Week 13 to 14: Introduction to A Tale of Two Cities and Major Themes of the novel

A TALE OF TWO CITIES

(Charles Dickens)

1. Resurrection
2. Sacrifice
3. Class Struggle
4. Fate
5. Symbolism
6. Injustice
7. Prison / Bastille
8. Tyranny
9. Love

Charles Dickens captures the aura of the French Revolution so poetically it is almost as if he was there. Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities is a thrilling novel originally printed in the newspaper, explaining the cliffhangers at the end of many a chapter.

Resurrection, or coming back to life from the dead, has been a constant fascination in world culture. Mythologies from Ancient Greece to Rome feature gods, heroes, and creatures like Osiris, Orpheus, and the Phoenix that come back from the dead, often in a new form. And Christianity, the predominant religion in the Western world, is built on belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

In A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens' 1859 novel about the French Revolution, resurrection is a common theme, though no characters are literally brought back from the dead. Instead, we see various types of spiritual resurrection. The book begins with Dr. Manette being 'recalled to life' after 18 years in prison. And it ends with Sydney Carton achieving a form of resurrection through sacrificing himself. And while he is about to die on the guillotine, Carton looks forward to a resurrected Paris that will grow out of the ashes of the bloody revolution.

The first book of A Tale of Two Cities is titled 'Recalled to Life,' a reference to the cryptic message Jarvis Lorry receives early in the story. It turns out this message references Dr. Manette, the physician who has spent 18 years as a political prisoner in the horrible Bastille prison. As the term 'recalled to life' indicates, Dr. Manette's freedom from the prison is a type of resurrection. His 18 years in prison for threatening to expose the crimes of the corrupt aristocrats the St. Evremonde brothers have robbed him of his previous life. When we first meet him, he has no memory of his previous life or family. But through the love of his daughter Lucie, Dr. Manette is resurrected, regains his memory, and reestablishes himself as a doctor in London. Just as Dr. Manette's resurrection opens the book, Sydney Carton's closes it. After a life spent as a drunk, self-loathing loser, Carton makes the decision to be executed in the place of his lookalike Charles Darnay, realizing Darnay, unlike himself, has a family to care for. While Carton does not experience an actual resurrection --he's very dead at the end of the book--he does experience a spiritual resurrection on several levels. First, his Christ-like sacrifice allows the Manette family to live and thrive. Second, this act of selflessness, and the good it does for the world, redeems Carton's wasted life, in which he had never done any good for anyone, including himself. And finally, Carton lives on in the memories of the Manette family and goes down as a hero. Closely connected to the theme of sacrifice is the promise of resurrection. Christianity teaches that Christ was resurrected into eternal life for making the ultimate sacrifice (his death) for mankind. Near the end of A Tale of Two Cities, Carton remembers a Christian prayer: "I am the resurrection and the life." As he goes to the guillotine to sacrifice himself, Carton has a vision of his own resurrection, both in heaven and on earth through Lucie and Charles's child, named Sydney Carton, whose life fulfills the original Carton's lost potential.

Jerry Cruncher, works as a "resurrection man" stealing body parts from buried corpses, but by the end of the novel he gives it up in favor of praying for a holier resurrection of his own.

A Tale of Two Cities is full of examples of sacrifice, on both a personal and national level. Dr. Manette sacrifices his freedom in order to preserve his integrity. Charles sacrifices his family wealth and heritage in order to live a life free of guilt for his family's awful behavior. The French people are willing to sacrifice their own lives to free themselves from tyranny. In each case, Dickens suggests that, while painful in the short term, sacrifice leads to future strength and happiness. Dr. Manette is reunited with his daughter and gains a position of power in the French Revolution because of his earlier incarceration in the Bastille. Charles wins the love of Lucie. And France, Dickens suggests at the end of the novel, will emerge from its terrible and bloody revolution to a future of peace and prosperity.

Yet none of these sacrifices can match the most important sacrifice in the novel—Sydney Carton's decision to sacrifice his life in order to save the lives of Lucie, Charles, and their family. Sydney Carton declares to Lucie Manette after he confesses his love for her, “For you, and for any dear to you, I would do anything. If my career were of that better kind that there was any opportunity or capacity of sacrifice in it, I would embrace any sacrifice for you and for those dear to you”, adding that he knows he is not worthy of her love. Despite this, Carton makes clear that he would make any sacrifice for her or her family. In the end, he keeps this promise by making the ultimate sacrifice for Lucie’s happiness. That’s how characters throughout the novel show love, courage, and honor through self-sacrifice.

The other characters' actions fit into the secular definition of "sacrifice," in which a person gives something up for noble reasons. Carton's sacrifice fits the Christian definition of the word. In Christianity, God sacrifices his son Jesus in order to redeem mankind from sin. Carton's sacrifice breaks the grip of fate and history that holds Charles, Lucie, Dr. Manette, and even, as the novel suggests, the revolutionaries.