A Tale Of Two Cities
In his gripping novel, A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens brings out a beautiful story of unconditional love. The novel was published in weekly installments, in which the first installment ran in the first issue of Dickens’ literary periodical “All the Year Round” appearing on April 30th, 1859. “All the Year Round” was a Victorian periodical, being a British weekly literary magazine founded and owned by Charles Dickens, published between 1859 and 1895 throughout the United Kingdom. The thirty-first and final installment of A Tale of Two Cities ran on November 25th of the same year. Charles Dickens was born in England on February 7, 1812 near the south coast. His family moved to London when he was ten years old and quickly went into debt. To help support himself, Charles went to work at a blacking warehouse when he was twelve. His father was soon imprisoned for debt and shortly after that the rest of the family split apart. Charles continued to work at the blacking warehouse even after his father inherited some money and got out of prison. When he was thirteen, Dickens went back to school for two years. He later learned shorthand and became a freelance court reporter. He started out as a journalist at the age of twenty and later wrote his first novel, The Pickwick Papers.
A Tale of Two Cities takes place in France and England during the troubling times of the French Revolution. In the year 1775 in France, a very beautiful young lady called Lucie Manette anxiously awaited the news of her supposed dead father from Jerry Cruncher, a spiky haired man who works for Tellson’s bank. In Jerry’s news, Lucie learned her Father, Dr. Mannette, was alive and in France. Together, Jerry and Luice they both went to retrieve him and bring him back to Lucie’s home England. Upon arriving there, Lucie and Jerry discovered that Mr. Mannette was being taken care of by a wine shop keeper and his wife, called the Defarges. There Lucie learned of Dr. Manette’s past. Lucie’s father was a Doctor, and put in prison for an unknown reason. There for many, many years Dr. Manette lived. All of those agonizing those years in a dark, dank prison had wiped Dr. Manette of his memory of his past, and reduced him to a ragged shoe maker. Lucie’s father being very frail mental state, Jerry helped Lucie bring Mr. Manette back home by boat, where they met Charles Darnay when he helped Lucie get her father on the boat.
The main character, Charles Evermonde, lived in France with his wealthy, but utterly immoral uncle, Monseigneur Evermonde. After becoming completely fed up with his uncle’s distasteful way of living and receiving no love in France, he modestly escaped from his uncle when he became an adult. In leaving behind his life in France and heading to England, Charles brought none of his Uncle’s money, determined to make his own living, and gave up his vulgar family name of Evermonde changing it to Darnay. Not many months after arriving in England by boat, in 1780 Charles Darnay was brought to the English court under the impression of being guilty of treason against the queen by passing papers to French spies. Lucie, and her Father were on the same boat as Darnay, and were brought to this court to be witnesses.
In the court, both Lucie and Mr. Manette, both wishing to free this man who was kind to them, answered questions given to them by the judge, but only added to his guilt, in confirming he had papers. Just when all hope seemed lost for Darnay, a lazy drunkard who was a lawyer in the courtroom came to Darnay’s rescue. This lawyer, Sydney Carton, had pity on Lucie, who was greatly distressed over the whole matter. Sydney Carton’s clever plan changed the minds of the accuser and the judges, saying that the accuser probably mistook himself, Carton, to be Darnay, for they looked quite alike. After many thanks to Carton, Darnay was set free.
Handsome Darnay and sweet Lucie fell in love and were married. Sydney Carton deeply loved Lucie, but thought he was not worthy of Lucie and did not try to steal Darnay’s love. Darnay always showed Carton kindness and Carton became a family friend, for Charles never forgot what Carton did for him in the courtroom. Carton saved Darnay’s life. Sydney Carton kept his love for Lucie secret, until one day when he was left alone with Lucie. He wept in front of her, on his knees, saying that he was not worth to even be a friend of hers, but that he hoped one day he could sacrifice himself for her, that she may truly show much he loved her. Lucie was very sensitive, and cried with him, for she was cut to the heart. She knew that Mr. Carton meant what he said.
A few years later, the French Revolution began, and it was bloody and terrifying for many of those in France. Upon receiving a letter from a former servant of his, Charles secretly went to France to free his faithful servant. But while he was searching for his servant, he was thrown into prison by the revolutionaries for being an aristocrat. Mr. Lorry, a business man of Tellson’s banks and very good family friend who was in France at the time on a business trip told Lucie and Dr. Manette of their poor Charles. Mr. Manette worked for years, gaining influence in the city, getting sympathy from the revolutionaries, and finally his work paid off. Charles was set free. But later the same day, Darnay was again thrown into prison. Lucie was torn and had so little hope left. Mr. Manette’s great influence couldn’t even save Charles. The next day, the Manette family went to the revolutionary’s court to see if they would have pity and release Darnay. Three people accused Darnay for being an enemy of the Republic; Mr. Defarge, Madame Defarge and the third was a surprise to all: Dr. Alexander Manette. Dr. Manette pleaded with the judges, saying that he has claimed no such thing, and he is for Darnay’s release! Mrs. Defarge then read aloud from Dr. Manette’s personal journal that he kept while in prison. It told a story of Monseigneur Evermonde, and how he tore apart a peasant’s marriage, took the woman (who was with child) and did awful things to her, and in the end, made her mentally ill. Dr. Manette was kidnaped and commanded to heal her. The sickness was late in its stages, and the poor woman died with her child. This woman that died was Madame Defarge’s elder sister. Because Monseigneur Evermonde wanted to keep Dr. Manette quiet, he was thrown in prison, where he cursed the Evermonde family and wished them all dead. The journal was examined, and proved to be true. Madame Defarge’s revenge to the Evermonde family was almost complete. After little discussion, and proof that Charles was indeed a Evermonde, Darnay was found guilty in the eyes of the revolutionaries and was sentenced to death by way of the guillotine the next day.
While the scene in the courtroom unraveled and the horrible died out, Sydney Carton was hard at work with Mr. Lorry. Carton had traveled from England to France, with his plan in mind, which was to do what he promised Lucie. Once in France, Sydney Carton threatened one of the jailers with blackmail who had Charles Darnay under his command in prison. Under the promise that he would not blackmail this jailer if he let him in Charles’ prison cell, the jailer complied. The day of Darnay’s execution, Carton ‘visited’ Darnay in his cell. After asking Charles to write an unaddressed letter, and had him switch clothes and boots with him, Carton drugged Charles and stuffed the letter in the jacket that Charles now wore. He ordered the jailer to take the unconscious Darnay to the carriage waiting with Mr. Lorry inside. Mr. Lorry picked up Lucie, her daughter, and Dr. Manette and headed safely to France in the carriage. While Charles was unconscious in in Lucie’s lap, she found the letter that Sydney Carton wrote to her. She cried as she read the words in the letter. In it were the loving words of Sydney Carton, saying he was happy to have finally been able to do what he promised her long, long ago. Sydney Carton died at the hand of the guillotine in place of Charles Darnay.
The most significant theme was the continual self sacrifice from the characters in the book. The most prominent sacrifice being Carton taking the place of Charles, but there were others. Lucie sacrificed much of her time and gave so much needed love to her frail father who, to most people, was as good as dead. But she nursed him back to health and he was able to be a human, even a doctor again. Jarvis Lorry from Tellson’s bank made many self sacrifices for the Darnay family, and kept them safe while they waited for Charles in prison. This overall theme of love towards others was very impacting to me and to the characters in the story.
I did enjoy A Tale Of Two Cities very much. The language was very hard to understand at first, but toward the end, I had little trouble. Once I understood the language, I could picture every scene in my mind with my imagination vividly. There was great character development in every person and A Tale Of Two Cities, and it had the most beautifully written plot I have yet to come across. Not only did I like the story, but I learned a lot about the French Revolution. I would recommend this book to every person who wants a book to read that will leave them in awe and reverence when they read the last page. I would especially recommend this book to Christians, because it shows great examples of self sacrifice and brotherly love.
I really enjoy coaching young children!
