Tale Of Two Cities Essay Essay, Research Paper

This essay is on the novel “Tale of Two Cities”, by Charles Dickens. As the novelstarts out in the late 1800’s, it portrays the story of a young girl who thought herfather passed away, but finds that he is truly alive after spending eighteen yearsin a French prison camp. When they re-unite, they are welcomed by friends tolead a new life, but instead they are often stuck helping the different sides of therevolution and deciding which is better. Just less than half way through the story,there is a great discovery that this group of people all revolve around the twofighting sides of the Revolution. This doesn’t exactly cause any problems for thegroup, but a mere tension that represents the feeling between the Aristocrats andrevolutionists as a whole. As the story opens up in 1775, Mr. Lorry, an associate from Tellson’s Bank ofLondon is informed he should go to Paris and inform Lucie Manette that her fatheris alive. Ms. Manette, as she is almost always referred to was told that her fatherdied years ago in prison. In reality, he was locked up in the Bastille, a prisoncamp in France, for eighteen years. When Mr. Lorry finally meets Lucie, hediscussed the matter and they begin for the DeFarges wine shop, where her fatherhas been kept in safety from the Aristocrats. Dr. Manette employed Mr. Defargeat one time, so he felt it necessary to take in the man who’s life has been sowasted by the French government. However, there is something very unusualabout the DeFarge’s wine shop. The most abnormal thing about the wine shop isMrs. DeFarge who is very vendictive to say the least. She seems to be plottingsomething against someone, but doesn’t easily reveal it. Also, there is a group ofmen known as the Jacques, who are secretly planning the Revolution. When Mr. Lorry and Ms. Manette arrive at the wine shop, Lucy enters andspeaks to Mrs. DeFarge. Lucy quickly says to Mrs. DeFarge “Recalled to Life”,which is the secret password to get to her father. When Mr. Lorry and Lucie findher father, he is very much in a horrible state and quite obviously prematurelyaged. Although he is still lacking memory, and the only thing he knows of iscobbling shoes, Lucie undoubtingly takes him in and hopes to restore him tohealth in London. On their way back, they meet a man named Charles Darnaywho tries and succeeds in impressing Lucie. However, little do Dr. Manette andMs. Manette know that Charles is the nephew of Marquis St. Evermonde, one ofthe highest rankings of the Aristocrats. A few years later Dr. Manette, hisdaughter, and Mr. Lorry are called to be witnesses at a trial where Charles Darnayis the defendant. His many trips seemingly between countries seem to have thecourt thinking that he is commiting treason, when in reality his Uncle has calledfor him to be taken to court and executed. The case is quickly acquitted when awitness cannot identify Darnay in comparison with Sydney Carton, one of thelawyers in the court room. Another problem soon arises when everyone realized that Carton and Darnayboth are in love with Lucie. Sydney lives a the lower lifestyle of a drunken man,who is not only uncertain about his life, but even more confused about his love. As hard as Carton tried to help Lucie understand his love for her, she opted to go

with Darnay’s happy lifestyle. Eventually, Darnay decides to marry Lucie, eventhough Dr. Manette was slightly uneasy about the event. Meanwhile in France,the aristocrats have reduced the entire country’s source of supplies and food,leaving the people to an unbearable poverty. While the Marquis St. Evermonde’schariot is riding through one of the towns, it runs over and kills a child, who’sfather is quickly inspired to kill the Evermonde. When the Evermonde is killed,Darnay inherits the estate, but he decides not to take it, as he would rather livelife in England instead of living off the people in France. Soon Darnay does goback to France because he feels he has neglected responsibilities there. Heexperiences a minor problem here when he is arrested as soon as he enters asbeing an enemy of the state. Lucie, her daughter, Dr. Manette and Mr. Lorryquickly go to France, hoping that they can help Darnay, but his trial is just over ayear away. Darnay eventually gets his trial where Dr. Manette pleads for Darnay’srelease. Dr. Manette tells the story of the Bastille which helped the jurors turnthoughts. This story and ideal speech by Manette convinces Darnay to be releasedon acquittal. To everyone’s suprise, Darnay is re-arrested that same day againbecause Madame DeFarge, now a leading revolutionist, wants to see the entireEvermonde family dead, for personal reasons. Of course, Darnay is tried andsentences the next day, which leaves Dr. Manette hopeless and returned to hisoriginal state found in the wine shop. This truly portrays an minimized depictionof what the revolution was really about. Eventually Sydney hears of Darnay’s pending execution, and also hears of aplan to kill Lucie, her daughter and Dr. Manette. Carton quickly arrives atDarnay’s cell where he drugs Darnay and trades spots with him, since they lookalike. With the help of Mr. Lorry, the Darnay’s escape, and Carton stays behind tobe executed. Undoubtedly, Carton’s sacrifice was prompted by his love for Lucie. Just before he is executed, he realizes that what he is doing is in all the triumphof the revolution. I would say that this book shows many examples of values that can belearned for use in every day life. For example, the re-uniting of Lucie with herfather shows and expresses just how important a family can be. This novel reallymade me think about how important a family can be. Tale of Two cities alsoshows how the people in any given community can react to certain situations,especially in time of need. The Defarge’s show this characteristic quite well whenthey decide to take action, and take part in the French Revolution. I really did likethe book as I stated above, and I thought was not only very real, but veryinformative and creative, along with all of Charles Dickens’ books. This story truly depicts a unique image of the Revolution that struck many asunforseeable and not possible. However, in all reality, these are the situations thatmany faced as they had no option to go anywhere else. The unique ability ofCharles Dickens to write such detailed work is something that should be cherishedfor years to come. His depiction of society falling into anarchy, and the self-sarificeshown for love is yet to be even compared to by another author. I wouldrecommend this book for virtually any age group capable of reading it, as I haveenjoyed it very much myself.

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