A Tale of Two Cities

HISTORICAL NOVEL
By
Charles Dickens

“A Tale of Two Cities” pertains to the period before and during the French
Revolution.

“In his historical fiction, characters who never really lived undergo and give
impression to the impact of historical events on the people who really did live
through them.”

Dickens’ projection of himself and his personal crisis into the story of this novel is a
deeply personal quality (At the time this novel was written, Dickens was passing
through a period of acute mental struggle and torture because of the collapse of his
married life and his love affair with the young actress Ellen Ternan). At the same
time “A Tale of Two Cities” is Dickens most impersonal novel, especially because of
the grand objectivity of historical events with which it deals and the steady
movement of its action.

It is the story of Dr. Manette, Lucie, Darney, and Carton. This story is told against
the historical background of the French Revolution. The French Revolution was the
great political upheaval which was caused by the evils of taxation and land-owning
system which oppressed the lower classes in France.

“A Tale of Two Cities” is not a particular historical event that is his chosen dramatic
setting but rather the relationship between history and evil”

In 1792 the monarchy was overthrown and France was declared a Republic with
“Liberty, Equality and Fraternity” as its slogan and motto. In 1793 the Reign of Terror
started, the King and afterwards the Queen becoming the victims of the guillotine.
The action of ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ covers the period from 1775 to 1793 which
includes the years of the Revolution (1789-93).

“The human spirit, distorted by systems, produces distorted societies.”

Dickens main source for the historical scenes and events which find a place in ‘A
Tale of Two Cities’ was Carlyle’s book “French Revolution.” By the time he wrote ‘A
Tale of Two Cities’ he was interested in history and was convinced of its importance
in relation to his own times.

“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, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us,
we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.”

Dickens novel does not by any means depict the enormous sweep and drama of the
French Revolution in all its complexity. Dickens has condensed the basic threat of
the Revolution and the basic lesson that can be drawn from it by depicting the
effects of the Terror, or the revengeful side of the Revolution, on a small group of
people who get involved in these public events against their will.

In ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ Dickens depicts the beginnings of popular discontent in

France, the rising dissatisfaction of the people with members of the privileged
classes the turmoil caused by public fury, and the excesses and barbarities
committed by the revolutionaries during the years of the French Revolution. Dickens
gives us no connected account of the French Revolution, its progress and its
culmination. He gives us brief and scattered accounts of some of the principal
episodes. At the same time, Dickens takes no notice of the leading historical
personalities of the French Revolution.

“Dickens emphasis is not on physical actions, speeches, battles, riots (the stuff of
history) but on the pure passions, the dreams, joys, sorrows and self communings of
his imagined characters.”

In the first part of his novel Dickens sympathizes with the poor and down trodden
people, but in the end these very people became the villains who therefore repel
him. Dickens first reference to the outward causes of the French Revolution comes
in the chapter called “The Wine shop” in which he uses the symbol of the mill to
convey the grinding poverty through which the people of Saint Antoine are passing.
Then there are the three chapters in which the arrogance of a particular nobleman
are depicted. He also symbolizes the entire privileged class. On of the best known
episodes of the French Revolution is then briefly described by Dickens in the
chapter entitled “Echoing Footsteps.” But the real excesses and brutalities of the
French Revolution are conveyed to us in the final part of the novel, where we have a
depressing description of the prisoners in La Force, a frightening description of the
sharpening of weapons by the revolutionaries on the grindstone.

“To make an omelet you have to break a few eggs.”

However, Dickens debt to Carlyle is much greater than has been indicated above.
For instance, Dickens accounts of the trials, of prison, procedures, of the tumbrels,
and of the guillotine all come from Carlyle.

Dickens main achievement lies not only in giving us graphic and stirring account in
the manner of Carlyle, but also in interweaving the personal lives of a group of
private characters with the events of the French Revolution. These private
individuals are Dr. Manette, Lucie Manette, Darney and Carton, besides such less
important figures as Mr. Lorry, Miss Pross, and John Barsad. The leading characters
are drawn into the whirlpool of the revolutionary events not because they have any
ideological interest in the events of the time but as innocent victims who have done
nothing at all to deserve the suffering and distress caused to them. The sentence of
death against Darney is most unjust when we realize that he was on the side of the
people. He was visiting France briefly in an attempt to save the life of a poor man
who was in danger. The others are drawn into the whirlpool for the sake of Darney
and Catron’s sacrifice of his life and his execution flown primarily from Lucie’s
involvement.

Although Dickens does not present any systematic theory of the revolution, he
certainly reveals a well defined attitude towards the revolution and seems to have
formed certain definite views about it. Dickens was encouraged by Carlyle’s views to
regard the past primarily as a store house of lessons, and a terrible Moral drama. In
writing his novel, he was very particular about integrating the personal lives of his
characters with the wider pattern of history. It is the principal scheme of the novel to
show the individual fate mirroring and being mirrored by the fate of the social order.

“The rape itself implies social exploitation or oppressing of the messes. The raped
girl stands for thousands of unjustly executed victims—an historical fact well
documented by Charles Dickens.”

The doctor’s return to life, finding its place in a new and juster world. And Carton
embodies both the novel’s central narrative theme and its profoundest moral view:
his past of sinful negligence parallels the past of 18th century Europe; his noble
death demonstrates the possibility of rebirth through love and expiation. According
to one critic:-

“There is no other piece of fiction in which the domestic life of a few simple private
people is in such a manner knitted and interwoven with the outbreak of a terrible
public even, so that the one seems to be part of the other.”

Although Dickens was evidently obsessed with the violence which had erupted
during the French Revolution, yet he was by no means a revolutionary himself. He
makes it clear that the French Revolution was the natural and inevitable
consequence of the social oppression which had continued in France for centuries.
It is true that some critics have treated “A Tale of Two Cities” as a work of
revolutionary intentions, and have claimed Dickens as one of themselves. It is also
true that Dickens has always been a favourite author with revolutionaries. Both Marx
and Engels appreciated his novels and regarded him:

“As a fellow fighter in the war against the social abuses and injustices of Victorian
England.”
Madame Defrage is the ultimate personification of the French Revolution in ‘A Tale
of Two Cities’ and she is a person whose uncontrolled desire for revenge has
changed her into a monster of pure evil. The final struggle between her and Miss
Pros is a contest between the forces of hatred and of love. It is love that wins when
Madame Defrage is self-destroyed through the accidental going off of her own pistol.
This incident shows that Dickens feels no sympathy whatever for the revolutionaries
of Madame Defrage’s type.

The actual fact is that Dickens regarded that revolution as a monster. That is why we
remember the revolutionary scenes of A Tale of Two Cities, these scenes have the
quality of a nightmare, and it is Dickens own nightmare. The moral which Dickens
therefore wishes to teach us through his treatment of the French Revolution is that:-

“Violence leads to violence, that prison is the consequence of prison, and that hatred
is the reward of hatred.”

He wanted that governments should not allow the people to become so frustrated
and angry that they are compelled to revolt and become frustrated and not only
violent but ruthlessly violent.

“Dickens attempts a painterly reconstruction of the by gone age as a backdrop for

the story’s action.”