A Tale of Two Cities

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A Tale of Two Cities
Key Fact
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FULL TITLE: A Tale of Two Cities
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AUTHOR ; Charles Dickens
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TYPE OF WORK;  Novel
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GENRE · Historical fiction
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LANGUAGE : English
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TIME AND PLACE WRITTEN: 1859,
London
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DATE OF FIRST PUBLICATION:
· Published in weekly serial form between
April 20, 1859, and November 26, 1859
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PUBLISHER: Chapman and Hall
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NARRATOR : The narrator is anonymous
and can be thought of as Dickens himself.
The narrator maintains a clear sympathy
for the story’s morally good characters,
including Sydney Carton , Charles Darnay,
Doctor Manette , and Lucie Manette.
Though he criti-cizes ruthless and hateful
figures such as Madame Defarge , who
cannot appreciate love, he understands
that oppression has made these
characters the bloodthirsty creatures they
have become.
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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 that occur,
commenting confidently upon them.
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TONE:
Sentimental, sympathetic,
sarcastic, horrified, grotesque, grim
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TENSE : Past
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SETTING (TIME) : 1775–1793
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SETTING (PLACE):  London and its
outskirts; Paris and its outskirts
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PROTAGONIST: Charles Darnay or
Sydney Carton
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MAJOR CONFLICT : Madame Defarge
seeks revenge against Darnay for his
relation to the odious Marquis Evrémonde;
Carton, Manette, Lucie, and Jarvis Lorry
strive to protect Darnay from the
bloodthirsty revolutionaries’ guillotine.
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RISING ACTION : The ongoing murder of
aristocrats after the storming of the
Bastille; Darnay’s decision to go to Paris
to save Gabelle; the Defarges’ demand
that Darnay be arrested
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CLIMAX:  During a court trial, Defarge
reads aloud a letter that he has
discovered, which Manette wrote during
his imprisonment in the Bastille and which
indicts Darnay as a member of the cruel
aristocratic lineage of Evrémonde (Book
the Third, Chapter 10). In this climactic
moment, it becomes clear that Madame
Defarge’s overzealous hatred of Darnay
can end only in death—either his or hers.
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FALLING ACTION ; The jury’s sentencing
of Darnay to death; Darnay’s wish that
Manette not blame himself; Carton’s
decision to sacrifice his life to save
Darnay
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THEMES : The ever-present possibility of
resurrection; the necessity of sacrifice;
the tendency toward violence and
oppression in revolutionaries
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MOTIFS: Doubles; shadows and
darkness; imprisonment
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SYMBOLS: The wine that spills out of
the cask in Book the First, Chapter 5,
symbolizes the peasants’ hunger and the
blood that will be let when the revolution
comes into full swing; Madame Defarge’s
knitting symbolizes the vengefulness of
the common people; the Marquis is a
symbol of pure evil—the Gorgon’s head
symbolizes his absolute coldness toward
the suffering of the poor.
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FORESHADOWING :. The wine cask
breaking outside Defarge’s wine shop; the
echoing footsteps in the Manettes’ sitting
room; the resemblance between Carton
and Darnay; Carton’s indication of this
resemblance in a London court, which
results in Darnay’s acquittal; Doctor
Manette’s reaction after learning Darnay’s
true identity.