Dickens Classic Tale, a Novel of Dark Despair and the Hope That Shines Brightly Through

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……

So begins Charles Dickens’ classic novel, A Tale of Two Cities, and as it opens in such a fashion, provides the reader with an immediate insight into the author’s treatise into the double nature of man’s existence and his scathing commentary on the cruelties and excesses of the French Revolution.

This truly is a tale of two cities, of London and of Paris. In France, a certain Doctor Alexander Manette is freed from almost two decades as a prisoner in the Bastille by the revolution. Having been rescued from imprisonment, Doctor Manette becomes an introverted shoemaker until his daughter, Lucie, who has never known him, travels from England to meet him. Only her loving care can recall him to life, and brought back to England he becomes a vital, restored man once again.

In short order, we meet our entire ensemble of characters: the honorable Charles Darnay, nephew and heir to the estate of Evremonde in France; the ne’er-do-well Englishman Sydney Carton, who looks astonishingly like Charles, the curmudgeonly Mr. Lorry, the unsavory Jerry Cruncher, the always proper Miss Pross, the evil Madame DeFarge and her conniving husband.

In time, Charles and Lucie fall in love and marry, and their fates become as intricately entwined as Madame DeFarge’s incessant knitting. And when Charles must return to France to help an old servant and is caught up as a prisoner of the revolution, Lucie and company join him there-and themselves become hostage to the insidious mob mentality of the revolutionary committees.

A Tale of Two Cities not only conveys a strong theme of duality within its pages, but also among its readers, who generally tend to love it or hate it. Considered to be a classic by most, there are still many who find the book somewhat gloomy and depressing. In part, that may be because they were forced to read it as an assignment in school, the work being as popular as it is among literature teachers and professors.

In truth, A Tale of Two Cities is perhaps the deepest of Dickens novels. The story is perhaps not as entertaining as some of his other works, and the characters are not as energetic or amusing, though they are well-crafted all the same. Yet the symbolism burns like a beacon in the night, and the important message here is hard indeed to miss.

What better analogy to the bloodthirsty extremes of the revolution, after all, than the famous broken wine cask, its staves shattered and broken, disgorging its dark red contents into the streets of Paris, as the famous guillotine soon would fill them with human blood. In this ingenious scene, Dickens not only manages to show the reader the miserable lot of the peasantry, but also the eagerness with which they would soon turn on themselves in due time.

Charles Darnay is symbolic of man’s double nature in the novel, both in person, in combination with Sydney Carton, and as an exposition device. Tried as a spy in England and tried as an aristocrat in France, he is a man of two counties, yet he truly belongs to neither. Darnay’s shining character is a stark contrast to his double, Sydney Carton. And when Charles is tried in France, we see how the same mob that embraced him as a brother when he is acquitted turns bloodthirsty and calls for his death when he is tried once again.

The insidious Madame DeFarge, knitting away with the very strands of fate itself as she records the names of the perceived enemies of the people in her register, is one of Dickens most infamous villains. Cold, calculating, and completely unsympathetic, she is by far a more unworthy and outright evil figure than even the sadistic Mr. Quilp in The Old Curiosity Shop. And unlike Mr. Scrooge, who is not in reality a villain anyway, there can be no redemption for Madame Defarge.

Dickens is thorough in his satire, of course, stinging not only the unruly mobs of the period but also the selfish and uncaring cruelty of the nobility. And he reminds us, perhaps, that anyone was likely prey for the sharpened blade of the guillotine. Charles Darnay of Evremonde could be anyone, quite literally, as “Evremonde” seems the author’s clever combination of the English “everyone” and the French word for the same, “tout le monde”.

But through all of the despair, cruelty, and death brought on by the revolutionary mobs, tribunals, and their instrument of killing, the guillotine, the human spirit and hope still shine through Dickens work. The theme of resurrection and redemption are clear, both in Doctor’s Manette’s recall to life and Sydney Carton’s shining and unselfish act at novel’s end. The optimism, hope, and true spirit of this wonderful novel are best exemplified by Carton’s famous quote which ends the novel.

It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done before; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known.

More Dickens novels:

A Christmas Carol

Oliver Twist

Great Expectations

The Old Curiosity Shop