Major works data sheet
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- Title : A Tale of Two Cities Author
- Historical background of period of publication
- Characteristics of the genre
- MEMORABLE QUOTES CHARACTERS
- Adjectives Charles Darnay
- John Barsad/Solomon Pross Roger Cly
- Significance of opening scene
- Significance of denouement
- Symbols
- Themes/Discussion topics
   MAJOR WORKS DATA SHEET
Jamie Fung, Anna Kim, Mandy Kong; Band 6 Biography of the author: Though best known as an accomplished, English best-selling author of the Victorian era, Charles Dickens actually emerged from humble beginnings. He was born in Portsmouth, England, on February 7th, 1812, in a time his family faced economic strife and corruption. Dickens developed a taste of literary works at a young age. However, he was taken out of school in 1824 to work in a factory when his father was sent to debtor's prison. Dickens finally returned to school when his father was released. After his education, Dickens became a solicitor's clerk, mastered shorthand, and worked as a Parliamentary reporter. He started to publish stories in his early twenties, like The Pickwick Papers, which like much his earlier works, made him famous in England. In his late thirties, he became a bitter social critic, writing darkly humorous works like A Tale of Two Cities. Dickens's later life was filled spousal conflicts, which drained him. He eventually died on June 9th, 1870, leaving The Mystery of Edwin Drood incomplete. Title: A Tale of Two Cities Author: Charles Dickens Date of Publication: 1859
Genre: Historical fiction/novel, social criticism Historical background of period of publication: In 1855, a few years before the publication of A Tale of Two Cities, the slow political reform and military failure in Crimea threatened the peace and stability of England during that time. Since he viewed himself as a leader a new and hopeful middle class in England, Dickens feared a social revolution, along with the mobs that accompany a revolution, would destroy society. Although A Tale of Two Cities does reveal societal flaws, Dickens wanted reform that was not destructive, thus he degraded the radical peasantry regime within the novel. In addition, in the year 1852, the Second Empire was founded in France by the grandson of Bonaparte Napoleon. Despite England's relatively good relations with France, it still viewed the Empire as a possible threat. Characteristics of the genre: Historical novels are set in the past and simulate the environment of that time period using accurate historical events and facts. Social criticism aims to find flaws within society and analyzes them to find a practical solution. Summary: In the year 1775, Jarvis Lorry was aboard the Dover mail when he was stopped by Jerry Cruncher, the messenger of Tellson's Bank. Lorry receives the message and replies with "RECALLED TO LIFE.'" Jerry takes his leave, and Lorry meets Lucie Manette at Dover. The two, along with Miss Pross, sail to Paris and meet Defarge, who escorts them to Dr. Alexander Manette, Lucie's father who was kept in the Bastille for eighteen years. The shoe-making Dr. Manette discovers that Lucie is his daughter, and Lucie strives to restore life into him. In the year 1780, Charles Darnay is accused of treason against England in a trial which Dr. Manette and Lucie serve as witnesses. Darnay's attorney is Stryver, who wins Darnay's acquittal when his assistant, Sydney Carton, aids him. Meanwhile in France, the Marquis Evremonde runs over and kills Gaspard's child. The Marquis is met by his nephew, Darnay, and the latter renounces his title as the next Marquis. Gaspard kills the Marquis during the night, and signs as Jacques. A year later, Darnay asks Dr. Manette for permission to marry Lucie and promises to reveal his identity on the day of the wedding. Carton confesses his love to Lucie, pledging that he would do anything for her including give up his own life; ultimately Lucie marries Darnay. The French Revolution begins in 1789 when the peasants storm the Bastille. Darnay goes to France upon receiving a letter from Gabelle pleading for help. He is captured by the peasant regime and placed into prison for a year and three months before his trial. Dr. Manette uses his influence to acquit Darnay, but he is arrested again. During the second trial, the crimes of the Evremonde family written in Dr. Manette's letter are placed against Darnay, and he is sent to his death. Carton switches places with Darnay secretly, and dies for him while Lucie, Dr. Manette, and Darnay flee for England. Example of style: “Deep ditches, double drawbridge, massive stone walls, eight great towers, cannon, muskets, fire and smoke. Through the fire and through the smoke- in the fire and in the smoke, for the sea cast him up against a cannon, and on the instant he became a cannonier- Defarge of the wineshop worked like a manful soldier, Two fierce hours” (Dickens 222). Author’s style: Charles Dickens is able to manipulate language in such a way that one can vividly picture the scenes that he writes. He not only uses beautiful, selective words that accurately describe the scene, but he also uses the structures of the sentences to express the emotions behind the scene. In the example used, the sentences are short and choppy indicating the urgency of the scene. It is through the use of fragmented sentences vs. long, wordy ones that distinguish between the chaotic scenes and the monotonous ones. SIGNIFICANCE
QUOTATION
MEMORABLE QUOTES CHARACTERS
Significance of opening scene: The novel’s opening scene, beginning with the classic commentary on the “times”, is a thorough exposition and acrid criticism of the conditions in both France and England during the year 1775 onward. Dickens filters the realities of the “times” in both countries through his sarcastic dark humor that compels readers to be in agreement with his opinions on society. Thus, the scene allows Dickens to channel his following tale through this dark mood, sweeping readers right into the novel’s ominous tale. Significance of denouement: Kudos tothe fearless Sydney Carton who plays the role of Jesus as his plan to save Charles Darnay unfolds and wraps up in an ending fit for a hero. Yet, as much as readers would like to glorify Sydney for his sacrifice for Charles Darnay and his family, Dickens urges readers to look beyond this surface for the deeper meanings within Carton as an individual and within society as a whole. As commendable as Carton’s sacrifice is his resolution as an individual. Through his sacrifice, Carton is achieving two things: Charles Darnay’s life and his own life, which he can now judge as worthwhile. The greatest struggle Carton faced in his life was self-depreciation and a lack of true empathy from others, until, of course, he met Lucie Manette. But even after he met Lucie, Carton wanted to apply himself and earn recognition, regardless of the cost and circumstance. Thus, no ending is a better fit than this for Carton who finally feels at peace, teaching readers how important the self can be and the merit in seeking a worthwhile life. And still Dickens shows that the ending to his tale is not merely a sappy love story but an emphatic accusation of the horrible mentality of society ruled by a guillotine. From the commencement of the novel, Dickens is not afraid to express his passionate views that denounce the French peasants who thought that the only rememdy and just retaliation against their oppressors was death. He asks readers to assess and contemplate before taking action, before letting emotions take control, and before forming irrational and dehumanizing plans. Symbols:Appropriately opening the novel are two symbols: the woodman (Fate) and the Farmer (Death). The woodman prepared the wood necessary to construct Dickens’ other major symbol, “the sharp female” La Guillotine. The Farmer, in conjunction with the woodman, is the tumbril that delivers victims to La Guillotine and discharges cadavers. The guillotine, an instrument of death, is also, for the French rebels, both the satiation of their vengeance and a celestial idol that Dickens claims replaced and even superseded the cross. Another deadly symbol is Madame Defarge’s infamous knitting. Appearing to be simply a feminine pastime, her knitting is actually a black list of all the victims soon to be murdered in the revolution; it is a systematic and clever cover for her death count and means to vent her vengeance. A most obvious symbol Dickens expounds upon is the broken wine cask whose wine stains all who drink, portending the blood that stains all who kill. On a lighter note, another symbol is Lucie as thegolden thread, a conceptual manifestation of maternity and domesticity that binds the Manette family together with love and also serves to dispel the miserable past from her father. Still another symbol is Dr. Manette’sshoemaking bench and hammer. Both items are the physical remnants of his captivity that become his therapeutic defense mechanism against remembrance of his past. Setting: Dickens sets the novel in the heat of the revolutionary movement in France, the turbulent peasant revolt of 1789 that eventually becomes an oppressive and crude anarchist regime. But to emphasize and trace the causes leading up to the political explosion, the novel begins in the year 1775 when the monarchy was still in establishment and the paupers still seemingly subservient. Although the French Revolution clearly took place in Paris, Dickens places both England and France into the same setting to not only suggest perhaps a parallel between the two countries, as shown in the appearance of mob violence in both countries in the novel, but also his fear of a similar uprising in England. Throughout the novel, Dickens shifts the characters from England to France and vice versa, gradually assigning England a more optimistic and benign atmosphere while France assumes a decaying one that exhales death. Dickens interplays the setting with the characters so heavily that in the end, it is the setting that controls their fates. Themes/Discussion topics: One of the most prominent themes in this novel is the juxtaposition of the individual vs. the group, in other words, self vs. mob. In almost every major character, there is this confrontation as shown in Lucie’s experience in France, Dr. Manette’s appeal to the French mob, Charles’ decision to risk all that he was for a new life in England and again to save Gabelle, Monsieur Defarge’s momentary conflict between saving the Manette family and appealing to his wife’s murderous conviction also held by the mob, and Carton’s sacrifice of himself to the mob. Through the allegorical character The Vengeance, who at the end is disappointed when Madame Defarge fails to show up at Carton’s hanging, readers can see how vengeance is never satiated so long as it stays vengeful in spirit. Another classic theme is how love, stronger than hate, can overpower hate, as shown in the Miss Pross vs. Madame Defarge scuffle. But above all, readers should be brought to realize a certain circular logic within the novel, beginning with a materialistic and ignorant upper class that gets overthrown by the lower class that similarly exhibits a thirst for a materialistic gain in power, money, and bread through widespread vengeance and ignorance of the hypocrisies and malevolence of its own actions. Bibliography "Charles Dickens (1812 - 1870)." BBC News. BBC, n.d. Web. 21 Apr. 2014. "Charles Dickens." BBC News. BBC, n.d. Web. 21 Apr. 2014. Dickens, Charles. A Tale of Two Cities. 1859. New York: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2003. Print “Discovering Dickens Historical Context”.Stanford’s Victorian Reading Project. Stanford University, 2002.Web. 21 Apr. 2014. 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