I have not been so degraded
including give his life. but that the sight of you with your father, and
of this home made such a home by you, has
stirred old shadows that I thought had died out
In this section, Dickens develops the love of me. . . . I have had unformed ideas of striving
triangle among Lucie, Carton, and Darnay. afresh, beginning anew, shaking off sloth and
Rather than simply writing an encyclopedic sensuality, and fighting out the abandoned
account of the French Revolution, Dickens fight.
balances history with the more private struggles
In his depiction of his love, Carton opens
of his principal characters. He links the two
himself to the reader’s sympathy in a way that
sides of his novel thematically, as each raises
Darnay does not. Whereas Darnay makes an
questions about the possibilities of revolution
objective, almost factual statement of his love
and resurrection—Carton, for example, like
for Lucie, Carton describes his emotions, tinged
France itself, strikes out for a new life.
as they are by realistic insecurity (“my
It is in Chapter 13 that Dickens lays the degradation”) and uncertainty (“unformed
foundation for Carton’s eventual turnaround. ideas”). He also speaks poetically of “old
Upon seeing Carton, Lucie observes a change in shadows” and “the abandoned fight”; his use of
his demeanor. Much of this change owes to metaphor seems to reflect his inability to grasp
Carton’s feelings for her. Just as Carton shares fully his profound feelings. Darnay, in contrast,
Darnay’s physical countenance, he also shares categorizes his experience simply as “love,” not
Darnay’s devotion to Lucie. Yet Carton’s pausing to ponder the emotions behind the
confession strikes the reader as more touching word.
12
Lucie’s conjecture on whether she can “recall clear to the reader that he approaches the
[Carton] . . . to a better course” echoes the courtship as he would a case in court—as a way
beginning of the novel, when Lorry recalls to gain money and stature—and not out of
Doctor Manette to life. Manette had to suffer a fondness for Lucie.
death of sorts—wasting nearly twenty years in
Summary: Chapter 14: The Honest Tradesman
prison—before being reborn into the life of love
and devotion with Lucie. Now, Carton, too, shall One morning outside Tellson’s Bank, Jerry
have to undergo a sort of death or sacrifice in Cruncher sees a funeral pass by. Jerry asks a few
order to win the fight for love and meaning that questions and learns that the crowd is
he claims to have abandoned. preparing to bury Roger Cly, a convicted spy
and one of the men who testified against
Dickens’s characteristic humor, largely absent
Darnay in his court case. Cruncher joins the
from A Tale of Two Cities, shines through in his
motley procession, which includes a chimney-
depiction of Stryver in Chapter 12. Dickens uses
sweep, a bear-leader and his mangy bear, and a
Stryver’s name to suggest the essential nature
pieman. After much drinking and carousing, the
of his character. Coldly ambitious, the man
mob buries Cly and, for sport, decides to accuse
ruthlessly strives to distinguish himself as a
passers-by of espionage in order to wreak
great businessman and here, in Chapter 12,
“vengeance on them.” At home that night,
endeavors to win the hand of Lucie Manette.
Cruncher once again harangues his wife for her
Dickens ironically entitles the chapter “The
prayers. He then announces that he is going
Fellow of Delicacy,” bringing Stryver’s
“fishing.” In reality, he goes to dig up Cly’s body
coarseness into greater relief. In Stryver’s surly
in order to sell it to scientists. Unbeknownst to
refusal to heed Lorry’s gentle advice and
Cruncher, his son follows him to the cemetery,
postpone his courtship of Lucie, we see clearly
but runs away terrified, believing that the coffin
one of Dickens’s greatest talents—the ability to
is chasing him. The next day, he asks his father
capture a character through dialogue.
the definition of a “Resurrection-Man”—the
“Were you going [to Lucie’s] now?” asked Mr. term describes men like Cruncher, who dig up
Lorry. “Straight!” said Stryver, with a plump of bodies to sell to science. He announces his
his fist on the desk. “Then I think I wouldn’t, if I intentions to have this job as an adult.
was you.” “Why?” said Stryver. “Now, I’ll put
Summary: Chapter 15: Knitting
you in a corner,” forensically shaking a
forefinger at him. “You are a man of business In Paris, Defarge enters his wine shop with a
and bound to have a reason. State your reason. mender of roads whom he calls “Jacques.”
Why wouldn’t you go?” Three men file out of the shop individually.
Eventually, Defarge and the mender of roads
The directness of Stryver’s response to Lorry
climb up to the garret where Doctor Manette
(“Straight!”) and the emphatic nature of his
had been hidden. There they join the three men
accompanying thump on the table demonstrate
who recently exited the shop, and whom
his blind and unshakeable ambition. His finger-
Defarge also calls “Jacques.” The mender of
wagging and blustery imperative demanding to
roads reports that, a year ago, he saw a man
hear Lorry’s “reason” reveal his aggressive
hanging by a chain underneath the Marquis’
nature and refusal to be hindered in his
carriage. Several months later, he says, he saw
pursuits. In his interrogating and intimidating
the man again, being marched along the road
mannerisms, Stryver acts as if he were arguing a
by soldiers. The soldiers led the man to prison,
legal point or cross-examining a witness. It is
13
where he remained “in his iron cage” for several treatment of the peasants. Knowing that
days. Accused of killing the Marquis, he stood to Defarge once worked as Doctor Manette’s
be executed as a parricide (one who murders a servant, he reports that Lucie Manette plans to
close relative). According to rumor, petitions marry, and that her husband is to be the
soon arrived in Paris begging that the prisoner’s Marquis’ nephew, Darnay. After Barsad leaves,
life be spared. However, workmen built a Madame Defarge adds Darnay’s name to her
gallows in the middle of town, and soon the registry, unsettling Defarge, the once loyal
man was hanged. servant of Manette.
When the mender of roads finishes his Summary: Chapter 17: One Night
recollection, Defarge asks him to wait outside a
It is the eve of Lucie’s marriage to Darnay. Lucie
moment. The other Jacques call for the
and her father have enjoyed long days of
extermination of the entire aristocracy. One
happiness together. Doctor Manette finally has
points to the knitting work of Madame Defarge,
begun to put his imprisonment behind him. For
which, in its stitching, contains an elaborate
the first time since his release, Manette speaks
registry of the names of those whom the
of his days in the Bastille. In prison, he passed
revolutionaries aim to kill. He asks if the woman
much time imagining what sort of person Lucie
will always be able to decipher the names that
would grow up to be. He is very happy now,
appear there. Later that week, Defarge and his
thanks to Lucie, who has brought him
wife take the mender of roads to Versailles to
“consolation and restoration.” Later that night,
see King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette.
Lucie sneaks down to her father’s room and
When the royal couple appears, the mender of
finds him sleeping soundly.
roads cries “Long live the King!” and becomes
so excited that Defarge must “restrain him from
flying at the objects of his brief devotion and
tearing them to pieces.” This performance Analysis: Chapters 14–17
pleases the Defarges, who see that their efforts Of the many shadows throughout the novel,
will prove easier if the aristocrats continue to that of death looms most largely. Given the
believe in the peasantry’s allegiance. novel’s concern with resurrection, death
Summary: Chapter 16: Still Knitting acquires an inevitable presence. Although
young Jerry Cruncher’s aborted trip to the
The Defarges return to Saint Antoine later that cemetery at the heels of his grave-robbing
evening. A policeman friend warns Defarge that father serves little dramatic purpose, it
a spy by the name of John Barsad has been sent functions as an important tableau. As the boy
to their neighborhood. Madame Defarge runs home with visions in his head of Roger
resolves to knit his name into the register. That Cly’s coffin chasing behind him, Dickens creates
night, Defarge admits his fear that the a suggestive symbol of the death that
revolution will not come in his lifetime. overshadows and pursues everyone.
Madame Defarge dismisses his impatience and
compares the revolution to lightning and an As critic G. Robert Stange has noted, “the
earthquake: it strikes quickly and with great tableau technique” plays an important role in
force, but no one knows how long it will take to the novel. “Dickens tends throughout to make
form. The next day, Barsad visits the wine shop. important episodes into set-pieces that are
He masquerades as a sympathizer with the more visual than strictly dramatic.” Chapter 14
revolutionaries and comments on the horrible opens with such a tableau—that of Cly’s funeral
14
scene. In the scene’s emphasis on bizarre and bloodlust will drive her to murder without heed
freakish imagery, we see a clear example of of her scrupulous register.
Dickens’s characteristic sense of the grotesque.
Dickens derived his knitting motif from
The scene’s importance also lies in its depiction
historical record: many scholars have recorded
of the throng attending Cly’s funeral. Here,
that women of the period would often knit as
Dickens continues his criticism of mob
they stood and watched the daily executions. In
mentality. Although Dickens intends the scene
the hands of Madame Defarge, however, the
as largely comic, he also prepares the reader for
pastime takes on symbolic significance. In Greek
his later, darker scenes of mindless frenzy and
mythology, the Fates were three sisters who
group violence in Paris. For example, as
controlled human life: one sister spun the web
Cruncher participates in the burial of a man he
of life, one measured it, and the last cut it.
does not know, his spirited condemnation of
Dickens employs a similar metaphor. As
the deceased testifies to the contagious nature
Madame Defarge weaves the names of the
of the crowd’s anger and excitement. Indeed,
condemned into shrouds, her knitting becomes
once the body is interred, the mob’s energy
a symbol of her victims’ fate, their death at the
remains unexhausted. Thus the group sets off
hands of a vengeful peasantry.
to harass casual passers-by. Dickens later taps
into the same frightening group psychology in Summary: Chapter 18: Nine Days
the tableau that portray the French
revolutionaries as they gather around the Darnay and Doctor Manette converse before
grindstone (in Book the Third, Chapter 2) and going to church for Darnay’s wedding to Lucie.
dance the Carmagnole (in Book the Third, Manette emerges “deadly pale” from this
Chapter 5). meeting. Darnay and Lucie are married and
depart for their honeymoon. Almost
The comedic atmosphere effected by Cruncher immediately, a change comes over Manette; he
quickly lapses into a tone of ominous danger as now looks scared and lost. Later that day, Miss
the story comes to focus on Madame Defarge. Pross and Mr. Lorry discover Manette at his
For this woman possesses a vengeance and shoemaker’s bench, lapsed into an incoherent
hatred that exceed all bounds. Indeed, the state. They fear that he will not recover in time
preceding scene presages her vindictive nature: to join the newlyweds, as planned, on the
the funeral-goers’ boisterous accusations of honeymoon, and for nine days they keep
espionage against innocent passers-by, which careful watch over him.
they voice for the sake of “vengeance,”
foreshadow the sweeping tide of hatred that Summary: Chapter 19: An Opinion
consumes the revolutionaries, and Madame On the tenth morning, Lorry wakes to find the
Defarge in particular. Two of the chapters in this shoemaker’s bench put away and the Doctor
section center around her knitting, her symbolic reading a book. Lorry cautiously asks Manette
hatred of the aristocracy. When one of the what might have caused the now-ended
Jacques inquires as to whether Madame relapse, relating Manette’s strange case as
Defarge will always be able to decipher this though it had happened to someone else.
register, his query presages a time in which the Manette suggests that he himself anticipated
woman will seek death even for those the reversion. He goes on to say that some
objectively innocent of any oppressive stimulus must have triggered a memory strong
behaviors, a time in which her monomaniacal enough to cause it. Manette reassures Miss
Pross and Lorry that such a relapse is not likely
15
to recur because the circumstances that caused “from a distance” and make a sound “as of a
it are unlikely to surface again. Still speaking as great storm in France with a dreadful sea
though the afflicted party were someone other rising.” One day in July, Lorry visits the Darnays
than Manette, Lorry creates a scenario about a and reports that an alarming number of French
blacksmith. He asks whether, if the smith’s citizens are sending their money and property
forge were associated with a trauma, the to England.
smith’s tools should be taken from him in order
The scene then shifts to the storming of the
to spare him painful memories. Manette
Bastille in Paris. Defarge and Madame Defarge
answers that the man used those tools to
serve as leaders among the mob. Once inside
comfort his tortured mind and should be
the Bastille, Defarge grabs a guard and
allowed to keep them. Eventually, however,
demands to be taken to 105 North Tower.
Manette agrees, for Lucie’s sake, to let Lorry
Defarge searches the cell. When he is finished,
dispose of his tools while he is away. A few days
he rejoins the mob as it murders and mutilates
later, Manette leaves to join Lucie and Darnay.
the governor who had defended the fortress.
In his absence, Lorry and Miss Pross hack the
Madame Defarge cuts off the man’s head.
shoemaker’s bench to pieces, burn it, and bury
the tools. Analysis: Chapters 18–21
Summary: Chapter 20: A Plea Nearly every character in the novel battles
against some form of imprisonment. In the case
When Lucie and Darnay return home from their
of Doctor Manette and Charles Darnay, this
honeymoon, Sydney Carton is their first visitor.
imprisonment is quite literal. But subtler,
He apologizes for his drunkenness on the night
psychological confines torture other characters
of the trial and delivers a self-effacing speech in
as much as any stone cell. Sydney Carton, for
which he asks for Darnay’s friendship: “If you
instance, cannot seem to escape his listlessness.
could endure to have such a worthless
Darnay struggles to free himself from the legacy
fellow . . . coming and going at odd times, I
of his family history. Lorry tries to unshackle his
should ask that I might be permitted to come
heart from its enslavement to Tellson’s Bank.
and go as a privileged person [in the
Finally, although Manette long ago escaped the
household]. . . .” Carton leaves. Afterward,
Bastille, in this section he battles the
Darnay comments that Carton tends to be
tormenting memories of his years there.
careless and reckless. Lucie deems this
Prompted by the discovery of Darnay’s true
judgment too harsh and insists that Carton
identity, Manette reverts to pounding out shoes
possesses a good, though wounded, heart.
in order to calm his troubled mind. This episode
Lucie’s compassion touches Darnay, and he
brings the notion of the fight for freedom from
promises to regard Carton’s faults with
the level of political revolution to the level of
sympathy.
personal struggles, suggesting that men and
Summary: Chapter 21: Echoing Footsteps women toil to free themselves from the forces
that oppress them as surely as nations do.
Years go by, and Lucie and her family enjoy a
tranquil life. She gives birth to a daughter, little Dickens further elaborates the parallel between
Lucie, and a son, who dies young. Lucie still personal and public struggles in Chapter 21,
maintains her habit of sitting in a corner of the which begins with Lucie in her parlor listening
parlor, listening to the echoing footsteps on the to the echo of footsteps on the street, and then
street below. By 1789, the echoes reverberate shifts to the storming of the Bastille in Paris. The
16
footsteps sweep the reader along, from the on which the wine-cask breaks in front of
intimate struggles of private life to a revolution Defarge’s shop (Book the First, Chapter 5). With
that will shape the future of an entire country these allegorical images of blood and wine, the
and continent. Dickens’s description of the theme of resurrection takes on a decidedly
battle contains exceptional power. Consider the Christian undertone. In the Catholic ritual of
following passage from Chapter 21: communion, the priest consecrates a cup of
wine and it becomes the blood of Christ, whose
Flashing weapons, blazing torches, smoking
entombment and miraculous ascent to heaven
waggon-loads of wet straw, hard work at
on Easter Day have rendered him a symbol of
neighbouring barricades in all directions,
resurrection in Christian tradition. In later
shrieks, volleys, execrations, bravery without
chapters, Dickens will continue to draw upon
stint, boom, smash and rattle, and the furious
this Christian association of blood, wine, and
sounding of the living sea; but, still the deep
resurrection. Just as Christ shed his wine red
ditch, and the single drawbridge, and the
blood upon the cross prior to being entombed
massive stone walls, and the eight great towers,
and resurrected, so must the blood of the
and still Defarge of the wine shop at his gun,
aristocracy flow before the commoners can
grown doubly hot by the service of Four fierce
take up their new lives.
hours.
Summary: Chapter 22: The Sea Still Rises
Here Dickens captures the frantic and
dangerous energy of the conflict. This passage’s One week later in Saint Antoine, Defarge arrives
effect owes much to Dickens’s language, which bearing news of the capture of Foulon, a
employs both alliteration and onomatopoeia to wealthy man who once declared that if people
evoke the mood of battle. Alliteration, or the were starving they should eat grass. Foulon had
repetition of consonants, fills the passage with faked his own death to avoid the peasants’ fury
harsh sounds. The effect, in the last line for but was later discovered hiding in the country.
instance, mimics the regular bursts of gunfire: The revolutionaries set out to meet Foulon, led
“at his gun, grown doubly hot by the service of by Madame Defarge and a woman known only
Four fierce hours” (emphasis added). The as The Vengeance. The mob strings Foulon up,
passage’s onomatopoeia, or use of words that but the rope breaks and he does not die until
imitate the sound to which they refer—such as his third hanging. The peasants put his head on
boom, smash, and rattle—contributes to the a pike and fill his mouth with grass. When they
overall impression of chaos as the sounds of the have finished, the peasants eat their “scanty
battle take over. Both methods cause an and insufficient suppers,” parents play with
abstract description to give way to an eruption their children, and lovers love.
of noise, as the harsh and relentless pounding
Summary: Chapter 23: Fire Rises
and battering of the siege becomes a palpable
presence in the text. The French countryside lies ruined and
desolate. An unidentified man, weary from
As the battle rages on, Dickens introduces a
travel, meets the mender of roads. They
symbol that plays a major role in the novel’s
address each other as “Jacques” to indicate
theme of resurrection: blood, which begins to
their status as revolutionaries. The mender of
flow in the streets of Saint Antoine. Dickens
roads directs the man to the chateau of the
links the image of blood to that of wine: after a
murdered Marquis. Later that night, the man
day of butchery, the revolutionaries’ clothes
sets the castle on fire. A rider from the chateau
and hands bear stains of red, recalling the day
17
urges the village soldiers to help put out the fire the outcome of that venture, Dickens set out to
and salvage the valuables there, but they craft a novel that combined the panorama of
refuse, and the villagers go inside their homes history with his typical cast of exaggerated
and put “candles in every dull little pane of characters. Critical opinion differs on whether
glass.” The peasants nearly kill Gabelle, the local he achieved a successful balance. Most critics
tax collector, but he escapes to the roof of his agree that A Tale of Two Cities somewhat
house, where he watches the chateau burn. The sacrifices its characters to its historical scope.
narrator reports that scenes such as this are They claim that the story lacks the memorable
occurring all over France. types of characters that vitalize Dickens’s most
popular novels, such as The Old Curiosity Shop
Chapter 24: Drawn to the Loadstone Rock
and David Copperfield. However, debate
Three years pass. Political turmoil continues in continues as to whether Dickens’s use of history
France, causing England to become a refuge for ultimately warranted this sacrifice. Some
persecuted aristocrats. Tellson’s Bank in London consider the author’s treatment of the
becomes a “great gathering-place of revolution to be a triumphant success, while
Monseigneur.” Tellson’s has decided to others believe that Dickens’s indomitably
dispatch Mr. Lorry to its Paris branch, in hopes fantastical imagination only waters down his
that he can protect their valuable ledgers, history. Without doubt, Dickens relied heavily
papers, and records from destruction. Darnay upon Thomas Carlyle’s history of the French
arrives to persuade Lorry not to go, but Lorry Revolution, a work that impressed Dickens
insists, saying that he will bring Jerry Cruncher greatly. Many of his details come directly from
as his bodyguard. Carlyle’s work, such as the description of the
death of Foulon, which A Tale of Two Cities
Lorry receives an urgent letter, addressed to the portrays as follows:
Marquis St. Evrémonde, along with instructions
for its delivery. Lorry laments the extreme Once, he went aloft, and the rope broke, and
difficulty of locating the Marquis, who has they caught him shrieking . . . then, the rope
abandoned the estate willed to him by his was merciful, and held him, and his head was
murdered uncle. Darnay, careful to let no one soon upon a pike, with grass enough in the
suspect that he is in fact the missing Marquis, mouth for all Saint Antoine to dance at the sight
says that the Marquis is an acquaintance of his. of.
He takes the letter, assuring Lorry that he will
The similarity to Carlyle’s portrayal of the same
see it safely delivered. Darnay reads the letter,
incident in The French Revolution is obvious:
which contains a plea from Gabelle, whom the
revolutionaries have imprisoned for his upkeep Only with the third rope (for two ropes broke,
of the Marquis’ property. Gabelle begs the new and the quavering voice still pleaded) can he be
Marquis to return to France and save him. so much as got hanged! His Body is dragged
Darnay resolves to go to Paris, with a “glorious through the streets; his Head goes aloft on a
vision of doing good.” After writing a farewell pike, the mouth filled with grass: amid sounds
letter to Lucie and Doctor Manette, he departs. as of Tophet, from a grass-eating people.
Analysis Dickens acknowledges his debt to Carlyle in A

Tale of Two Cities’ preface, in which he states
Before writing A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens had
that he “hopes to add something to the popular
made one other attempt at historical fiction,
and picturesque means of understanding [the
entitled Barnaby Rudge (1841). Dissatisfied with
18
French Revolution], though no one can hope to responds that, as an emigrant, Darnay—whom
add anything to the philosophy of Mr Carlyle’s he refers to as Evrémonde—has no rights. The
wonderful book.” Dickens’s debt to Carlyle, guard hands Darnay over to Defarge with the
however, runs deeper than the level of instructions, “In secret.” As he is being led
historical detail, extending to the book’s away, Darnay converses with the wine
philosophical outlook as well. Dickens believed, merchant. Defarge wonders aloud why Darnay
as Carlyle did, that history is an evolutionary would choose to return to France in the age of
phenomenon. In other words, one era must be “that sharp female newly-born . . . called La
destroyed before a new one can develop and Guillotine.” Darnay asks Defarge for help, but
thrive, or, as Carlyle noted, “each new age [is] Defarge refuses. At La Force, Darnay feels he
born like the phoenix out of the ashes of the has entered the world of the dead. A fellow
past.” prisoner welcomes him to the prison and says
that he hopes that Darnay will not be kept “in
Yet although Dickens promotes this view of
secret”—the Anglicized form of en secret,
history in which the destruction of the old
meaning solitary confinement. But Darnay has
makes way for the new, he remains ambivalent
indeed been sentenced to total isolation, and
about the violence accompanying the cycles of
he soon finds himself in a cell measuring “five
eradication. While he acknowledges the evils
paces by four and a half.”
and oppression that motivated the peasant
uprising—he does this most notably in the
chapters chronicling the events that lead up to
the death of the Marquis—he never goes so far
as to romanticize the revolutionaries’ struggles Summary: Chapter 2: The Grindstone
or idealize their cause. Indeed, it is with great
horror that he recounts the fall of the Bastille Lucie and Doctor Manette storm into the Paris
and the ensuing chaos in the streets. The branch of Tellson’s Bank to find Mr. Lorry. They
violence may serve to cleanse society of the inform him that Darnay sits imprisoned in La
injustices of the French aristocracy, but it Force. Manette remains confident that he can
nevertheless creates its own sort of pollution. In use his standing as a one-time prisoner of the
describing the peasants’ carefree return to Bastille to help rescue his son-in-law. Lorry
eating, playing, and loving after their sends Lucie into the back room of the bank so
bloodthirsty execution of Foulon in Chapter 22, that he can speak to Manette in private. He and
Dickens points toward a fundamentally corrupt Manette look out into the courtyard, where
side of the human soul. throngs of people sharpen their weapons on a
grindstone. Lorry explains that the mob is
Book the Third: The Track of a Storm Chapters preparing to kill the prisoners. Manette rushes
1–5 into the crowd, and soon a cry arises: “Help for
the Bastille prisoner’s kindred in La Force!”
Summary: Chapter 1: In Secret
Summary: Chapter 3: The Shadow
Travel through France proves difficult for
Darnay. Hostile revolutionaries frequently stop Fearing that Lucie and Manette’s presence
him and question him. Upon his arrival in Paris, might compromise the bank’s business, Lorry
the revolutionaries confine him to a prison ushers Lucie, her daughter, and Miss Pross to a
called La Force. Darnay protests and reminds his nearby lodging. He leaves Jerry Cruncher to
jailers of his rights. However, the guard guard them. Back at Tellson’s, Defarge
19
approaches Lorry with a message from comes down the street, dancing a horrible and
Manette. Following Manette’s instructions, violent dance known as the Carmagnole. The
Lorry leads Defarge to Lucie. Defarge claims dancers depart, and the distressed Lucie now
that Madame Defarge must accompany them, sees her father standing before her. As he
as she will familiarize herself with the faces of comforts Lucie, Madame Defarge happens by.
Lucie, her daughter, and Miss Pross, in order to She and Manette exchange salutes. Manette
better protect them in the future. The woman then tells Lucie that Darnay will stand trial on
known as The Vengeance also comes. Upon the following day and assures her that her
arriving at the lodging, Defarge gives Lucie a husband will fare well in it.
note from the imprisoned Darnay. It urges her
to take courage. Turning to Madame Defarge,
Lucie begs her to show Darnay some mercy, but The scene at the grindstone powerfully evokes
Madame Defarge coldly responds that the the frantic and mindlessly violent mob of the
revolution will not stop for the sake of Lucie or revolution. A master of imagery, Dickens often
her family. connects one scene to another in such a
manner that the images flow throughout the
Summary: Chapter 4: Calm in Storm
entire novel rather than stand in isolation. The
Four days later, Manette returns from La Force. reader feels this continuity as the crowd gathers
Lorry notes a change in the once-fragile around the grindstone to sharpen their
Manette, who now seems full of strength and weapons. The description of the people in
power. Manette tells him that he has persuaded blood-stained rags, “[not one] creature in the
the Tribunal, a self-appointed body that tries group free from the smear of blood,”
and sentences the revolution’s prisoners, to immediately recalls the breaking of the wine-
keep Darnay alive. Moreover, he has secured a cask outside Defarge’s shop in Chapter 5; there,
job as the inspecting physician of three prisons, too, the people’s rags are stained and “those
one of which is La Force. These duties will who had been greedy with the staves of the
enable him to ensure Darnay’s safety. Time cask, had acquired a tigerish smear about the
passes, and France rages as though in a fever. mouth.” These parallel scenes do more than
The revolutionaries behead the king and queen, testify to Dickens’s artistry. They serve to place
and the guillotine becomes a fixture in the Paris disparate motifs into symbolic relation. In
streets. Darnay remains in prison for a year and repeating the motif of the red-stained peasants’
three months. rags, Dickens links wine with blood, invoking the
Christian association between communion wine
Summary; Chapter 5: The Wood-sawyer
and the blood of Christ. However, Dickens
While the family waits for Darnay’s trial, complicates the symbol in his text. While the
Manette tells Lucie of a window in the prison blood of Christ traditionally signifies salvation—
from which Darnay might see her in the street. Christians believe that Christ sacrificed his life
For two hours every day, Lucie stands in the for human deliverance from sin—Dickens’s
area visible from this window. A wood-sawyer grisly depictions of the vicious, vengeful, and
who works nearby talks with Lucie while she often sadistic revolutionaries express a deep
waits, pretending that his saw is a guillotine (it skepticism in the redemptive power of political
bears the inscription “Little Sainte Guillotine”) bloodshed.
and that each piece of wood that he cuts is the
Shadows constitute another symbol that
head of a prisoner. One day, a throng of people
permeates the entire novel, here providing the
20
subheading for Chapter 3. Dickens uses light opposite sympathy, Lucie waits steadfastly
and dark much as a painter might, infusing his outside of her husband’s prison, merely on the
composition with a wide range of tone and off-chance that Darnay might catch a glimpse of
depth. The reader can observe Dickens’s use of her. Whereas the violent and rambunctious
light and shadow at various instances in the Carmagnole dance, in which the wood-sawyer
novel. Notably, the chilling opening of the participates, symbolizes the ruthlessness of the
novel, in which the mail coach weaves its way revolution, the white snow that falls “quietly
through the darkness and fog, sets a tone of and . . . soft” in the very same chapter
ominous mystery for the story; conversely, the symbolizes Lucie’s gentle soul and pure love for
sweet sunrise that opens Book the Second, Darnay. When Madame Defarge passes by “like
Chapter 18, lends Lucie’s wedding day an air of a shadow over the white road,” the reader
promise and happiness. In the current section, again senses the threat she poses to Lucie’s
Madame Defarge casts a menacing shadow: happiness.
The shadow attendant on Madame Defarge and

her party seemed to fall so threatening and
dark on the child, that her mother instinctively
kneeled on the ground beside her, and held her Summary: Chapter 6: Triumph
to her breast. The shadow attendant on
Madame Defarge and her party seemed then to A motley and bloodthirsty crowd assembles at
fall, threatening and dark, on both the mother the trial of Charles Darnay. When Doctor
and the child. Manette is announced as Darnay’s father-in-
law, a happy cry goes up among the audience.
The narrator’s focus on the looming presence of The court hears testimony from Darnay,
Madame Defarge and on Lucie’s inability to Manette, and Gabelle, establishing that Darnay
escape this woman’s shadow establishes a long ago had renounced his title out of
tension between the gentle and nurturing Lucie disapproval of the aristocracy’s treatment of
—the “golden-haired doll”—and the dark and peasants. These factors, in addition to Darnay’s
cold Madame Defarge, an unrelenting status as the son-in-law of the much-loved
instrument of the revolution. Indeed, the martyr Manette, persuade the jury to acquit
narrator implicitly likens Madame Defarge’s him. The crowd carries Darnay home in a chair
shadow, which “fall[s] . . . threatening and on their shoulders.
dark,” to the guillotine blade that she is so
eager to see making its fatal descent. Summary: Chapter 7: A Knock at the Door
In Chapter 5, Dickens furthers this tension The next day, although Manette rejoices in
between Lucie’s sweet goodness and the having saved Darnay’s life, Lucie remains
perverse malevolence of the revolution. The terrified for her husband. Later that afternoon,
wood-sawyer who talks with Lucie in Chapter 5 she reports hearing footsteps on the stairs, and
possesses a grotesque zeal for decapitation, as soon a knock comes at the door. Four soldiers
evidenced by the religious nature of the enter and re-arrest Darnay. Manette protests,
moniker that he gives to his saw. He labels his but one of the soldiers reminds him that if the
imagined guillotine “Sainte”—that is, holy— Republic demands a sacrifice from him, he must
illustrating his belief that the guillotine, in make that sacrifice. Manette asks one of the
lopping off the heads of the aristocracy, is soldiers to give the name of Darnay’s accuser.
carrying out divine will. Similarly devoted but of Though it is against the law to divulge such
21
information, the soldier replies that he is Lorry scolds Cruncher for leading a secret life
carrying out the arrest according to statements (grave-robbing) outside his job at Tellson’s.
made by Defarge, Madame Defarge, and one Cruncher hints that there may be many doctors
other individual. When Manette asks for the involved in grave-robbing who bank at Tellson’s.
identity of this third person, the soldier replies Cruncher then makes amends, saying that if
that Manette will receive his answer the next Lorry will let young Jerry Cruncher inherit his
day. own duties at the bank, he himself will become
a gravedigger to make up for all the graves that
Summary: Chapter 8: A Hand at Cards
he has “un-dug.” After Barsad leaves, Carton
Meanwhile, Jerry Cruncher and Miss Pross tells Lorry and Cruncher that he has arranged a
discover Miss Pross’s long-lost brother, time to visit Darnay before his imminent
Solomon, in a wine shop. Solomon scolds his execution. Carton reflects that a human being
sister for making a scene over their reunion. He who has not secured the love of another has
cannot afford to be identified because he is wasted his life, and Lorry agrees.
working as a spy for the Republic. Meanwhile,
That night, as he wanders the streets of Paris,
Cruncher recognizes Solomon as the witness
Carton thinks of Lucie. He enters a chemist’s
who accused Darnay of treason during his trial
shop and buys a mysterious substance. The
in England thirteen years earlier. He struggles to
words spoken by the priest at his father’s
remember the man’s name until Sydney Carton,
funeral echo through his mind: “I am the
who suddenly appears behind them, provides it:
resurrection and the life, saith the Lord: he that
Barsad. Carton states that he has been in Paris
believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall
for a day and has been lying low until he could
he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in
be useful. He threatens to reveal Barsad’s true
me, shall never die.” Carton helps a small girl
identity to the revolutionaries unless the spy
across the muddy street, and she gives him a
accompanies him to Tellson’s.
kiss. The priest’s words echo again in his mind.
Upon arriving at Tellson’s, Carton informs Mr. He wanders until sunrise, then makes his way to
Lorry and Jerry Cruncher that Darnay has been the courthouse for Darnay’s trial. The judge
arrested again; he overheard Barsad discussing names Darnay’s accusers: the Defarges and
the news in a bar. Carton has a plan to help Doctor Manette. Manette reacts with shock and
Darnay, should he be convicted, and he denies having ever denounced Darnay. Defarge
threatens to expose Barsad as an English spy then takes the stand and speaks of a letter that
should Barsad fail to cooperate. Carton reveals he found, hidden in 105 North Tower of the
that he has seen Barsad conversing with Roger Bastille.
Cly, a known English spy. When Barsad counters
Summary: Chapter 10: The Substance of the
that Cly is dead and presents the certificate of
Shadow
burial, Cruncher disproves the story by asserting
that Cly’s coffin contained only stones and dirt. Defarge claims that Manette wrote the letter
Though Cruncher is unwilling to explain how he while imprisoned in the Bastille, and he reads it
knows these details, Carton takes him at his aloud. It tells the story of Manette’s
word and again threatens to expose Barsad as imprisonment. In 1757, a pair of brothers, one
an enemy of the Republic. Barsad finally gives in the Marquis Evrémonde (Darnay’s father) and
and agrees to help Carton with his secret plan. the other the next in line to be Marquis
(Darnay’s uncle, the man who ran over the child
Summary: Chapter 9: The Game Made
with his carriage in Book the Second, Chapter
22
7), ordered Doctor Manette to care for a young reaches new heights of personal significance for
peasant woman, who was dying of a fever, and Manette.
her brother, who was dying of a stab wound.
As the novel approaches its close, the reader
The Marquis’ brother had raped the young
encounters an ever-increasing number of
woman, killed her husband, and stabbed her
coincidences, such as Miss Pross’s discovery of
brother, who died quickly. Although the woman
her long-lost brother; Carton’s timely arrival in
was still alive, Manette failed to save her life.
the wine shop to identify Barsad; and Defarge’s
The next day a kind woman—the Marquis’ wife
discovery of Manette’s letter denouncing the
and Darnay’s mother—came to Manette’s door.
Evrémonde family. Moments such as these,
Having heard about the horrible things done to
endemic to Victorian fiction, constitute a device
the peasant girl and her family, she offers to
called deus ex machina (literally: “god out of the
help the girl’s sister, who was hidden away so
machine”), a term that refers to improbable
the Marquis could not find her. Unfortunately,
contrivances used by the author to resolve the
Manette does not know the sister’s
plot. Modern readers, more accustomed to
whereabouts. The next day, Manette was taken
realistic narratives, usually consider such
away and imprisoned in the Bastille on the
unlikely developments to reflect a weakness in
orders of the Marquis Evrémonde. After hearing
the plot’s conception. Even in Dickens’s time,
this story, the jury sentences Darnay to death,
certain readers objected to the contrived
to pay for the sins of his father and uncle.
feeling created by these coincidences. Wilkie
Analysis: Chapters 6–10 Collins, for instance—the author of The Frozen
Deep, the play that inspired A Tale of Two Cities
The echoing footsteps that Lucie hears in
—found the discovery of Manette’s letter in
Chapter 21 of Book the Second now manifest
Dickens’s work highly unlikely. But defenders of
themselves again, but this time they signify the
this style of writing believe that Dickens
immediate presence of pressing danger. No
conceived a world in which everything is so
longer distant, dim, or scarcely audible, the
interconnected to everything else that
footfalls in Chapter 7 announce the four soldiers
coincidence—no matter how unlikely—is
come to take Darnay back to prison. Whereas
inevitable. Dickens’s biographer, John Forster,
the revolution only vaguely stirs Lucie when she
defended the author thus:
sits in her comfortable parlor in England, it
encroaches, physically and emotionally, upon On the coincidences, resemblances, and
her most intimate relationships now that she surprises of life, Dickens liked especially to
has come to Paris. This transformation of the dwell, and few things moved his fancy so
revolution from an abstract notion into a direct pleasantly. The world, he would say, was so
presence in the lives of Lucie and Manette finds much smaller than we thought it; we were all so
a parallel in the soldiers’ words to them. In connected by fate without knowing it; people
answering Manette’s question as to the identity supposed to be far apart were so constantly
of Darnay’s accusers, the soldiers first tell him elbowing each other; and to-morrow bore so
that they are acting on the orders of Saint close a resemblance to nothing half so much as
Antoine, the personified suburb of Paris at the to yesterday.
heart of the revolution. However, Manette soon
The coincidences Dickens presents may seem
learns that Defarge and his wife have in fact
excessive in number, but many critics have
occasioned the arrest. With the news of this
come to see these plot devices as yet another
betrayal by his former allies, the revolution
example of Dickens’s talent for exaggeration.
23
Just as his many caricatured figures serve to charged with ushering Darnay back to his cell,
emphasize and comment on real human foibles, lets Lucie embrace her husband one last time.
his coincidences and sudden surprising Darnay insists that Doctor Manette not blame
connections serve merely to exaggerate the himself for the trial’s outcome. Darnay is
frequency of what Dickens believed to be very escorted back to his cell to await his execution
real phenomena in our own world. the following morning, and Carton escorts the
grieving Lucie to her apartment. Carton tells
Regardless of how one feels about Carton’s
Manette to try his influence one last time with
sudden appearance, one must acknowledge the
the prosecutors and then meet him at Tellson’s,
transformation of his character as one of the
though Lorry feels certain that there is no hope
novel’s foremost achievements. Indeed, Carton
for Darnay, and Carton echoes the sentiment.
proves the most psychologically complex and
emotionally rich character that A Tale of Two
Cities has to offer. By the time of his
Summary: Chapter 12: Darkness
appearance in Paris, he has shed the skin of
“the jackal.” No longer insolent, lazy, and Carton goes to Defarge’s wine shop. The
directionless, he emerges determined to save Defarges marvel at how much he physically
Darnay’s life for the sake of the woman that he resembles the condemned Darnay. Carton
himself loves. He now has a purpose, and a overhears Madame Defarge’s plan to accuse
purpose that he cherishes. In Chapter 9, the Lucie and Manette of spying, and to accuse
reader witnesses him preparing to make the Lucie’s daughter as well. Defarge himself finds
ultimate sacrifice as he recites a passage from this course unnecessary, but his wife reminds
the Book of John (11.25–26). In the Christian him of her grievance against the family
tradition, worshippers speak these lines at the Evrémonde: she is the surviving sister of the
opening of the Burial Service in the Book of woman and man killed by the Marquis and his
Common Prayer. Carton’s utterance of these brother. She demands the extermination of
words has a dual significance. First, his words their heirs. Carton pays for his wine and returns
confirm that he has made a conscious decision to Tellson’s.
to give of himself for Lucie’s sake. (The reader
might argue that Carton already has sacrificed At midnight, Manette arrives home completely
himself to Lucie’s benefit. However, although out of his mind. He looks about madly for his
Carton has saved Darnay once before, in Book shoemaking bench. After calming Manette,
the Second, Chapter 3, this first occasion—his Carton takes from the doctor’s coat the papers
observation of the physical likeness that he and that will allow Lucie, the doctor, and the child to
Darnay share—seemed more serendipitous leave the city. He gives the documents to Lorry.
than an act of valor performed deliberately to Then, Carton gives Lorry his own papers,
help Lucie.) Second, Carton’s recitation of the refusing to explain why. Afraid that the papers
biblical passage speaks beyond his personal may soon be recalled because Madame Defarge
psychology to the fates of the other characters intends to denounce the entire family, Carton
in the novel, promising a final and satisfying insists to Lorry that time is of the essence: the
resurrection. family must leave tomorrow. Alone in the street
that night, Carton utters a final good-bye and
Summary: Chapter 11: Dusk blessing to Lucie.
The courtroom crowd pours into the streets to Summary: Chapter 13: Fifty-two
celebrate Darnay’s condemnation. John Barsad,
24
Fifty-two people have been condemned to die Crush humanity out of shape once more . . . and
the next day. Darnay resolves to meet his death it will twist itself into the same tortured forms.
bravely. Carton appears at the door to Darnay’s Sow the same seed of . . . oppression over
cell, and Darnay observes something new and again, and it will surely yield the same fruit
bright in Carton’s face. Carton tricks Darnay into according to its kind.
switching clothes with him, dictates a letter of
Carton and the young seamstress reach the
explanation, and then drugs him with the
guillotine. The Vengeance and the other
substance that he had purchased at the
revolutionary women worry that Madame
chemist’s shop. He orders Barsad to carry the
Defarge will miss the beheading of Charles
unconscious Darnay to the carriage waiting
Darnay. The seamstress reflects that the new
outside Tellson’s. At two o’clock, guards take
Republic may make life easier for poor people
Carton from Darnay’s cell, believing him to be
like herself and her surviving cousin. She kisses
Darnay. He stands in the long line of the
Carton and goes calmly to her death. Carton
condemned. A poor seamstress, also falsely
then goes to his.
sentenced to death, realizes that Carton is not
Darnay and asks, “Are you dying for him?” He The narrator recounts that those who saw
replies, “And his wife and child.” Meanwhile, Carton die witnessed a peaceful and even
Barsad delivers the real Darnay to Manette, prophetic look on his face, and speculates
Lorry, and Lucie, and sends the carriage on its confidently about Carton’s final thoughts:
way. Lorry presents the family’s papers at the Carton notes the fact that the oppressors in the
city gates as they leave. They flee through the crowd “have risen on the destruction of the
countryside, fearing pursuit. old,” but also realizes that, someday, Paris will
recover from these horrors and become
Summary: Chapter 14: The Knitting Done
beautiful. Also in these imagined last moments,
Meanwhile, Madame Defarge heads toward Carton sees Lucie and Darnay with a child
Lucie’s apartment to try to catch Lucie in the named after himself. He sees Manette happy
illegal act of mourning a prisoner. Evidence of and healthy and sees Lorry living a long and
such a crime, she believes, will strengthen her peaceful life. He sees a future in which he holds
case against the family. At the apartment, Miss a special place in their hearts and in the hearts
Pross and Jerry Cruncher are in the middle of of generations hence. He sees his own name
making final arrangements to depart Paris. To “made illustrious,” and the blots that he threw
avoid drawing the suspicion that leaving upon his life fade away. According to the
together might engender, Miss Pross tells narrator, Carton dies in the knowledge that “It
Cruncher to wait for her with the carriage at the is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have
cathedral. When Cruncher leaves, Madame ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to
Defarge barges in and demands to know Lucie’s than I have ever known.”
whereabouts. The women fight, and Madame
I see a beautiful city and a brilliant people rising
Defarge draws a gun. In the struggle, however,
from this abyss, and, in their struggles to be
Miss Pross shoots her. She meets Cruncher as
truly free, . . . I see the evil of this time . . .
planned and reports that she has gone deaf
gradually making expiation for itself and
from the gunshot.
wearing out.
Summary: Chapter 15: The Footsteps Die Out
Forever
25
Dickens uses the figure of Miss Pross to —such as Carton’s self-sacrifice—death may
emphasize the power of love. As the devoted beget life, but oppression can beget nothing
servant battles with Madame Defarge, he notes other than itself.
that “the vigorous tenacity of love [is] always so
The novel ends with something of a Christian
much stronger than hate.” The showdown
paradox: life is achieved through death.
between the two women serves also as a
Carton’s sacrifice of his life enables him to live
commentary on social order and revolution.
in a way that he otherwise could not, for this
Revolution, as embodied by Madame Defarge,
sacrifice—the only means by which Darnay can
may prove fiercer and wilder, but the social
be saved—assures Carton a place in the hearts
order that Miss Pross represents emerges as
of others and allows him to have undertaken
stronger and steadier. Although Dickens
one truly meaningful and valuable act before
denounces the cruelty and vengefulness of
dying. The final passage, in which the narrator
Madame Defarge, he acknowledges the
imagines and records Carton’s last thoughts,
unavoidable fact of such people’s existence in
extends Carton’s life beyond the moment of his
the world:
death. He will live on in Lucie and Darnay, who
And yet there is not in France, with its rich will feel as deeply connected to him as they do
variety of soil and climate, a blade, a leaf, a to each other. He will live on in their child, who
root, a sprig, a peppercorn, which will grow to will bear his name and ambitiously follow a path
maturity under conditions more certain than that might have been Carton’s own.
those that have produced this horror. Crush Generations to come will honor his memory,
humanity out of shape once more, under similar endowing him with a glory that he could never
hammers, and it will twist itself into the same have enjoyed had he continued living as
tortured forms. Sow the same seed of rapacious Stryver’s disaffected and drunken assistant.
license and oppression over again, and it will Carton’s death emphasizes one of the novel’s
surely yield the same fruit according to its kind. simpler philosophies—that love conquers all.
Carton’s love for Lucie allows him to overcome
Yet in noting the prevalence of evil, Dickens also
not only the purposelessness of his life but also
shows an understanding of the processes by
his own death. Moreover, the event constitutes
which evil arises. Madame Defarge certainly
a Victorian ending, in that it provides the
possesses a criminal bloodlust, but Dickens
perfect resolution to various characters’
suggests her own tragic past and suffering,
problems. It ensures the continued happiness of
rather than any innate ill-will toward humanity,
Darnay and Lucie and it represents the
have transformed her into the despicable
redemption of the once spiritually aimless
creature that she has become. As such, Dickens
Carton.
is not so interested in criticizing Madame
Defarge specifically as he is in using her as an The closing shift from third-person narration to
example of the vices that society perpetrates. the first-person supposed thoughts of Sydney
Although, at the end of the novel, the narrator, Carton creates a powerful effect—it is as if
using Carton’s voice, prophesies a restored and Carton’s beautiful act transcends even the
replenished France—true to Carlyle’s theory of narrator’s control over the story. Indeed, the
history in which one era emerges “like a stunningly philosophical words that the
phoenix” out of the ashes of another—A Tale of narrator ascribes to Carton mirror Carton’s
Two Cities ultimately extends a cautionary word quasi-religious ascension into the realm of the
toward its readers. In certain sublime instances sublime. In his repetition of the phrase “I see”
26
over the second to last four paragraphs, Dickens Evrémonde and announces his intention to
uses anaphora, a rhetorical device in which a return to England. That night, the Marquis is
phrase recurs at the beginning of successive murdered; the murderer has left a note signed
clauses. These paragraphs then culminate in the with the nickname adopted by French
spiritually edifying and uplifting anaphora of “It revolutionaries: “Jacques.”
is a far, far better thing” and “It is a far, far
better rest.” This device lends the closing
passages a soothing, peaceful tone, and, in its A year passes, and Darnay asks Manette for
repetition, evokes the language of prayer and permission to marry Lucie. He says that, if Lucie
reverence. The harmony between the style and accepts, he will reveal his true identity to
content of these final paragraphs leaves the Manette. Carton, meanwhile, also pledges his
reader with a feeling of complete resolution. love to Lucie, admitting that, though his life is
worthless, she has helped him dream of a
SUMMARY
better, more valuable existence. On the streets
The year is now 1780. Charles Darnay stands of London, Jerry Cruncher gets swept up in the
accused of treason against the English crown. A funeral procession for a spy named Roger Cly.
bombastic lawyer named Stryver pleads Later that night, he demonstrates his talents as
Darnay’s case, but it is not until his drunk, good- a “Resurrection-Man,” sneaking into the
for-nothing colleague, Sydney Carton, assists cemetery to steal and sell Cly’s body. In Paris,
him that the court acquits Darnay. Carton meanwhile, another English spy known as John
clinches his argument by pointing out that he Barsad drops into Defarge’s wine shop. Barsad
himself bears an uncanny resemblance to the hopes to turn up evidence concerning the
defendant, which undermines the prosecution’s mounting revolution, which is still in its covert
case for unmistakably identifying Darnay as the stages. Madame Defarge sits in the shop
spy the authorities spotted. Lucie and Doctor knitting a secret registry of those whom the
Manette watched the court proceedings, and revolution seeks to execute. Back in London,
that night, Carton escorts Darnay to a tavern Darnay, on the morning of his wedding, keeps
and asks how it feels to receive the sympathy of his promise to Manette; he reveals his true
a woman like Lucie. Carton despises and resents identity and, that night, Manette relapses into
Darnay because he reminds him of all that he his old prison habit of making shoes. After nine
himself has given up and might have been. days, Manette regains his presence of mind,
and soon joins the newlyweds on their
honeymoon. Upon Darnay’s return, Carton pays
In France, the cruel Marquis Evrémonde runs him a visit and asks for his friendship. Darnay
down a plebian child with his carriage. assures Carton that he is always welcome in
Manifesting an attitude typical of the their home.
aristocracy in regard to the poor at that time,
the Marquis shows no regret, but instead curses
the peasantry and hurries home to his chateau, The year is now 1789. The peasants in Paris
where he awaits the arrival of his nephew, storm the Bastille and the French Revolution
Darnay, from England. Arriving later that night, begins. The revolutionaries murder aristocrats
Darnay curses his uncle and the French in the streets, and Gabelle, a man charged with
aristocracy for its abominable treatment of the the maintenance of the Evrémonde estate, is
people. He renounces his identity as an imprisoned. Three years later, he writes to
27
Darnay, asking to be rescued. Despite the threat France. He then visits Darnay in prison, tricks
of great danger to his person, Darnay departs him into changing clothes with him, and, after
immediately for France. dictating a letter of explanation, drugs his friend
unconscious. Barsad carries Darnay, now
disguised as Carton, to an awaiting coach, while
As soon as Darnay arrives in Paris, the French Carton, disguised as Darnay, awaits execution.
revolutionaries arrest him as an emigrant. Lucie As Darnay, Lucie, their child, and Dr. Manette
and Manette make their way to Paris in hopes speed away from Paris, Madame Defarge
of saving him. Darnay remains in prison for a arrives at Lucie’s apartment, hoping to arrest
year and three months before receiving a trial. her. There she finds the supremely protective
In order to help free him, Manette uses his Miss Pross. A scuffle ensues, and Madame
considerable influence with the revolutionaries, Defarge dies by the bullet of her own gun.
who sympathize with him for having served Sydney Carton meets his death at the guillotine,
time in the Bastille. Darnay receives an and the narrator confidently asserts that Carton
acquittal, but that same night he is arrested dies with the knowledge that he has finally
again. The charges, this time, come from imbued his life with meaning.
Defarge and his vengeful wife. Carton arrives in
Paris with a plan to rescue Darnay and obtains
the help of John Barsad, who turns out to be
Solomon Pross, the long-lost brother of Miss
A Tale of Two Cities is structured around a
Pross, Lucie’s loyal servant.
central conflict between Charles Darnay’s desire
to break free of his family legacy, and Madame
Defarge’s desire to hold him accountable for
At Darnay’s trial, Defarge produces a letter that
the violent actions of his father and uncle. This
he discovered in Manette’s old jail cell in the
conflict embodies conflicting aspects of the
Bastille. The letter explains the cause of
French Revolution in general: on one hand, the
Manette’s imprisonment. Years ago, the
Revolution led to the deaths of many people
brothers Evrémonde (Darnay’s father and
who hadn’t done anything wrong, and were
uncle) enlisted Manette’s medical assistance.
likely good people on a personal level. On the
They asked him to tend to a woman, whom one
other hand, the Revolution was a response to
of the brothers had raped, and her brother,
generations of well-documented injustices. Like
whom the same brother had stabbed fatally.
Darnay, many French aristocrats could be
Fearing that Manette might report their
considered guilty by association, or as a result
misdeeds, the Evrémondes had him arrested.
of profiting from systems of exploitation. The
Upon hearing this story, the jury condemns
plot is set in motion years before the action of
Darnay for the crimes of his ancestors and
the novel begins, when the Evremonde brothers
sentences him to die within twenty-four hours.
participate in a series of violent and cruel
That night, at the Defarge’s wine shop, Carton
actions toward members of Madame Defarge’s
overhears Madame Defarge plotting to have
family, and then unjustly imprison young Dr.
Lucie and her daughter (also Darnay’s daughter)
Manette in order to conceal their crimes.
executed as well; Madame Defarge, it turns out,
is the surviving sibling of the man and woman
killed by the Evrémondes. Carton arranges for
Readers don’t find out about these incidents
the Manettes’ immediate departure from
until late in the novel, but the fact that they
28
have been propelling the plot mirrors how At a Glance:

history unfolds. The violence of the Revolution
Full title A Tale of Two Cities
doesn’t just come out of nowhere: it breaks out
because of the accumulation of decades of Author Charles Dickens
unjust treatment and abuses of power.
Similarly, crimes committed generations earlier Type of work Novel
continue to haunt and threaten Darnay, Lucie, Genre Historical fiction
and Dr. Manette. Key events like Darnay
building a career for himself in England, getting Language English
married, and starting his own family seem to be Time and place written 1859, London
taking him closer to his desire of living a good
and honest life without exploiting or hurting Date of first publication Published in weekly
anyone. However, as Darnay eventually realizes, serial form between April 20, 1859, and
he hasn’t actually resolved the conflict because November 26, 1859
he has never taken responsibility for the
Publisher Chapman and Hall
suffering his family has caused: he has only run
away from it. As Darnay admits, “He knew very In-depth Facts:
well that in his love for Lucie, his renunciation
Narrator The narrator is anonymous and can be
of his social place… had been hurried and
thought of as Dickens himself. The narrator
incomplete.” In order to fully obtain his desire
maintains a clear sympathy for the story’s
and break all bonds with a system he despises,
morally good characters, including Sydney
Darnay returns to France.
Carton, Charles Darnay, Doctor Manette, and
Lucie Manette. Though he criti-cizes ruthless
and hateful figures such as Madame Defarge,
Darnay’s return moves the action quickly
who cannot appreciate love, he understands
toward its climax. When Darnay gets arrested,
that oppression has made these characters the
freed, and then arrested a second time, the
bloodthirsty creatures they have become.
conflict intensifies between Darnay’s freedom,
and Madame Defarge’s desire to see him and all Point of view The narrator speaks in the third
of his family punished. The novel resolves this person, deftly switching his focus between cities
conflict with twin climaxes: Sidney Carton and among several characters. The narrator is
smuggles Darnay out of prison and takes his also omniscient—not only revealing the
place on the execution block, while Madame thoughts, emotions, and motives of the
Dafarge becomes a victim of her own desire for characters, but also supplying historical context
violence after she is killed while struggling with to the events that occur, commenting
Miss Pross. These climaxes allow Darnay to confidently upon them.
achieve his goal of being fully liberated from his
Tone Sentimental, sympathetic, sarcastic,
family burden: after another man dies for his
horrified, grotesque, grim
sins, he goes on to live a happy and peaceful
life. The falling action is largely revealed in Tense Past
Carton’s hypothetical final vision, showing the
Setting (time) 1775–1793
Manette-Darnay family living happily together,
and faithfully remembering the man who gave Setting (place) London and its outskirts; Paris
up his life for them. and its outskirts
29
Protagonist Charles Darnay or Sydney Carton the Manettes’ sitting room; the resemblance
between Carton and Darnay; Carton’s indication
Major conflict Madame Defarge seeks revenge
of this resemblance in a London court, which
against Darnay for his relation to the odious
results in Darnay’s acquittal; Doctor Manette’s
Marquis Evrémonde; Carton, Manette, Lucie,
reaction after learning Darnay’s true identity
and Jarvis Lorry strive to protect Darnay from
the bloodthirsty revolutionaries’ guillotine.
Rising action The ongoing murder of aristocrats Charles Darnay and Lucie Manette
after the storming of the Bastille; Darnay’s
Novelist E. M. Forster famously criticized
decision to go to Paris to save Gabelle; the
Dickens’s characters as “flat,” lamenting that
Defarges’ demand that Darnay be arrested
they seem to lack the depth and complexity
Climax During a court trial, Defarge reads aloud that make literary characters realistic and
a letter that he has discovered, which Manette believable. Charles Darnay and Lucie Manette
wrote during his imprisonment in the Bastille certainly fit this description. A man of honor,
and which indicts Darnay as a member of the respect, and courage, Darnay conforms to the
cruel aristocratic lineage of Evrémonde (Book archetype of the hero but never exhibits the
the Third, Chapter 10). In this climactic kind of inner struggle that Carton and Doctor
moment, it becomes clear that Madame Manette undergo. His opposition to the
Defarge’s overzealous hatred of Darnay can end Marquis’ snobbish and cruel aristocratic values
only in death—either his or hers. is admirable, but, ultimately, his virtue proves
too uniform, and he fails to exert any
Falling Action The jury’s sentencing of Darnay
compelling force on the imagination.
to death; Darnay’s wish that Manette not blame
himself; Carton’s decision to sacrifice his life to Along similar lines, Lucie likely seems to modern
save Darnay readers as uninteresting and two-dimensional
as Darnay. In every detail of her being, she
ThemesThe ever-present possibility of
embodies compassion, love, and virtue; the
resurrection; the necessity of sacrifice; the
indelible image of her cradling her father’s head
tendency toward violence and oppression in
delicately on her breast encapsulates her role as
revolutionaries
the “golden thread” that holds her family
Motifs Doubles; shadows and darkness; together. She manifests her purity of devotion
imprisonment to Darnay in her unquestioning willingness to
wait at a street corner for two hours each day,
Symbols The wine that spills out of the cask in on the off chance that he will catch sight of her
Book the First, Chapter 5, symbolizes the from his prison window. In a letter to Dickens, a
peasants’ hunger and the blood that will be let contemporary criticized such simplistic
when the revolution comes into full swing; characterizations:
Madame Defarge’s knitting symbolizes the
vengefulness of the common people; the The tenacity of your imagination, the vehe-
Marquis is a symbol of pure evil—the Gorgon’s mence and fixity with which you impress your
head symbolizes his absolute coldness toward thought into the detail you wish to grasp, limit
the suffering of the poor. your knowledge, arrest you in a single feature,
prevent you from reaching all the parts of the
Foreshadowing The wine cask breaking outside soul, and from sounding its depths.
Defarge’s wine shop; the echoing footsteps in
30
While Darnay and Lucie may not act as windows understand human individuals not as fixed
into the gritty essence of humanity, in entities but rather as impressionable and
combination with other characters they reactive beings, affected and influenced by their
contribute to a more detailed picture of human surroundings and by the people with whom
nature. First, they provide the light that they interact. In Dickens’s age, however, this
counters the vengeful Madame Defarge’s notion was rather revolutionary. Manette’s
darkness, revealing the moral aspects of the transformation testifies to the tremendous
human soul so noticeably absent from Madame impact of relationships and experience on life.
Defarge. Second, throughout the novel they The strength that he displays while dedicating
manifest a virtuousness that Carton strives to himself to rescuing Darnay seems to confirm
attain and that inspires his very real and the lesson that Carton learns by the end of the
believable struggles to become a better person. novel—that not only does one’s treatment of
others play an important role in others’
personal development, but also that the very
worth of one’s life is determined by its impact
on the lives of others.
Madame Defarge
Doctor Manette
Possessing a remorseless bloodlust, Madame
Defarge embodies the chaos of the French
Dickens uses Doctor Manette to illustrate one of Revolution. The initial chapters of the novel find
the dominant motifs of the novel: the essential her sitting quietly and knitting in the wine shop.
mystery that surrounds every human being. As However, her apparent passivity belies her
Jarvis Lorry makes his way toward France to relentless thirst for vengeance. With her
recover Manette, the narrator reflects that stitches, she secretly knits a register of the
“every human creature is constituted to be that names of the revolution’s intended victims. As
profound secret and mystery to every other.” the revolution breaks into full force, Madame
For much of the novel, the cause of Manette’s Defarge reveals her true viciousness. She turns
incarceration remains a mystery both to the on Lucie in particular, and, as violence sweeps
other characters and to the reader. Even when Paris, she invades Lucie’s physical and
the story concerning the evil Marquis psychological space. She effects this invasion
Evrémonde comes to light, the conditions of first by committing the faces of Lucie and her
Manette’s imprisonment remain hidden. family to memory, in order to add them to her
Though the reader never learns exactly how mental “register” of those slated to die in the
Manette suffered, his relapses into trembling revolution. Later, she bursts into the young
sessions of shoemaking evidence the depth of woman’s apartment in an attempt to catch
his misery. Lucie mourning Darnay’s imminent execution.
Dickens notes that Madame Defarge’s

hatefulness does not reflect any inherent flaw,
Like Carton, Manette undergoes a drastic but rather results from the oppression and
change over the course of the novel. He is personal tragedy that she has suffered at the
transformed from an insensate prisoner who hands of the aristocracy, specifically the
mindlessly cobbles shoes into a man of Evrémondes, to whom Darnay is related by
distinction. The contemporary reader tends to blood, and Lucie by marriage. However, the
31
author refrains from justifying Madame own immortality. Other readers, however,
Defarge’s policy of retributive justice. For just as question the ultimate significance of Carton’s
the aristocracy’s oppression has made an final act. They argue that since Carton initially
oppressor of Madame Defarge herself, so will places little value on his existence, the sacrifice
her oppression, in turn, make oppressors of her of his life proves relatively easy. However,
victims. Madame Defarge’s death by a bullet Dickens’s frequent use in his text of other
from her own gun—she dies in a scuffle with resurrection imagery—his motifs of wine and
Miss Pross—symbolizes Dickens’s belief that the blood, for example—suggests that he did intend
sort of vengeful attitude embodied by Madame for Carton’s death to be redemptive, whether
Defarge ultimately proves a self-damning one. or not it ultimately appears so to the reader. As
Carton goes to the guillotine, the narrator tells
us that he envisions a beautiful, idyllic Paris
Sydney Carton “rising from the abyss” and sees “the evil of this
time and of the previous time of which this is
Sydney Carton proves the most dynamic the natural birth, gradually making expiation for
character in A Tale of Two Cities. He first itself and wearing out.” Just as the apocalyptic
appears as a lazy, alcoholic attorney who cannot violence of the revolution precedes a new
muster even the smallest amount of interest in society’s birth, perhaps it is only in the sacrifice
his own life. He describes his existence as a of his life that Carton can establish his life’s
supreme waste of life and takes every great worth.
opportunity to declare that he cares for nothing
and no one. But the reader senses, even in the
initial chapters of the novel, that Carton in fact
Jarvis Lorry
feels something that he perhaps cannot
articulate. In his conversation with the recently Over the course of the novel, Jarvis Lorry
acquitted Charles Darnay, Carton’s comments develops from a purely pragmatic, business-like
about Lucie Manette, while bitter and sardonic, figure into an intensely loyal and devoted
betray his interest in, and budding feelings for, protector who becomes an extension of the
the gentle girl. Eventually, Carton reaches a Manette-Darnay family. When he first reunites
point where he can admit his feelings to Lucie with Lucie, Jarvis claims that “I had no feelings
herself. Before Lucie weds Darnay, Carton and that all relationships I hold with my fellow-
professes his love to her, though he still persists creatures are mere business relations.” Lorry is
in seeing himself as essentially worthless. This certainly a devoted and diligent employee:
scene marks a vital transition for Carton and when he decides to make a dangerous journey
lays the foundation for the supreme sacrifice to Paris on behalf of the bank, he calmly
that he makes at the novel’s end. explains “if I were not prepared to submit to a
few inconveniences for the sake of Tellson’s,
Carton’s death has provided much material for
after all these years, who ought to be?”
scholars and critics of Dickens’s novel. Some
However, in contrast to his claims to be strictly
readers consider it the inevitable conclusion to
concerned with business, Lorry shows great
a work obsessed with the themes of
tenderness and loyalty to Lucie and her father.
redemption and resurrection. According to this
When Dr. Manette relapses after Lucie’s
interpretation, Carton becomes a Christ-like
marriage, Lorry is very gentle and tactful in
figure, a selfless martyr whose death enables
explaining what happened by pretending this is
the happiness of his beloved and ensures his
the case of a hypothetical patient. Indeed, in
32
Carton’s final vision, he describes the end of contrasts with his wife by suggesting that not all
Lorry’s life as “the good old man, so long their Revolutionaries were totally bloodthirsty.
friend, in ten years’ time enriching them with all However, while he refuses to participate in his
he has, and passing tranquilly to his reward.” wife’s plan, Ernest also does nothing to stop it.
Jarvis Lorry exemplifies someone who lives He fades from the novel without any mention of
according to principles and integrity in both his how his storyline concludes. Because he cannot
professional and personal life. fully commit to either participating in violence
or working against it, his story ends
ambiguously.
Monsieur Defarge
Monsieur Ernest Defarge is a morally

Marquis St. Evrémonde
ambiguous Revolutionary character who often
functions as a foil to his more bloodthirsty wife, The Marquis St. Evrémonde is a French
Madame Defarge. Like Madame and many of nobleman whose cruel and heartless treatment
the other French revolutionaries, Ernest of the townspeople makes him a quintessential
Defarge has good reasons to despise the symbol of the Revolution’s aristocratic enemies.
aristocracy. He is present when the Marquis Unlike his nephew, Charles Darnay, the Marquis
responds coldly to the death of a young child proudly declares his superiority over others,
and shows his spirit by throwing the coins the flaunts his extravagant lifestyle, and has no
Marquis has tossed him back into the carriage. regard for the consequences of his actions.
Readers also learn that Ernest Defarge once These qualities quickly become apparent in Part
worked for Dr. Manette and saw the way that 2, Chapter 7 when the Marquis’s carriage hits
the Doctor was unjustly imprisoned by the and kills Gaspard’s child in the street. Rather
Evremonde brothers. He also knows the story of than showing any signs of remorse, he blames
his wife’s family, and the horrible things they the villagers for being irresponsible and tosses
suffered at the hands of the aristocracy. With them a few gold coins. This behavior reflects his
this context in mind, it is unsurprising and belief that the lives of lower-class individuals
probably justified that Ernest Defarge becomes are worthless and dispensable, even when
involved in Revolutionary activities, including those individuals are as innocent as a child.
violence. Although this episode represents a breaking
point for the villagers and triggers his murder at
Nonetheless, Ernest seems to retain his
the hands of a revolutionary, other details
humanity and his loyalty to Dr. Manette. As
about the Evrémonde family’s history of abuse
Madame Defarge explains when she plots to
emerge throughout the novel, including the
attack and kill Lucie and her daughter, “I cannot
Marquis’s involvement in the deaths of
trust my husband in this matter. Not only do I
Madame Defarge’s brother and sister and
feel, since last night, that I dare not confide to
imprisoning Dr. Manette.
him the details of my projects, but I also feel
that if I delay, there is danger of his giving If simply describing the Marquis’s horrific
warning”. While Ernest Defarge shares his actions was not enough to depict him as a
wife’s hatred of the aristocracy, and her desire villain, Dickens’s imagery further dramatizes his
to create a different social order, he cannot image as an evil aristocrat. He frequently
bring himself to support the killing of innocent describes the Marquis’s face as being mask-like
women and children as an act of revenge. He with “one set expression on it” and, in Part 2,
33
Chapter 9, emphasizes his chateau’s stonework oddities end up appearing again and again at
which makes it appear “as if the Gorgon’s head major events. He has a front row seat to
had surveyed it.” Both of these images imply Darnay’s trial in England, accompanies Mr. Lorry
that the Marquis is cold, heartless, and and the Manettes to Paris, and serves an
unbreakable. The allusion to the Gorgons, integral role in developing the plan to free
Medusa-like creatures of Greek mythology, also Darnay and escape France.
suggests that the chateau is home to a monster.
While Mr. Cruncher’s presence does provide
some comedic relief, his character also has a
dark side which becomes symbolically purified
While on one level these descriptions apply to
and redeemed by the novel’s end. Mr. Cruncher
the Marquis specifically, Dickens also uses
views his secret occupation as a “resurrection
similar imagery and word play to turn the
man,” or grave robber who sells dead bodies, as
Marquis into a symbol for the entirety of the
the work of an “honest tradesman” and fails to
French aristocracy. The name Evrémonde, for
see the immorality in it. As a result of his
example, appears to contain the English word
disregard for the sacredness of the church and
“every” and the French word “monde,”
graveyard, he continuously berates and abuses
meaning world. Given that combining both of
his pious wife for “flopping,” or praying. This
these words in French creates the phrase “tout
behavior, which starkly contrasts with the
le monde,” meaning “everyone,” the Marquis’s
goodhearted nature of Darnay and Sydney
name points to the fact that he represents all
Carton, begins to change when he journeys to
noblemen, both in status and in behavior. The
Paris with the Manettes. After witnessing the
impersonal mask motif also works to obscure
horrific mass murders of the Revolution, Mr.
the Marquis’s individual personality so that he
Cruncher experiences a change of heart. He
can symbolize a group identity larger than
inadvertently reveals his identity as a
himself.
“resurrection man” when confronting John
Jerry Cruncher Barsad about Roger Cly’s fake death, and in
response to Mr. Lorry’s disapproval, vows to
Jerry Cruncher is a poor Englishman whose become a real grave digger to make amends. He
daytime occupation as a messenger for also admits to Miss Pross in Part 3, Chapter 14
Tellson’s Bank and nighttime grave-robbing that his opinion of “flopping” has changed, an
escapades entangle him in the lives of the admission which represents his turn toward
Manettes and Charles Darnay. While he religion in the hopes of being saved both
witnesses the family struggle to navigate the literally and spiritually. In the end, this
French Revolution’s dangers and is present transformation enables Mr. Cruncher himself to
when tragedy strikes, his individual character be metaphorically “recalled to life.”
often acts as a source of comedic relief
throughout the novel, albeit a dark one. Mr.
Cruncher has a number of quirky characteristics
Themes
that contrast with the other characters’ serious
tones, including dark, spiky hair, a habit of The Ever-Present Possibility of Resurrection
talking to himself, a slang-based vocabulary,
With A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens asserts his
and his enthusiasm for grave robbing. Due to
belief in the possibility of resurrection and
his post outside Tellson’s and his relationship
transformation, both on a personal level and on
with Mr. Lorry, Mr. Cruncher and all of his
a societal level. The narrative suggests that
34
Sydney Carton’s death secures a new, peaceful nation. Also, when Darnay is arrested for the
life for Lucie Manette, Charles Darnay, and even second time, in Book the Third, Chapter 7, the
Carton himself. By delivering himself to the guard who seizes him reminds Manette of the
guillotine, Carton ascends to the plane of primacy of state interests over personal
heroism, becoming a Christ-like figure whose loyalties. Moreover, Madame Defarge gives her
death serves to save the lives of others. His own husband a similar lesson when she chastises
life thus gains meaning and value. Moreover, him for his devotion to Manette—an emotion
the final pages of the novel suggest that, like that, in her opinion, only clouds his obligation to
Christ, Carton will be resurrected—Carton is the revolutionary cause. Most important,
reborn in the hearts of those he has died to Carton’s transformation into a man of moral
save. Similarly, the text implies that the death worth depends upon his sacrificing of his former
of the old regime in France prepares the way for self. In choosing to die for his friends, Carton
the beautiful and renewed Paris that Carton not only enables their happiness but also
supposedly envisions from the guillotine. ensures his spiritual rebirth.
Although Carton spends most of the novel in a
The Tendency Toward Violence and
life of indolence and apathy, the supreme
Oppression in Revolutionaries
selflessness of his final act speaks to a human
capacity for change. Although the novel Throughout the novel, Dickens approaches his
dedicates much time to describing the atrocities historical subject with some ambivalence. While
committed both by the aristocracy and by the he supports the revolutionary cause, he often
outraged peasants, it ultimately expresses the points to the evil of the revolutionaries
belief that this violence will give way to a new themselves. Dickens deeply sympathizes with
and better society. the plight of the French peasantry and
emphasizes their need for liberation. The
Dickens elaborates his theme with the character
several chapters that deal with the Marquis
of Doctor Manette. Early on in the novel, Lorry
Evrémonde successfully paint a picture of a
holds an imaginary conversation with him in
vicious aristocracy that shamelessly exploits and
which he says that Manette has been “recalled
oppresses the nation’s poor. Although Dickens
to life.” As this statement implies, the doctor’s
condemns this oppression, however, he also
eighteen-year imprisonment has constituted a
condemns the peasants’ strategies in
death of sorts. Lucie’s love enables Manette’s
overcoming it. For in fighting cruelty with
spiritual renewal, and her maternal cradling of
cruelty, the peasants effect no true revolution;
him on her breast reinforces this notion of
rather, they only perpetuate the violence that
rebirth.
they themselves have suffered. Dickens makes
The Necessity of Sacrifice his stance clear in his suspicious and cautionary
depictions of the mobs. The scenes in which the
Connected to the theme of the possibility of
people sharpen their weapons at the grindstone
resurrection is the notion that sacrifice is
and dance the grisly Carmagnole come across as
necessary to achieve happiness. Dickens
deeply macabre. Dickens’s most concise and
examines this second theme, again, on both a
relevant view of revolution comes in the final
national and personal level. For example, the
chapter, in which he notes the slippery slope
revolutionaries prove that a new, egalitarian
down from the oppressed to the oppressor:
French republic can come about only with a
“Sow the same seed of rapacious license and
heavy and terrible cost—personal loves and
oppression over again, and it will surely yield
loyalties must be sacrificed for the good of the
35
the same fruit according to its kind.” Though cruelly tells the working class Parisians that “I
Dickens sees the French Revolution as a great would ride over any of you very willingly, and
symbol of transformation and resurrection, he exterminate you from the earth”. The theme of
emphasizes that its violent means were class adds an important element of moral
ultimately antithetical to its end. complexity to the novel because Dickens
presents both the cruelty of the upper-classes
and the brute violence of the lower-classes in
Sacrifice equally damning terms.
The theme of sacrifice is most strongly apparent Justice

in Sydney Carton’s decision to take Charles
Justice appears in the novel both in terms of the
Darnay’s place, even though doing so means
institutions that are supposed to serve it (courts
being executed. When the seamstress asks
and so on) as well as something that individuals
Carton if he is dying for the sake of Darnay,
struggle to achieve outside of those institutions.
Carton agrees, and adds “And his wife and
Justice is represented literally by the series of
child”. Carton’s love for Lucie and her daughter
trials and imprisonments interwoven through
encourages him to sacrifice himself because her
the plot, including Doctor Manette’s lengthy
happiness is more important than anything else.
imprisonment, Darney’s trial in London, and
As a man who does not have a family of his
then his additional imprisonment and trial in
own, he places more value on Darnay’s life than
France. While these plot episodes feature legal
on his own. Carton is also aware that he has
structures that are designed to bring individuals
lived an unproductive and dissolute life, and
to justice, the courts and prisons largely subject
that he has not offered much to the world.
innocent people to suffering. Perhaps because
Carton believes that his act of sacrifice will
legal forms of justice so often prove
redeem everything that has come before, and
incompetent, characters are also very invested
make his life meaningful. As he reflects to
in taking justice into their own hands. After
himself, “It is a far, far better thing that I do,
Gaspard’s son is killed by the Marquis’s
than I have ever done before”.
carriage, he knows he will never receive legal
Class justice against a powerful man so he kills the
Marquis himself. Likewise, Madame Defarge
Social inequality and class conflict are sources has been plotting revenge against the
of violent disruption and revolution in France. Evremonde family for decades because their
For generations, aristocrats like Monseigneur wealth and status allowed them to commit
have thought of nothing else except their own terrible crimes against her family and evade
pleasure and luxury. The narrator sarcastically legal repercussions.
parodies the pretentions of the upper-classes
by describing how four servants are involved in
serving an aristocrat his morning cup of
Motifs
chocolate, and noting that “Deep would have
been the blot upon his escutcheon if his Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and
chocolate had been ignobly waited on by only literary devices that can help to develop and
three men”. Not only are the French aristocrats inform the text’s major themes.
presented as spoiled and lazy, but they are also
shown to be heartless and lacking in any regard
for the lives of the lower-classes. Monseigneur
36
Doubles images of the actual story—the mail coach’s

journey in the dark and Jerry Cruncher’s
The novel’s opening words (“It was the best of
emergence from the mist. The introduction of
times, it was the worst of times. . . .”)
Lucie Manette to Jarvis Lorry furthers this motif,
immediately establish the centrality of doubles
as Lucie stands in a room so darkened and
to the narrative. The story’s action divides itself
awash with shadows that the candlelight seems
between two locales, the two cities of the title.
buried in the dark panels of the walls. This
Dickens positions various characters as doubles
atmosphere contributes to the mystery
as well, thus heightening the various themes
surrounding Lorry’s mission to Paris and
within the novel. The two most important
Manette’s imprisonment. It also manifests
females in the text function as diametrically
Dickens’s observations about the shadowy
opposed doubles: Lucie is as loving and
depths of the human heart. As illustrated in the
nurturing as Madame Defarge is hateful and
chapter with the appropriate subheading “The
bloodthirsty. Dickens then uses this opposition
Night Shadows,” every living person carries
to make judgments and thematic assertions.
profound secrets and mysteries that will never
Thus, for example, while Lucie’s love initiates
see the light of day. Shadows continue to fall
her father’s spiritual transformation and
across the entire novel. The vengeful Madame
renewal, proving the possibility of resurrection,
Defarge casts a shadow on Lucie and all of her
Madame Defarge’s vengefulness only
hopes, as emphasized in Book the Third,
propagates an infinite cycle of oppression,
Chapter 5. As Lucie stands in the pure, fresh
showing violence to be self-perpetuating.
snow, Madame Defarge passes by “like a
Dickens’s doubling technique functions not only shadow over the white road.” In addition, the
to draw oppositions, but to reveal hidden letter that Defarge uses to condemn Darnay to
parallels. Carton, for example, initially seems a death throws a crippling shadow over the entire
foil to Darnay; Darnay as a figure reminds him family; fittingly, the chapter that reveals the
of what he could have been but has failed to letter’s contents bears the subheading “The
become. By the end of the novel, however, Substance of the Shadow.”
Carton transforms himself from a good-for-
Imprisonment
nothing to a hero whose goodness equals or
even surpasses that of the honorable Darnay. Almost all of the characters in A Tale of Two
While the two men’s physical resemblance Cities fight against some form of imprisonment.
initially serves only to underscore Carton’s For Darnay and Manette, this struggle is quite
moral inferiority to Darnay, it ultimately enables literal. Both serve significant sentences in
Carton’s supremely self-elevating deed, French jails. Still, as the novel demonstrates, the
allowing him to disguise himself as the memories of what one has experienced prove
condemned Darnay and die in his place. As no less confining than the walls of prison.
Carton goes to the guillotine in his double’s Manette, for example, finds himself trapped, at
stead, he raises himself up to, or above, times, by the recollection of life in the Bastille
Darnay’s virtuous status. and can do nothing but revert, trembling, to his
pathetic shoemaking compulsion. Similarly,
Shadows and Darkness
Carton spends much of the novel struggling
Shadows dominate the novel, creating a mood against the confines of his own personality,
of thick obscurity and grave foreboding. An aura dissatisfied with a life that he regards as
of gloom and apprehension surrounds the first worthless.
37
Symbols Even on a literal level, Madame Defarge’s

knitting constitutes a whole network of
Symbols are objects, characters, figures, and
symbols. Into her needlework she stitches a
colors used to represent abstract ideas or
registry, or list of names, of all those
concepts.
condemned to die in the name of a new
The Broken Wine Cask republic. But on a metaphoric level, the knitting
constitutes a symbol in itself, representing the
With his depiction of a broken wine cask stealthy, cold-blooded vengefulness of the
outside Defarge’s wine shop, and with his revolutionaries. As Madame Defarge sits quietly
portrayal of the passing peasants’ scrambles to knitting, she appears harmless and quaint. In
lap up the spilling wine, Dickens creates a fact, however, she sentences her victims to
symbol for the desperate quality of the people’s death. Similarly, the French peasants may
hunger. This hunger is both the literal hunger appear simple and humble figures, but they
for food—the French peasants were starving in eventually rise up to massacre their oppressors.
their poverty—and the metaphorical hunger for
political freedoms. On the surface, the scene Dickens’s knitting imagery also emphasizes an
shows the peasants in their desperation to association between vengefulness and fate,
satiate the first of these hungers. But it also which, in Greek mythology, is traditionally
evokes the violent measures that the peasants linked to knitting or weaving. The Fates, three
take in striving to satisfy their more sisters who control human life, busy themselves
metaphorical cravings. For instance, the with the tasks of weavers or seamstresses: one
narrative directly associates the wine with sister spins the web of life, another measures it,
blood, noting that some of the peasants have and the last cuts it. Madame Defarge’s knitting
acquired “a tigerish smear about the mouth” thus becomes a symbol of her victims’ fate—
and portraying a drunken figure scrawling the death at the hands of a wrathful peasantry.
word “blood” on the wall with a wine-dipped
The Marquis
finger. Indeed, the blood of aristocrats later
spills at the hands of a mob in these same The Marquis St. Evrémonde is less a believable
streets. character than an archetype of an evil and
corrupt social order. He is completely
Throughout the novel, Dickens sharply criticizes
indifferent to the lives of the peasants whom he
this mob mentality, which he condemns for
exploits, as evidenced by his lack of sympathy
perpetrating the very cruelty and oppression
for the father of the child whom his carriage
from which the revolutionaries hope to free
tramples to death. As such, the Marquis stands
themselves. The scene surrounding the wine
as a symbol of the ruthless aristocratic cruelty
cask is the novel’s first tableau of the mob in
that the French Revolution seeks to overcome.
action. The mindless frenzy with which these
peasants scoop up the fallen liquid prefigures
the scene at the grindstone, where the
revolutionaries sharpen their weapons (Book
the Third, Chapter 2), as well as the dancing of Protagonist
the macabre Carmagnole (Book the Third,
Chapter 5). Charles Darnay is the protagonist of the novel.
He incites several of the major plotlines after his
Madame Defarge’s Knitting first trial where he is accused of treason against
38
England. His trial brings him into contact with explains, “those dead are my dead.” While
Lucie, Dr. Manette, and Sydney Carton, Madame Defarge acts in cruel and bloodthirsty
triggering all of the further plot action to come. ways, her motivation is rooted in genuine
More importantly, Darney incites major conflict trauma and injustice. She remains consistent
through his decision to return to Paris to help over the novel, but her motivations become
Gabelle; this decision leads to danger for Lucie, more clear, and perhaps even relatable, when
little Lucie, and Dr. Manette. Darnay’s return to her family connection to the Evremondes is
Paris also influences Carton’s decision to revealed.
sacrifice himself. Darnay informs the actions of
other characters because he acts nobly, but
somewhat shortsightedly. His major goal is to Setting
distance himself from his hereditary association
with the French nobility: as he explains at his As the title indicates, the novel’s action is split
trial in Paris, “he had voluntarily relinquished a between two geographic settings, London and
title that was distasteful to him … to live by his Paris. The novel’s main action begins in 1775
own industry in England, rather than on the with Dr. Manette’s return to England and ends
overladen industry of the people of France.” around 1793, with Carton’s execution. Key plot
However, Darnay’s hope of accomplishing this events occur even earlier, in 1757, when
goal is obstructed by Madame Defarge’s Manette is first arrested. The presence of two
insatiable desire for revenge. Darnay is main settings allows for Dickens to incorporate
relatively unchanged over the course of the multiple storylines unfolding simultaneously in
novel, since he remains an earnest and well- both places, which then come together in the
meaning character throughout. novel’s final section when all of the English
characters find themselves in Paris. The split
setting also gives Dickens the chance to contrast
both cities. The novel is critical of both cities in
Antagonist
different ways: London (and England more
Madame Defarge is the antagonist of the novel. generally) is presented as somewhat old-
She is motivated by her desire to get revenge fashioned, conservative, and out of step with
against any remaining members of the the times. Dickens dryly notes that England “did
Evremonde family, including Darnay, Lucie, and very often disinherit its sons for suggesting
their young daughter. She has been “imbued improvements in laws and customs.”
from her childhood with a brooding sense of
wrong, and inveterate hatred of a class,
opportunity had developed her into a tigress.” In contrast to this stodgy depiction of England,
As a result, she works to thwart Darnay and his Paris (and other regions of France) is shown to
family by reporting him to the authorities after be a place of high tensions, perpetually
he has been released, and she also plans to kill simmering on the edge of violence. For
Lucie and her daughter. While Madame Defarge example, the first description of the Saint
is helped by other French revolutionaries and Antoine neighborhood highlights “a narrow
her husband, she often acts independently winding street, full of offence and stench… in
because her hatred and desire for vengeance the hunted air of the people, there was yet
exceeds the hatred of others. While other some wild beast thought of turning at bay.” As
revolutionaries hate aristocrats on principle, the violence of the Revolution finds its full
Madame Defarge’s quest is personal: as she expression, the Parisian setting becomes a wild
39
and dangerous place dominated by “cannon, example, after the Marquis heartlessly kills a
muskets, fire and smoke”, as well as young boy, the narrator describes how “The
bloodthirsty mobs who behave with animalistic water of the fountain ran, the swift river ran,
brutality. The novel evokes the setting of a the day ran into evening, so much life in the city
particular time and place for two reasons. First, ran into death according to rule, time and tide
because the novel is historical fiction, the waited for no man.” Imagery of water, and the
reader should feel immersed in the past. repetition of the word “ran” creates the sense
Second, because the shocking violence of the of looming disaster, and turns one specific
Revolution serves as a warning to the event into a part of larger pattern. This style
consequences arising from social injustice, contributes to the effect of recounting history,
readers should be able to imagine what it would because singular events are shown to cause
have been like to live through these major shifts in society. This same style is also
circumstances. evident at the novel’s conclusion when the
narrator describes Carton’s prophetic vision of
Genre
the future. He is able to look beyond the
A Tale of Two Cities is a historical novel. While violence of the Revolution and predict: “I see
Dickens published the novel in 1859, the action the evil of this time … gradually making
of the plot begins in 1775. The novel’s opening expiation for itself and wearing out.”
purposefully evokes the past, giving a reader a
sense of what this moment in time was like: “It
was the best of times, it was the worst of Point of View
times… we had everything before us, we had
A Tale of Two Cities is written in the third
nothing before us.” This retrospective voice
person omniscient point of view. An all-seeing
indicates the story to come will encompass a
and all-knowing narrator recounts the events of
time period, and will be directly concerned with
the plot, and provides insights into the thoughts
the events of that period. Historical novels use
and feelings of various characters. This point of
plots set during a time period prior to the time
view provides a wide-ranging perspective on
when the novel was written, and make
historical events occurring in multiple places. An
reference to documented historical events or
omniscient narrator can easily move between
characters. However, authors most often use
describing events in Paris and in London. This
the genre in order to help the reader think
point of view also allows a panoramic
more critically about the present moment.
perspective on events. One example of this
Dickens writes about the French Revolution as a
panoramic view is when the narrator is
way of showing how injustice and abuse of
describing scenes of violence during the
power led to violence and chaos, and warning
Revolution: “Every pulse and heart in Saint-
readers that these same problems continue to
Antoine was on high fever strain and at high
exist in Victorian England.
fever heat. Every living creature there, held life
Style as of no account, and was demented with
passionate readiness to sacrifice it.” The point
A Tale of Two Cities is written in a grandiose
of view allows for a removed and chilling
style. The omniscient narrator can see both into
description of human violence.
the past and the future, and uses this
perspective to make sweeping pronouncements Tone
about human nature and what lies ahead. For
40
The tone of the novel is fatalistic and The first time the Defarge wine shop and the St.
foreboding. Throughout the novel, the narrator Antoine neighborhood are introduced in the
creates the sense that inevitable suffering lies novel, “a large cask of wine had been dropped
ahead. In the first chapter, the narrator and broken in the street.” The red wine flows
describes Fate as a kind of woodsman who everywhere and the Parisians rush around
chooses trees to be fashioned into the wood of trying to drink it. The spilling of the wine
the guillotine and used to kill thousands of foreshadows the violence and bloodshed of the
people, while Death is portrayed as a farmer revolution. The enthusiastic reaction of the
driving carts which will eventually contain the Parisians also foreshadows the way they will get
bodies of those taken to execution: “”that caught up in the violence, and become “drunk”
Woodman and that Farmer, though they work on chaos and bloodshed.
unceasingly, work silently, and no one heard
Carton Preventing Darnay from Getting
them as they went about with muffled tread.”
Convicted
These images work to create a dark and
foreboding tone. Later, the novel’s urban
imagery is also used to further this tone. The
narrator muses that it is “A solemn When Sidney Carton and Charles Darnay first
consideration, when I enter a great city by appear in the novel, Darnay is on trial for
night, that every one of those darkly clustered treason. When the court’s attention is drawn to
houses encloses its own secret.” Events in how much Carton and Darnay look alike, the
London and Paris will reveal that ordinary jury is unwilling to convict Darnay because they
residents can be capable of great cruelty and cannot be certain he is not being mistaken for
violence, or hiding mysterious pasts. someone else. This event foreshadows how
Carton will later save Darnay’s life a second
time: in France, he will assume Darnay’s place in
prison and eventually be executed. The
Foreshadowing
foreshadowing is important on a plot level,
Foreshadowing is used in the novel to create a because it introduces the strong physical
sense of significance and inevitability. Since all resemblance between the two men, and on a
of the plot events happen in the historical past symbolic level, because it hints at Carton having
and are recounted retrospectively by someone integrity and compassion. For much of the
looking back on them from the present day, novel, Carton seems like a dissolute and selfish
foreshadowing arises naturally. The narrator is character, but this act hints that he will later
not trying to create suspense about what could show a much more noble side of his nature.
possibly happen in the future--- readers already
Dr. Manette’s Imprisonment
know what some of the major events will be.
Instead, foreshadowing is used to heighten the
impact of waiting for events to occur, and the
feeling that no one can control the dark events At the start of the novel, Dr. Manette has just
of history. been released from many years of
imprisonment in the Bastille on false charges.
The Spilt Wine Although this imprisonment seems to have
been resolved, it foreshadows ways other
characters will be treated unjustly by the law in
both England and France. Darnay will be tried
41
falsely in both France and England, and Carton

will eventually be among the many innocent
individuals executed during the Revolution. Dr.
Manette’s imprisonment foreshadows how
injustices perpetuated during the Old Regime
will continue to exist even as the Revolution
claims to create more justice.
42

A Tale of Two Cities

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A Tale of Two Cities

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A Tale Of Two Cities Charles Dickens

Summary: Chapter 3: The Night Shadows

Analysis: Chapters 1–4 The obscurity that permeates these pages

Analysis Dickens acknowledges his debt to Carlyle in A

The shadow attendant on Madame Defarge and

have been propelling the plot mirrors how At a Glance:

Dickens notes that Madame Defarge’s

Monsieur Ernest Defarge is a morally

The theme of sacrifice is most strongly apparent Justice

Doubles images of the actual story—the mail coach’s

Symbols Even on a literal level, Madame Defarge’s

falsely in both France and England, and Carton

You might also like

A Tale of Two Cities

Uploaded by

Document Informationclick to expand document informationtale of two cities

Document Informationclick to expand document information

Copyright:

Available Formats

A Tale of Two Cities

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

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Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

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A Tale of Two Cities

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

A Tale Of Two Cities Charles Dickens

Summary: Chapter 3: The Night Shadows

Analysis: Chapters 1–4 The obscurity that permeates these pages

Analysis Dickens acknowledges his debt to Carlyle in A

The shadow attendant on Madame Defarge and

have been propelling the plot mirrors how At a Glance:

Dickens notes that Madame Defarge’s

Monsieur Ernest Defarge is a morally

The theme of sacrifice is most strongly apparent Justice

Doubles images of the actual story—the mail coach’s

Symbols Even on a literal level, Madame Defarge’s

falsely in both France and England, and Carton

You might also like