THEMES
A TALE OF TWO CITIES
CHARLES DICKENS
INTRODUCTION:
Charles Dickens (1812 –
1870) was the most influential and imposing literary man of the Victorian era.
David Cecil rightly extolled his genius:
“He is the one novelist of his school whose books have not
grown dusty on the shelves, where popularity has suffered no sensible decline.
He is not only the most famous of Victorian novelist; he is also the most
typical.”
Charles Dickens
known as a novelist of social reform has written most of his novels expressing
the social and moral issues of English society during the Victorian age. His
novels like ‘Pickwick Papers’, ‘Great Expectations’ and ‘Oliver Twist’ deal
with the problem of child labour. But his novel ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ is a
different novel which reveals the ideas of exploitation and injustice to the
poor in the historical background of French Revolution. It also expresses the
ideas of sacrifice and resurrection, role of fate and history in man’s life
etc. Let’s discuss them all.
EXPLOITATION AND INJUSTICE:
Charles Dickens has
drawn a realistic picture of the English society after the French Revolution.
He tells us how the aristocrats used the common men as the vehicle of their
entertainment and how they exploited the poor for their own pleasure. In the
beginning of the novel, we come to know that a poor girl is raped and his
brother too is bullied by Everemonde brothers. Later on, when Dr. Alexander Manette
tries to help them by writing a letter to the minister regarding the injustice
done to these girl and boy, he too is wrongly imprisoned for eighteen years.
Not only this, Everemonde crushes a little child of a poor man and shows no
sympathy over his death and throws a coin at the child’s poor father. All these
incidents in the novel project the theme of exploitation and injustice done to
the poor by the royal families of England during the 19th century.
DUALITY:
From the very title
of A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens signals that this is a novel about duality.
Everything from the settings (London, Paris) to the people come in pairs.
· This
novel has been regarded as a tale of two heroes. Charles Darnay and Sydney
Carton, the two major characters control the story line in the novel.
· The
novel expresses the theme of duality in the beginning. Mark these words, “It
was the best of times, it was the worst of times."
· There
is a contrast of duality among the characters too. For example, Lucie's
physical and moral brightness is presented against the dark Madame Defarge.
· The
contrast is visible all throughout the novels in terms of conflict between the
rich and the poor, the exploited and the exploiters.
RESURRECTION:
Some critics believe
that the main theme of the novel is not the conflict between the rich and the
poor, nor is it a novel depicting the after effects of French Revolution.
According to them, the central theme of ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ is a Christian
theme of resurrection which means the image of Jesus Christ rising from his
grave on the third day of his Crucifixion.
· The
idea of resurrection is presented in the very beginning of the novel. Dr.
Menette’s imprisonment for eighteen long years represents death and his release
acts as his resurrection. To Mr. Lorry, Menete’s imprisonment is just like a
grave from which Menette comes out. Mr. Lorry talks to a dead man in his
imagination and he starts digging out the grave with a spade.
· Moreover,
during his imprisonment, Dr. Menette goes insane. But after his release he
comes back to sanity. This also projects the image of resurrection in the
novel. This resurrection is brought about by Lucie’s nursing, service, love and
care.
SACRIFICE:
Sacrifice is another
central idea developed by Dickens in the novel. Dickens presents this theme
both on both national as well as personal level.
· The
revolutionaries in the novel prove that a new, democratic French republic can
come about only with a heavy and terrible cost.
· Dr.
Menettesacrificies eighteen years of his life just to give justice to the poor
girl and boy.
· In
choosing to die for his friends, Carton not only enables their happiness but
also ensures his spiritual rebirth.
· Charles
sacrifices his family wealth and heritage in order to live a life free of guilt
for his family's awful behavior.
· The
French people are willing to sacrifice their own lives to free themselves from
tyranny.
· Throughout
the novel, Dickens suggests that, while painful in the short term, sacrifice
leads to future strength and happiness. Dr. Manette is reunited with his
daughter and gains a position of power in the French Revolution because of his
earlier imprisonment in the Bastille. Charles too wins the love of Lucie at the
end.
Throughout the novel, Dickens presents all the action in the
light of French Revolution.Though Dickens supports the revolutionary cause on
the one hand, he often points to the evil of the revolutionaries themselves.
Dickens deeply sympathizes with the poor plight of the French farmers and justifies
their need for liberation. The novelist presents Everemonde members as the
cruel and heartless people who shamelessly exploits and oppress the poor people.
Although Dickens condemns this oppression, however, he also condemns the
peasants’ strategies in overcoming it. For in fighting cruelty with cruelty,
the peasants effect no true revolution; rather, they only continue the violence
that they themselves have suffered. The novelist writes,
“Sow the same seed of
rapacious license and oppression over again, and it will surely yield the same
fruit according to its kind.”
Thus, though Dickens sees the French Revolution as a great symbol of transformation and resurrection, he emphasizes that its violent means were ultimately antithetical to its end.
CONCLUSION:
In short, we may sum up by saying that ‘A Tale of Two Cities’
is a magnum opus by Charles Dickens which exposes some very serious ideas of
Christian resurrection and sacrifice, violence and exploitation of the poor.
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