A Tale Of Two Cities

Charles Dickens, the author of the fictitious novel A Tale of Two Cities, was born in England on February 7, 1812. At the age of twelve he went to work at a blacking warehouse because his family were having monetary problems. His father was soon imprisoned for debt and shortly thereafter the rest of the family split apart. Charles continued to work at the blacking warehouse even after his fatherinherited some money and got out of prison. When he was thirteen, Dickens went back to school for two years. He later learned shorthand and became a freelance court reporter. He started out as a journalist at the age of twenty and later wrote his first novel, The Pickwick Papers. He went on to write many other novels, including A Tale of Two Cities in 1859.
It can be said that Charles Dickens isregarded as one of the greatest and most popular writers in the history of literature. In his novels, he is able to combine brilliantly storytelling, humour, tragedy, and irony with sharp social criticism and acute observation of people and places, both real and imagined.
The novel that this author will try to analyse is the novel A Tale of Two Cities, in which Charles Dickens was able to layout a brilliant plot.

To begin with, A Tale of Two Cities can be placed in France and England during the troubled times of the French Revolution. There are travels by the characters between the countries, but most of the action takes place in Paris, France. The wine-shop in Paris is the hot spot for the French revolutionists, mostly because the wine-shop owner, Ernest Defarge, and his wife,Madame Defarge, are key leaders and officials of the revolution. Action in the book is scattered out in many places; such
as the Bastille, Tellson's Bank, the Manettes’ house, and largely, the streets of Paris. These places help to introduce many characters into the plot.

One of the main characters, Madame Defarge, is a major antagonist who only seeks revenge, being a key revolutionist. She isquite
stubborn and unforgiving in her cunning scheme of revenge on the Evrémonde family. Throughout the story, she knits the names of those who will be killed by the revolution.
Another mayor character is Charles Darnay, one of whom Mrs.
Defarge is seeking revenge. Ironically enough, he will be chased by the hatred of Madame Defarge just for the only reason of belonging to an aristocraticfamily which behaviour towards lower class people is totally disapproved by Charles. He is a languid protagonist and has
a tendency to get arrested and must be bailed out several times during
the story. It is good to point out that he is also sentenced to death for treason. It is this writer’s contention that Dickens wrote this, to stand for all the people that were barely involved in therevolution but were unjustly accused of things they did not do. Although there were many people that had done wrong and were sentenced to death for it, there were also people who did not deserve to be there. These people were either killed or rescued. Fortunately, Darnay is rescued at the end of the novel to be with his love, Lucy.
Dr. Alexander Manette is a former prisoner of the Bastille
and amoderate protagonist. His main difficulty is that he cannot escape from the memory of being held and sometimes relapses to the activity of shoemaking.
Dr. Manette's daughter, Lucie Manette, who later becomes Lucie Darnay, is a positive protagonist. Dickens portrays her as the perfect heroin, young, beautiful, holding no flaws, almost perfect. She is also a quiet and an emotional person. Most ofthe people she meets immediately have respect for and are loyal to her.
Sydney Carton, another main character, is a dynamic character owing to his permanently changing during the course of the novel. Sydney, a look-alike of Charles Darnay, is introduced as a frustrated, immature and drunken lawyer who works with Mr Stryver on the trial of Charles Darnay. At first the reader may jump to the...