Symbols in A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens || Major Symbols in A Tale of Two Cities Notes

 

INTRODUCTION:

‘A Tale of Two Cities’ by Charles Dickens is a masterpiece which reveals some high serious thoughts of resurrection, sacrifice, violence and dualism. In literature, the authors make use of symbols in order to express the most complex ideas. Sometimes words are not capable enough to carry the complex thoughts. In such cases, the authors try to express them with the help of symbols. Dickens being a master artist of novels has used symbols profusely in his novel ‘A Tale of Two Cities’. There are a number of symbols like knitting, mail coach, spilling of wine, golden hair and so on. Let’s discuss them all.

THE JOURNEY OF THE MAIL COACH:

The first symbol used by Dickens in this novel is the journey of the mail coach. It has its symbolic significance. It is an uphill journey and the mail is so heavy that the horses have a difficult time of it and therefore, they take the coach backwards. The horses with their drooping heads and shaking tails are laboriously making their way through the thick mud, stumbling as if they were going to fall to pieces. This journey represents the worst time which we are going to witness in the lives of the characters. It represents the horrors, dangers and bloodshed.

The act of knitting by Madame Defarge is a striking symbol in the novel which stands her cruel plans to ruin the lives of the aristocrats. It represents the stealthy, cold-blooded vengefulness of the revolutionaries. As she sits quietly knitting, she appears harmless and old-fashioned. In fact, however, she sentences her victims to death. The more she knits the stronger her plans to take revenge become.

SPILLING OF WINE:

Dickens has depicted a broken wine cask outside Defarge’s wine shop. When the wine is spilled on the road the passing peasants scramble 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 political freedoms. Here the wine stands for blood. The wine dipped fingers of those hungry poor people represent their bloody hands which we will see as the novel advances.

THE BASTILLE:

Bastille is an old fort which is presented in the novel time and again. It is a place where hundreds of poor people are imprisoned. The revolution begins here. The mob of revolutionaries gather outside this fort and start a literal war and capture Bastille. Hence, Bastille stands for revolution and liberty.

LUCIE’S HAIR:

Dickens uses Lucie’s hair color as an image that binds her family together. Dickens describes Lucie’s hair as"golden thread". Here the phrase “goden thread” symbolizes the reunion of the father and the daughter. This “golden thread” does not allow her father to dwell too much in the horrors of the past.

CHARACTERS AS SYMBOLS:

Apart from all these symbols, there are several characters too who become the symbols to represent some qualities. For example,

Marquis Evrémondeis a symbol off an evil and corrupt social order. He is completely indifferent to the lives of the peasants whom he exploits. He shows no sympathy for the father of the child whom his carriage tramples to death.

The character of Madame Defarge stands for the cruelty of the revolutionaries and the character of Miss Pross stands for love. In a contest with Miss Pross, Madame Defarge is killed by her own pistol which conveys the fact that hatred and evil are self-destructive. By presenting these two characters, Dickens reveals the fact that in a contest between love and hatred, love always wins.

The character of Sydney Carton stands for the true spirit of sacrifice. His sacrificial death symbolizes the ways for which Jesus Christ fought and sacrificed his life.

Click to watch a video lecture on Sidney Carton.