A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens Analysis

A Tale of Two Cities
Charles Dickens
Canillas, Kareen Jane L.
Francisco, Janice
Ilaygan, Mariel Jephonneh
Mullaneda, Vanissa
Orilla, Neiljohn
Peñaloga, Charein Grace
Senso, Lornielyn
BSE IV-ENGLISH

Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth, England, on
February 7, 1812, to John and Elizabeth Dickens. He
was the second of eight children. His mother had
been in service to Lord Crew, and his father worked
as a clerk for the Naval Pay office. John Dickens was
imprisoned for debt when Charles was young.
Charles Dickens went to work at a blacking
warehouse, managed by a relative of his mother,
when he was twelve, and his brush with hard times
and poverty affected him deeply. He later recounted
Author’s Background

Charles Dickens
As a young boy, Charles Dickens was exposed to
many artistic and literary works that allowed his
imagination to grow and develop considerably. He
was greatly influenced by the stories his nursemaid
used to tell him and by his many visits to the theater.
Additionally, Dickens loved to read. Among his
favorite works were Don Quixote by Miguel de
Cervantes, Tom Jones by Henry Fielding, and Arabian
Nights, all of which were picaresque novels composed
of a series of loosely linked adventures. This format

Charles Dickens
Dickens was able to leave the blacking factory after his
father's release from prison, and he continued his
education at the Wellington House Academy. Although he
had little formal schooling, Dickens was able to teach
himself shorthand and launch a career as a journalist. At
the age of sixteen, Dickens got himself a job as a court
reporter, and shortly thereafter he joined the staff of A
Mirror of Parliament, a newspaper that reported on the
decisions of Parliament. During this time Charles
continued to read voraciously at the British Library, and
he experimented with acting and stage-managing

Charles Dickens
Fast becoming disillusioned with politics, Dickens
developed an interest in social reform and began
contributing to the True Sun, a radical newspaper.
Although his main avenue of work would consist of
writing novels, Dickens continued his journalistic
work until the end of his life, editing The Daily News,
Household Words, and All the Year Round. His
connections to various magazines and newspapers as
a political journalist gave him the opportunity to
begin publishing his own fiction at the beginning of

Charles Dickens
While he published several sketches in magazines, it
was not until he serialized The Pickwick Papers over
1836-37 that he experienced true success. A
publishing phenomenon, The Pickwick Papers was
published in monthly installments and sold over forty
thousand copies of each issue. Dickens was the first
person to make this serialization of novels profitable
and was able to expand his audience to include those
who could not normally afford such literary works.

Charles Dickens
Within a few years, he was regarded as one of
the most successful authors of his time, with
approximately one out of every ten people in
Victorian England avidly reading and following his
writings. In 1836 Dickens also married Catherine
Hogarth, the daughter of a fellow co-worker at
his newspaper. The couple had ten children
before their separation in 1858.

Charles Dickens
Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby followed in
monthly installments, and both reflected Dickens'
understanding of the lower classes as well as his
comic genius. In 1843, Dickens published one of
his most famous works, A Christmas Carol. His
disenchantment with the world's economic drives
is clear in this work; he blames much of society's
ills on people's obsession with earning money
and acquiring status based on money.

Charles Dickens
His travels abroad in the 1840s, first to America
and then through Europe, marked the beginning
of a new stage in Dickens' life. His writings
became longer and more serious. InDavid
Copperfield (1849-50), readers find the same
flawed world that Dickens discovered as a young
boy. Dickens published some of his best-known
novels including A Tale of Two Cities and Great
Expectations in his own weekly periodicals.

Charles Dickens
The inspiration to write a novel set during the
French Revolution came from Dickens' faithful
annual habit of reading Thomas Carlyle's book
The French Revolution, first published in 1839.
When Dickens acted in Wilkie Collins' play The
Frozen Deep in 1857, he was inspired by his own
role as a self-sacrificing lover. He eventually
decided to place his own sacrificing lover in the
revolutionary period, a period of great social

Charles Dickens
A year later, Dickens went through his own form
of social change as he was writing A Tale of Two
Cities: he separated from his wife, and he
revitalized his career by making plans for a new
weekly literary journal called All the Year Round.
In 1859, A Tale of Two Cities premiered in parts
in this journal. Its popularity was based not only
on the fame of its author, but also on its short
length and radical (for Dickens' time) subject

Charles Dickens
Dickens' health began to deteriorate in the
1860s. In 1858, in response to his increasing
fame, he had begun public readings of his works.
These exacted a great physical toll on him. An
immensely profitable but physically shattering
series of readings in America in 1867-68 sped his
decline, and he collapsed during a "farewell"
series in England.

Charles Dickens
On June 9, 1870, Charles Dickens died. He was
buried in Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey.
Though he left The Mystery of Edwin Drood
unfinished, he had already written fifteen substantial
novels and countless shorter pieces. His legacy is
clear. In a whimsical and unique fashion, Dickens
pointed out society's flaws in terms of its blinding
greed for money and its neglect of the lower classes
of society. Through his books, we come to
understand the virtues of a loving heart and the

Charles Dickens
Dickens published his twelfth novel, A Tale of Two
Cities, in his own literary journal called All the Year
Round in weekly installments from April to November
of 1859. He got the germ of the idea for the novel
from a play by Wilkie Collins called The Frozen Deep,
in which he played the self-sacrificing hero. Dickens
decided to transplant the emotive issue of self-
sacrifice onto the time period of the French
Revolution, and he modeled Sydney Carton after
Collins's hero. To ensure that his novel would be as
About Tale of Two Cities

Charles Dickens
A Tale of Two Cities is in part a historical novel, which
sets it apart from Dickens's other work. Although
Barnaby Rudge deals with the Gordon Riots in
England, it discusses them only peripherally. In A
Tale of Two Cities Dickens narrates aspects of a
major historical event, the French Revolution.
Because Dickens focuses on the effect of political
upheaval more than on character development and
wit, A Tale of Two Cities feels atypical among readers
who know his other novels, and critics continue to

Charles Dickens
The French Revolution, which raged from 1789 to
1793, involved an overthrow of the aristocratic ruling
order by the lower classes and was followed by a
period of terror. The guillotine was used as a great
equalizer, in that everyone from Queen Marie
Antoinette to lowly peasants were beheaded by it.
The Revolution at first garnered some support among
radicals in England, creating a backlash among
Conservatives, most notable in Edmund Burke's
scathing Reflections on the Revolution in France. As

Charles Dickens
When Dickens was writing A Tale of Two Cities, the
French Revolution was still the most dramatic issue in
the public's recent memory. The revolution involved
contentious issues for Dickens, a political radical who
believed in poor law reform and who campaigned for
a more equal society. He vividly portrays the hunger
of the French people and the brutality of the French
aristocracy, embodied in the novel by the Evrémonde
family, and he seems to justify the lower class's
desire for a revolution. Yet, he just as dramatically

Charles Dickens
This ambivalence is exemplified in his depiction of
Madame Defarge, perhaps the most interesting of the
main characters. She is ruthless in her desire for
retribution against the wrongs that have been done
to those of her class. Dickens indicates that Madame
Defarge has good reason for her anger, but her death
in a scuffle with Miss Pross at the end of the novel
implies that Dickens cannot sympathize with the
extent of her (or the revolutionaries') ceaseless
bloodthirstiness.

Charles Dickens
Dickens's novel is built around a great and stable
love story, although as he wrote, his own marriage
was failing spectacularly. Dickens was unhappily
married to Catherine Hogarth, and he met and fell in
love with a young actress named Ellen Ternan while
he was acting in Wilkie Collins's play. This situation
proved to be the final disaster in his marriage, and
he separated from Catherine Hogarth in 1859. This
unusual split, along with some well-publicized affairs
that came afterward, increased the author's'

Charles Dickens
CharacterWeb
Employs
Reunites the Doctor
With Lucie
Former servant of
Married to
Unknowingly Denounces
Marries
Dies forProtects

Charles Dickens
Charles Darnay
- a French aristocrat.
- He renounces his family name of St.
Evremonde and moves to England because
he cannot bear to be associated with the
cruel injustices of the French social system.
- He is put on trial during the Revolution for
the Crimes of his family. After being
acquitted of charges that he acted as a spy,
Characterization

Charles Dickens
Sydney Carton
- a London lawyer who looks like Charles
Darnay and had great potential but has
fallen into a life of alcoholism and vice.
- He was a man who has no real prospects in
life and doesn’t seem to be in pursuit of any.
- His love for Lucie Manette motivate him to
sacrifice his own life to save the life of
Darnay, her husband.
Characterization

Charles Dickens
Doctor Manette
- a doctor from Beauvais, France, who was
secretly imprisoned for 18 years in the
Bastille.
- He does nothing but make shoes, a hobby
that he adopted to distract himself from the
tortures of prison.
- He is a loving father of Lucie Manette.
- He is nursed by his daughter, Lucie back to
Characterization

Charles Dickens
Lucie Manette
- Doctor Manette’s daughter, who was born in
France and grew up in England. Her
financial affairs are managed by Tellson’s
Bank.
- She is recognized for her kindness and
compassion. In addition, she cares for her
father and remains devoted to him.
- She marries Charles Darnay.
Characterization

Charles Dickens
Monsieur Ernest Defarge
-He is the owner of wine-shop.
- He is a former servant of Dr. Manette.
-He is the husband of Madame Defarge.
- He is a leader of the Jacquerie during the
French Revolution.
Also, he helps Mr. Lorry and
- Lucie to remove Dr. Manette from Paris.
Characterization

Charles Dickens
Madame Defarge
- Monsieur Defarge’s ruthless wife and the
ringleader of the Saint Antoine female
revolutionaries.
- She knits a register of those who deserve to
die at the hands of the revolution.
Characterization

Charles Dickens
Jarvis Lorry
- An elderly gentleman who is the clerk at
Tellson’s Bank.
- He accompany Lucie to her journey to
France.
- He is old friend of Dr. Manette.
- He is a loyal and trustworthy and he value
Dr. Manette and Lucie as his personal friend.
Characterization

Charles Dickens
Jerry Cruncher
- a messenger for Tellson’s Bank and the body
guard of Jarvis Lorry.
- An odd-job man for Tellson's Bank whose
side job is to act as a "resurrection man,"
which involves digging up dead bodies and
selling their parts to scientists.
Characterization

Charles Dickens
Miss Pross
-She is a lively and protective servant of
Lucie.
- Because she personifies order and loyalty,
she provides the perfect foil to Madame
Defarge, who epitomizes the violent chaos of
the revolution.
Characterization

Charles Dickens
Marquis Evermonde
- He is Charles Darnay’s uncle.
- A proud and brutal French aristocrat who
shows no regard for human life especially in the
lower classes.
Characterization

Charles Dickens
Mr. Stryver
- Ambitious London lawyer with a large ego.
- He is old friend of Sydney Carton.
- He is Darnay’s defense attorney in England.
- He aspires to marry Lucie.
Characterization

Charles Dickens
John Barsad
- Like Roger Cly, he is a British spy who swears that
his only motive is patriotism.
Roger Cly
- Like John Barsad, he is a British spy who swears
that his only motive is patriotism.
Gaspard
- a resident of Saint Antoine who is executed for the
murder of Monseigneur.
Characterization

Charles Dickens
Mrs. Cruncher
-Jerry Cruncher’s wife.
-She is a religious woman.
Characterization

Charles Dickens
Book I ( RECALLED TO LIFE )
Chapter 1 ( The Period)
• The year is 1775, England and France
were ruled by monarchs.
• It pays attention to the concept of
Spirituality and Justice in each country.
Plot

Charles Dickens
Chapter 2 ( The Mail )
Mr. Jarvis Lorry, slogs its way toward Dover in a
mail-coach.
The foreboding atmosphere of nights and mist
makes everyone uneasy- the passengers, the coachman,
the guards.
Jerry Cruncher asks Mr. Lorry to wait at Dover for
Mam’selle. Jerry was confused and troubled over Mr.
Lorry’s mysterious response,” Recalled to Life.”
Plot

Charles Dickens
Chapter 3 ( The Nights Shadows )
All human are mysterious to one
another – Mr. Lorry as he rides on in the
mail couch with two strangers.
Mr. Lorry dozes off and begins to
dream in the coach about a man who has
been buried alive for eighteen years.
Plot

Charles Dickens
Chapter 4 ( The Preparation )
Mr. Lorry arrives at the Royal George Hotel in Dover
in the late morning. His conversation with a waiter
establishes that Tellson’s Bank operates both in London
and Paris.
Lucie Manette was informed that Mr. Lorry would
accompany her on a journey to France.
Lucie was shock knowing that her father who she
believed to be dead is alive and they are going to Paris
Plot

Charles Dickens
Chapter 5 ( The Wine-Shop )
A street in the Parisian suburb of Saint
Antoine is the scene of chaos as a crowd gathers
in front of a wine-shop to scoop up pools of wine
spilled from a broken cask.
Mr. Lorry and Lucie entered the shop. Mr.
Lorry approaches and begs a word from Monsieur
Defarge. Then, Monsieur accompanied Mr. Lorry
Plot

Charles Dickens
Chapter 6 ( The Shoemaker )
Dr. Manette, a man making shoes at his
bench, hardly responds to the arrival of Mr. Lorry
and Lucie.
When asked about his name, he responds,
“One Hundred and Five, North Tower.” When
Lucie approaches him, she seems familiar to him,
especially after he compares her hair to two
Plot

Charles Dickens
Chapter 6 ( The Shoemaker )
Dr. Manette begins remembering Lucie’s
mother and is confused and troubled when he
hears Lucie’s embraces her father, comforting
him as he begins to weep.
Lucie urges that arrangements be made for
her father immediate departure for England.
Later, Monsieur helps Mr. Lorry and Lucie to
Plot

Charles Dickens
Book 2 ( The Second-the Golden Thread)
Chapter 1 ( Five Years Later)
Five years have passed since Tellson’s
bank sent Mr. Manette back to England. It
is now 1780. It opens with the description
of the venerable Tellson’s Bank.
Jerry Cruncher becomes frustrated
with his wife, Mrs. Cruncher for praying
Plot

Charles Dickens
Chapter 2 ( A sight )
An old clerk at Tellson’s bank instructs Jerry
Cruncher to deliver a message to Mr. Lorry at Old
Bailey, where Charles Darnay is being trialed and
to stay there until Mr. Lorry needs him.
The court is hearing a treason case,
punishable by grisly sentence of being drawn and
quartered. The accused Charles Darnay, stand
Plot

Charles Dickens
Chapter 3 ( A Disappointment )
The trial begins with the Attorney- General’s
prosecute the case, requiring that the jury find Darnay
guilty with shuttling back and forth between England and
France in order to spy. The case is thrown into uproar and
made fruitless.
Sydney Carton alerts Stryver to the remarkable
physical resemblance between Carton and Darnay.
Darnay's defense counsel, Mr. Stryver, then concludes the
Plot

Charles Dickens
Chapter 4 ( Congratulatory )
Dr. Manette, Lucie, Mr. Lorry, and Mr.
Stryver congratulate Darnay on the verdict.
Carton approaches and invites Darnay to a
nearby tavern for dinner. Darnay thank Carton
for his assistance in the trial but Carton shrugs
off the thanks and informs him that he doesn’t
particularly like him.
Plot

Charles Dickens
Chapter 4 ( Congratulatory )
Carton confesses that he is drinking heavily
because he was a disappointed drudge and he
care for no one. Also, he reflect that the
differences between him and Darnay is great. In
addition, he muses that if he had been like
Darnay, he might have the opportunity of being
cared about by Lucie.
Plot

Charles Dickens
Chapter 5 ( The Jackal )
In the apartment, Sydney Carton and Mr.
Stryver discuss their school days together and
differences in their fortunes. Even though Carton
is more intelligent than Stryver but because
Carton lacks ambition, he remains the researcher
and assistant to Stryver’s lion, a prominent
lawyer.
Plot

Charles Dickens
Chapter 6 ( Hundreds of People )
Four months later, Mr. Lorry, Charles Darnay and
Sydney become regular visitors at the Manette’s home in
Soho.
Mr. Lorry and Miss Pross discuss the numerous
suitors for Lucie's hand and the progress of Doctor
Manette’s recovery.
Dr. Manette reacts badly to Darnay’s story about a
prisoner in the Tower of London.
Plot

Charles Dickens
Chapter 7 ( Monseigneur in Town)
Monseigneur, a powerful lord of France,
holds reception in Paris displays the excesses and
superficiality of the French aristocracy
Marquis St. Evremonde angrily leaves the
reception. On his way to Paris, they accidentally
run over a child. The Marquis tosses a few coins
to the boy’s father, Gaspard. Defarge emerges
Plot

Charles Dickens
Chapter 8 ( Monseigneur in the Country )
Marquis travels from Paris to the
Evrémonde country estate to which he
serves as lord.
The marquis testifies and shows that
the irresponsible habits of the ruling class
starve the land as much as they starve the
Plot

Charles Dickens
Chapter 9 (The Gorgon’s Head )
Charles Darnay renounces the title and
property that he stands to inherit when the
Marquis dies.
The Marquis is found dead with a
knife through his heart by a member of the
Jacquerie.
Plot

Charles Dickens
Chapter 10 ( Two Promises )
Charles Darnay works in England as a
tutor and admits his love for Lucie Manette.
Charles Darnay tells the Doctor that he
loves Lucie and wishes to marry her.
Plot

Charles Dickens
Chapter 11 ( A Companion Picture )
The same night that Darnay makes his
declaration to Dr. Manette to marry his
daughter, Stryver tells Carton that he has
decided to marry Lucie.
Plot

Charles Dickens
Chapter 12 ( The Fellow of delicacy )
Because he decided to wed Lucie, Stryver
heads to Soho to let her know of her good
fortune but before that, he drops in at Tellson’s
Bank, where he informs Mr. Lorry of his
intentions.
Mr. Lorry tells Stryver to drop his suit.
However Stryver has already changed his mind
Plot

Charles Dickens
Chapter 13 ( The Fellow of No Delicacy )
On August afternoon, Sydney Carton
reveal his feelings to Lucie.
Carton ends his confession with a
pledge that he would do anything for Lucie,
including give his life.
Plot

Charles Dickens
Chapter 14 ( The Honest Tradesman )
As Jerry Cruncher sits outside Tellson's
Bank, he notices a funeral procession.
The crowd is preparing to bury Roger Cly, a
convicted spy and one of the men who testified
against Darnay in his court case.
Jerry Cruncher goes to dig up Cly’s body in
order to sell it to scientists.
Plot

Charles Dickens
Chapter 15 ( Knitting )
The mender of roads who spotted the man
under the Marquis St. Evrémonde's carriage
accompanies Defarge to the wine-shop.
In the garret where Doctor Alexandre
Manette stayed, Defarge and Jacques One, Two,
and Three listen to the road-mender describe
what happened to Gaspard, the man who killed
Plot

Charles Dickens
Chapter 16 ( Still Knitting )
The road-mender departs for home and the
Defarges return to Saint Antoine.
A policeman informs Defarge to be alert for
a new spy in the area who is John Barsad.
John Barsad visits the wine-shop and
questions the Defarges about the unrest in Saint
Antoine caused by Gaspard's execution.
Plot

Charles Dickens
Chapter 17 ( One Night )
The night before Lucie's wedding,
Lucie and his father discuss about her
upcoming marriage.
Plot

Charles Dickens
Chapter 18 ( Nine Days )
Doctor Alexandre Manette and Darnay
engage in a private discussion.
Lucie and Darnay are married and
depart on a two-week honeymoon.
A change comes over Manette; he
now looks scared and lost.
Plot

Charles Dickens
Chapter 19 ( An Opinion )
On the tenth morning, Doctor
Alexandre Manette awakens fully recovered
and unaware that anything unusual has
transpired.
Mr. Lorry and Miss Pross bury the tools
and burn the shoemaking bench after the
Plot

Charles Dickens
Chapter 20 ( A Plea )
Soon after Lucie and Darnay return
from their honeymoon, Carton visits them.
Carton asks for Darnay's friendship
and apologizes for his rudeness after the
trial and asks permission to visit the family
occasionally and Darnay grants it.
Plot

Charles Dickens
Chapter 21 ( Echoing Footsteps )
The year is now 1789 .Lucie gives birth to a
daughter, little Lucie, and a son, who dies young.
Problems in France begin to encroach upon the lives
of those in England when Mr. Lorry appears at the
Manette-Darnay home one night, tired and irritable after
a long day at Tellson's.
In France, the residents of Saint Antoine arm
themselves with every type of weapon imaginable and
Plot

Charles Dickens
Chapter 22 ( The Sea Still Rises )
After the fall of the Bastille, Defarge
arrives bearing news of the capture of
Foulon, a hated official who they thought
was dead, is alive.
Plot

Charles Dickens
Chapter 23 ( Fire Rises )
The French countryside lies ruined and
desolate.
One July day, a stranger approaches
the road-mender and asks for directions to
the Evrémonde chateau.
Plot

Charles Dickens
Chapter 24 (Drawn to the Loadstone Rock)
Three years pass. Tellson’s Bank in London
becomes a “great gathering-place of
Monseigneur.”
The French Revolution has succeeded in
removing the royalty and aristocracy from power.
France is still unsettled.
Darnay read the letter from Gabelle that
Plot

Charles Dickens
Book 3 ( The Track of a Storm )
Chapter 1 ( In Secret)
Charles Darnay travels throughFrance to
Paris.
In Paris, the revolutionaries confine Darnay
to a prison called La Force.
Darnay asks Defarge for help but he
refuses.
At La Force, Darnay feels he has entered the
Plot

Charles Dickens
Chapter 2 ( The Grindstone)
Lucie and Dr. Manette inform Mr. Lorry
that Darnay sits imprisoned in La Force.
Dr. Manette tries to save his son-in-
law, Charles Darnay, from the guillotine.
Plot

Charles Dickens
Chapter 3 ( The Shadow )
Mr. Lorry recognizes as a businessman
that keeping the family of a La Force
prisoner at Tellson's could endanger the
bank.
Monsieur Defarge delivers a message
to Mr. Lorry from the Doctor, which states
Plot

Charles Dickens
Chapter 4 ( Calm in Storm )
Doctor Alexandre Manette finally returns
from the prison.
Chapter 5 ( The Wood-sawyer )
While the family waits for Darnay’s trial, Lucie goes
to the prison for two hours each day hoping that her
husband will be able to see her.
Manette then tells Lucie that Darnay will stand trial
Plot

Charles Dickens
Chapter 6 ( Triumph )
At the trial, Darnay offers an articulate and well-
planned defense of himself.
The jury votes to free Darnay.
Chapter 7 ( A Knock at the Door )
Four soldiers enter their apartment and re-arrest
Darnay.
Darnay is a prisoner again, based on accusations
Plot

Charles Dickens
Chapter 8 ( A Hand at Cards )
As Miss Pross and Jerry Cruncher enter a
wine-shop, Miss Pross screams at the sight of a
man about to leave whom she recognizes as her
brother, Solomon Pross.
Carton informs Mr. Lorry that Darnay has
been arrested again.
Carton plans to help Darnay. He threatens
Plot

Charles Dickens
Chapter 9 ( The Game Made )
With Carton and Barsad in the other room,
Mr. Lorry expresses his outrage at Jerry's grave
robbing activities and tells Jerry that he will be
fired from Tellson's.
Carton tells Mr. Lorry that the best he can
do is to secure access to Darnay in his cell.
The public prosecutor opens the trial by
Plot

Charles Dickens
Chapter 10 ( The substance of the
Shadow)
In December 1757, two noblemen sought out
Doctor Alexandre Manette and requested his medical
expertise.
Dr. Manette's document, written in his cell in the
Bastille and hidden in its chimney in 1767, explains why
he was imprisoned.
The older twin's wife visited Dr. Manette revealing
Plot

Charles Dickens
Chapter 10 ( The substance of the
Shadow)
Doctor Manette then personally delivered
the letter and that night was kidnapped and
secretly jailed by the Evrémonde brothers, who
had seen his letter.
Doctor denounced the Evrémonde family. As
a result, Darnay is put on trial during the
Plot

Charles Dickens
Chapter 11 ( Dusk )
The jury sentences Darnay to death.
Doctor Manette goes out to try to use
his influence to save Darnay
Plot

Charles Dickens
Chapter 12 ( Darkness )
Carton goes to the Defarge wine-shop.
The Defarges, the vengeneance and Jacques
three discuss whether or not they should
denounce, Lucie, her daughter and Dr. Manette.
Carton tells Mr. Lorry of the danger to Lucie
and her family. He instructs Mr. Lorry to have a
carriage and everyone's passport ready at two
Plot

Charles Dickens
Chapter 13 ( Fifty-Two )
On the eve of his execution, Darnay comes to terms
with his imminent death.
At one o'clock, Carton enters the cell and
exchanges clothes with Darnay.
At two o'clock, guards take Carton from the cell to
a larger room in which the fifty-two prisoners that the
court has scheduled for execution are assembling.
Dr. Manette, Lucie, young Lucie, Mr Lorry and
Plot

Charles Dickens
Chapter 15 ( The Footsteps Die Forever )
As the carts carrying the fifty-two prisoners
roll through the Paris streets, people crowd to
see Evrémonde go to his death.
Carton has a vision of the future in which
many of the revolutionaries go to the guillotine
and the evil of the Revolution gives way to
goodness and true freedom before he dies. Also,
Plot

Charles Dickens
Physical
• London, England and Paris, France
• Manette’s house in Soho
• infamous Tellson’s Bank
• Defarge’s wine shop
Setting

Charles Dickens
The Broken Wine Cask
With his depiction of a broken wine cask
outside Defarge’s wine shop, and with his
portrayal of the passing peasants’ scrambles to
lap up the spilling wine, Dickens creates a symbol
for the desperate quality of the people’s hunger.
This hunger is both the literal hunger for food—
the French peasants were starving in their
poverty—and the metaphorical hunger for
Symbols

Charles Dickens
But it also evokes the violent measures that
the peasants take in striving to satisfy their more
metaphorical cravings. For instance, the narrative
directly associates the wine with blood, noting
that some of the peasants have acquired “a
tigerish smear about the mouth” and portraying a
drunken figure scrawling the word “blood” on the
wall with a wine-dipped finger. Indeed, the blood
Symbols

Charles Dickens
Throughout the novel, Dickens sharply
criticizes this mob mentality, which he condemns
for perpetrating the very cruelty and oppression
from which the revolutionaries hope to free
themselves. The scene surrounding the wine cask
is the novel’s first tableau of the mob in action.
The mindless frenzy with which these peasants
scoop up the fallen liquid prefigures the scene at
Symbols

Charles Dickens
Madame Defarge’s Knitting
Even on a literal level, Madame Defarge’s knitting
constitutes a whole network of symbols. Into her
needlework she stitches a registry, or list of names, of
all those condemned to die in the name of a new
republic. But on a metaphoric level, the knitting
constitutes a symbol in itself, representing the stealthy,
cold-blooded vengefulness of the revolutionaries. As
Madame Defarge sits quietly knitting, she appears
harmless and quaint. In fact, however, she sentences
Symbols

Charles Dickens
The Marquis
The Marquis Evrémonde is less a believable
character than an archetype of an evil and
corrupt social order. He is completely indifferent
to the lives of the peasants whom he exploits, as
evidenced by his lack of sympathy for the father
of the child whom his carriage tramples to death.
As such, the Marquis stands as a symbol of the
ruthless aristocratic cruelty that the French
Symbols

Charles Dickens
Wine/Blood
Using the wine that spills into the streets early in
the novel as a metaphor for the blood spilled in the
revolution serves a practical purpose: the Defarges run a
wine shop. The Defarges are the hub of revolutionary
activity. It all fits together neatly.
More important, however, allowing wine to stand in
for blood allows Dickens to hint at the fatal flaws in the
revolutionaries’ plans: too much wine makes people
drunk and often more than a little crazy. A few glasses
Symbols

Charles Dickens
Wine/Blood
Similarly, spilling a little blood makes people hunger
for more. Suddenly, it’s not enough to kill the people
who’ve wronged the poor. It’s also pretty fun to kill their
wives, their sons, their daughters, and that guy that
people once saw standing next to them. La Guillotine
becomes a glutton, demanding more and more wine to
satiate her ever-growing thirst. Revolution may be a
great idea theoretically. According to Dickens, however, it
just gets you too drunk too fast. Violence, is not the
Symbols

Charles Dickens
Golden thread
A golden thread almost sounds like some
sort of magical power; in fact, the Manettes lead
a "charmed" life in Soho. Lucie may not be the
character that gets the most screen time in this
novel, but Dickens makes sure that we all know
she’s its heart. Lucie unites Carton to Darnay, Dr.
Manette to Darnay, and Mr. Lorry to the family in
general. Lucie becomes the reason that Charles
Symbols

Charles Dickens
Golden thread
In one terrifying moment of the novel,
Jacques Three speculates about how wonderful it
would be to see her golden hair on the chopping
block of La Guillotine. The charm of Lucie’s
influence, however, makes this an impossibility.
Mr. Lorry and Sydney are determined to save her
at any cost. Guess being a blonde has some good
points, after all.
Symbols

Charles Dickens
Monseigneur
Monseigneur is a character. He’s also an
allegory. Dickens describes Monseigneur as a
member of the aristocracy. It becomes pretty
clear, however, that "Monseigneur" also becomes
a shorthand way for Dickens to refer to the
aristocracy as a class.
Charles Darnay is a Monseigneur, if we get
right down to it. But maybe the allegory becomes
Symbols

Charles Dickens
Third Person Omniscient Point of View
The narrator speaks in the third
person, deftly switching his focus between
cities and among several characters. The
narrator is also omniscient—not only
revealing the thoughts, emotions, and
motives of the characters, but also
supplying historical context to the events
Point of View

Charles Dickens
Man vs. Man
Man vs. Society
Man vs. himself
Conflict

Charles Dickens
She was the golden thread that united
him to a Past beyond his misery, and to a
Present beyond his misery: and the sound
of her voice, the light of her face, the touch
of her hand, had a strong beneficial
influence with him almost always.
Quotable Statements

Charles Dickens
There ought to have been a
tranquil bark in such an anchorage, and
there was. The Doctor occupied two floors
of a large stiff house, where several
callings purported to be pursued by day,
but whereof little was audible any day, and
which was shunned by all of them at night.
Quotable Statements

Charles Dickens
There were a king with a
large jaw and a queen with a plain face, on
the throne of England; there were a king
with a large jaw and a queen with a fair
face, on the throne of France. In both
countries it was clearer than crystal to the
lords of the State preserves of loaves and
fishes, that things in general were settled
Quotable Statements

Charles Dickens
There were a king with a large jaw
and a queen with a plain face, on the
throne of England; there were a king with
a large jaw and a queen with a fair face, on
the throne of France. In both countries it
was clearer than crystal to the lords of
ever.
Quotable Statements

Charles Dickens
“It is a far, far better thing that I do,
than I have ever done; it is a far, far better
rest that I go to than I have ever known.”
Quotable Statements

Charles Dickens
“It is a far, far better thing that I do,
than I have ever done; it is a far, far better
rest that I go to than I have ever known.”
“There is prodigious strength in sorrow
and despair.”
Quotable Statements

Charles Dickens
“Sadly, sadly, the sun rose; it rose
upon no sadder sight than the man of good
abilities and good emotions, incapable of
their directed exercise, incapable of his
own help and his own happiness, sensible
of the blight on him, and resigning himself
to let it eat him away.”
Quotable Statements

Charles Dickens
“Before I go," he said, and paused --
"I may kiss her?"
It was remembered afterwards that when
he bent down and touched her face with
his lips, he murmured some words. The
child, who was nearest to him, told them
afterwards, and told her grandchildren
Quotable Statements

Charles Dickens
“Think now and then that there is a
man who would give his life, to keep a life
you love beside you.”
Quotable Statements

Charles Dickens
“I see a beautiful city and a
brilliant people rising from this abyss. I see
the lives for which I lay down my life,
peaceful, useful, prosperous and happy. I
see that I hold a sanctuary in their hearts,
and in the hearts of their descendants,
generations hence. It is a far, far better
thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is
Quotable Statements

Charles Dickens
“I wish you to know that you have been
the last dream of my soul...Since I knew you,
I have been troubled by a remorse that I
thought would never reproach me again, and
have heard whispers from old voices impelling
me upward, that I thought were silent for
ever. I have had unformed ideas of striving
afresh, beginning anew, shaking off sloth and
sensuality, and fighting out the abandoned
Quotable Statements

Charles Dickens
“I love your daughter fondly, dearly,
disninterestedly, devotedly. If ever there were
love in the world, I love her.”
“A multitude of people and yet solitude.”
Quotable Statements

Charles Dickens
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of
times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of
foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the
epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it
was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of
hope, it was the winter of despair, we had
everything before us, we had nothing before us,
we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all
going direct the other way—in short, the period
Quotable Statements

Charles Dickens
“Vengeance and retribution require a long
time; it is the rule.”
“All through it, I have known myself to be quite
undeserving. And yet I have had the weakness,
and have still the weakness, to wish you to know
with what a sudden mastery you kindled me,
heap of ashes that I am, into fire- a fire,
however, inseparable in its nature from myself,
Quotable Statements

Charles Dickens
“Liberty, equality, fraternity, or death; - the
last, much the easiest to bestow, O Guillotine!”
“There is a man who would give his life to
keep a life you love beside you.”
“Crush humanity out of shape once more,
under similar hammers, and it will twist itself into
the same tortured forms. Sow the same seeds of
rapacious licence and oppression over again, and
it will surely yield the same fruit according to its
Quotable Statements

Charles Dickens
“Mr Lorry asks the witness questions:
Ever been kicked?
Might have been.
Frequently? No. Ever kicked down stairs?
Decidedly not; once received a kick at the top
of a staircase, and fell down stairs of his own
accord.”
Quotable Statements

Charles Dickens
“And a beautiful world we live in, when
it is possible, and when many other such
things are possible, and not only possible,
but done-- done, see you!-- under that sky
there, every day.”
Quotable Statements

Charles Dickens
“A wonderful fact to reflect upon,
that every human creature is constituted to
be that profound secret and mystery to every
other. A solemn consideration, when I enter a
great city by night, that every one of those
darkly clustered houses encloses its own
secret; that every room in every one of them
encloses its own secret; that every beating
heart in the hundreds of thousands of breasts
Quotable Statements

Charles Dickens
that I loved, and vainly hope in time to
read it all. No more can I look into the depths
of this unfathomable water, wherein, as
momentary lights glanced into it, I have had
glimpses of buried treasure and other things
submerged. It was appointed that the book
should shut with a a spring, for ever and for
ever, when I had read but a page. It was
appointed that the water should be locked in
Quotable Statements

Charles Dickens
consolidation and perpetuation of the
secret that was always in that individuality,
and which I shall carry in mine to my life's
end. In any of the burial-places of this city
through which I pass, is there a sleeper more
inscrutable than its busy inhabitants are, in
their innermost personality, to me, or than I
am to them?”
Quotable Statements

Charles Dickens
Historical Allusion
French Revolution
The Storming of the Bastille
Author’s Style

Charles Dickens
Cultural Implication
Every human creature is constituted to be that
profound secret and mystery to every other.
Monarchy is ruled by a king and a queen.
Parent consent before marriage.
Wine-drinking.
Kissing the hand of a lady.
Sending messages through mail.
Knitting by the woman.
Author’s Style

Charles Dickens
Cultural Implication
Calling of Monsieur and Monseigneur as a sign of
respect.
Class struggle.
Trial court.
Sacrificing your own life for the one you love.
Author’s Style

Charles Dickens
Themes
Oppression leads to revolution.
Love is sacrifice.
To achieve happiness you should
sacrifice everything.
Time carries out fate.
Only great men can achieve power.
Truth shall prevail.
Author’s Style

Charles Dickens
Act I
Dickens makes this easy for us. He divides the
novel into three sections. The first is "Recalled to
Life." In it, Dr. Manette is…recalled to life. He’s
released from prison and is cared for by his
daughter.
Act II
Act II is otherwise known as "The Golden
Thread." Its title refers to Lucie, who holds the
Three-Act Plot Analysis

Charles Dickens
Act III
"The Track of a Storm." Charles is captured
in France. The family rushes to save him,
but in the anarchy of the new Republic any
attempts to seek justice fail. Doctor
Manette briefly rises to importance in the
new regime; his power, however, isn’t
enough to save Charles. Finally, Sydney
Three-Act Plot Analysis

Charles Dickens
Tale of Two Cities is about the "two cities," But
which two cities? . Dickens gives us a few
clues in the first chapter, though: they’re the
big cities in England and France.
Implication of the Title

Charles Dickens
When Dickens wrote his novel in 1859, the
violence of the French Revolution had officially
ended. It ended almost sixty years before the
novel was written, in fact. But that doesn’t mean
that it was completely out of the English cultural
memory. Dickens had a pretty tricky line to walk,
then. He wanted to explore the ways that
England was similar to France, but he had to be
careful to point out the ways that England wasn’t

Charles Dickens
What we get, then, is an exploration of
London and Paris as a weird comparative case
study. It’s sort of like a lab experiment. London is
the control case (the one that’s the basis for all
comparison). Paris is the variable case (the one
where all the interesting stuff happens). What we
get is A Tale of Two Cities.

Charles Dickens
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A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens Analysis

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