A Tale of Two cities - As Historical and Tragical Novel

A Tale of Two cities - As Historical and Tragical Novel

 A TALE OF TWO CITIES is a historical novel pertaining to the period before and during theFrench Revolution. CHARLES DICKENS had always written one historical novel,

Barnaby Rudge

which dealt with the period of English History. By the time, he wrote A TALE OF TWOCITIES he was vitally interested in history. In FR, he found a subject worthy of his 

broadconceptions a great nation ripening its own destruction – literally France of course, but byimplication England, too. However, it must be kept that CHARLES DICKENS’s novel doesn’t 

byany means depict the enormous sweep and drama of the French Revolution in all its complexity.CHARLES DICKENS has condensed the basic threat of the Revolution and the basic lesson 

thatcan be drawn from it by depicting the effects of the Terror, or the revengeful side of the revolution,on small group of people who get involved in these public events against their 

will. A number of sources supplied to Dickens the inspiration of his story of the FR. The main source was Carlyle’sFrench Revolution which Dickens had studied many times. In this book, 

he found a perfectsource for the principal historical scenes and events that he needed for his purpose. The basicidea for the plot was derived by Dickens from a play called the

Frozen Deep

by Wilkie Collins. Anovel called Zanoni written by Lytton in a similar context also supplied help to CHARLESDICKENS. The core of the story of the play is the sacrifice which a character 

called Wardour makes in order to save the life of Aldersley. When this play was staged the role of the self-sacrificing lover was played by Dickens himself with great zest and passion. 

Dickens transferredthe involvement which he had experienced in the acting of The Frozen Deep to the writing of ATALE OF TWO CITIES. Dickens has identified himself completely with 

the part played bySydney Carton in the story. This is one aspect of the link between the novel and the personalfeelings of the author. http://www.allonlinefree.com/

Crisis and Revolution in his personal life

: While A TALE OF TWO CITIES was maturing in hismind, Dickens was passing through a series of dramatic personal events. His married life withCatherine had never been happy since the 

marriage took place. There were two reasons for thisunhappiness. One was incompatibility with his temperament. Second was that Dickens wasdeeply interested in a girl before and 

during the marriage. In his early youth, he had successfullycourted a young girl named Maria Beadnell, but she died causing a great shock and grief toDickens. Later his feelings were taken 

up by an actress named Ellen Ternan who played the roleof Clara in the Frozen Deep with Dickens. Catherine could no longer bear this relationship andgot separated. Such was the 

personal crisis in his life which were externalized into A TALE OFTWO CITIES. The French Revolution which deeply affected the destiny of the characters in ATALE OF TWO CITIES 

overtook Dickens as a man, as a husband and as a lover. A TALE OFTWO CITIES enabled Dickens to combine his bent toward social criticism and warning with thetechnique and point of 

view of the historical novel, and it also enabled him to find an escape fromthe torments of his personal struggles and at the same time expose those pains in a symbolicform.

Elements of a tragedy

: It is not a full historical or personal novel. It is basically a tragedy writtenin the background of French Revolution. It depicts the fortunes and misfortune of someindividuals who are 

drawn into the public events. It is impossible to take the French Revolutionas the theme of the novel. Despite all its melodramatic, injustice, barbaric and historical scenesof the 

Revolution, we can, unhesitatingly, state that A TALE OF TWO CITIES is a genuine andrealistic tragedy. A true tragedy in literature depicts suffering and misfortune and shows humanbeings 

struggling against the whirlpools of life. Pathos is the chief emotional effect of a tragedy,but not pathos alone because pathos alone means sentimentality. In a tragedy, the feeling of 

pathos is essentially noble and capable of rising to great heights. A true tragedy produces anexhilarating effect upon the reader by showing the lofty and heroic side of human nature 

whilealso taking cognizance of the mean, evil and wicked manifestations of human nature. Pity andFear are the two dominant emotions aroused by a tragedy, but a true tragedy must 

effect acatharsis of these and kindred emotions. Though a novel written with a great deal of objectivityand detachment is yet one having a great personal and autobiographical 

significance. It waswritten at the time when Dickens was passing through a great crisis and a mental struggle in his

ife. The crisis and the mental struggle are reflected in the troubled lives of the characters. Therevolution in Dickens’ own mind shows him struggling with himself not only as a man but 

also asan artist in order to evolve a new method and technique of expression. So far his life as a man isconcerned, three of the main characters, namely Charles Darnay, Sydney Carton 

and LucieManette become projections of Dickens himself. At the time this novel was written, Dickenswanted an escape from the torments of his personal struggle and this novel helped 

him.

Limitations

 

of A TALE OF TWO CITIES as a historical novel

: A TALE OF TWO CITIES doeshave obvious limitations as a historical novel. It attempts no really panoramic view of either theEnglish or The French political world of those critical years 

(1775-1793). Barnaby Rudge waseven more comprehensive in nature as a historical novel. In A TALE OF TWO CITIES,CHARLES DICKENS depicts the beginnings of popular discontent in 

France; the risingdissatisfaction of the people, the turmoil caused by public fury, and the excesses and barbaritiescommitted by the revolutionaries during the years of the FR. CHARLES 

DICKENS gives us noconnected account of the FR, its progress, and its culmination. He gives us brief and shatteredaccounts of some of the principal episodes. He doesn’t give us 

systematic analysis of the causesof the FR, but he manages to convey to us all the horrors of the FR. Similarly, he takes no noticeof the historical personalities and their contribution such 

as Mirabeau and Napoleon. Nor did heattempt to do what Tolstoy might have attempted. Dickens’s main concern so far as FR isconcerned, was to show that extreme injustice leas to 

violence and violence then leads to inhuman cruelty as shown by the Reign of Terror in France. In the first part, Dickens’s sympathizeswith the poor and downtrodden, but at the end 

these people become the villains who thereforerepel him.

Historical scenes in A TALE OF TWO CITIES

: Dickens’s first reference to the outward causesof the FR comes in the chapter, “The Wine-Shop” in which he uses the symbol of the mill toconvey the grinding poverty though which 

the people of Saint Antoine are passing. Other chapters such as, “

Monseigneur in town

”, “

Monseigneur in the country 

” and “

The Gordon’s Head 

”Monseigneur, Marquis Evremonde symbolizes the entire privileged class and his assassinationby Gaspard, Gaspard’s hanging and the registration of the Evremonde family and of the 

spy,John Barsad are the pointers in the same direction. One of the best-known episodes of theFrench Revolution is then briefly described by Dickens in the Chapter; “

Echoing Footsteps

” Thatepisode is the storming of the Bastille Madame Defarge’s cutting off the head of the governor withher own hands prepares us for the excess which will be committed by the 

revolutionaries. But thereal brutalities and excesses are described at the end when the prisoners in La Force are waitingto be cut off, a frightening description of the weapons by the 

revolutionaries on the grindstoneand the awful working of the La Guillotine (The National Razor which shaved close). None of thegreat historical leaders are mentioned, only the 

executioner Samson is mentioned. In the finalpart of the novel, Dickens has followed Carlyle very closely. However, Dickens’s debt to Carlyleis much greater than has been indicated 

above. Dickens’s accounts of trials, prison procedures,the tumbrels and the guillotine have all come from Carlyle.

The interweaving of personal life with the FR

: A TALE OF TWO CITIES essentially the story of a group of private individuals, but this story has been told against the background of the FrenchRevolution which shook France in the 

years 1789-93. Dickens’s main achievement lies not onlyin giving us graphic and stirring accounts in the manner of Carlyle, but also in interweaving thepersonal lives of a group of private 

characters with the events of the FR. (a brief summary thathow the characters are slowly drawn into the FR. The real identity of Charles Darnay, wrongsdone to Dr. Manette by 

Evremonde family. Their sexual harassment of a girl and Dr. Manette’sevidence so that he had to stay under prison. Why Madame Defarge is revengeful because sheis the sister of the girl 

raped by the Evremonde family. Etc. describe Darnay’s visit to France, thearrest and acquittal of Darnay linked with the revolution, the death sentence against Darnay, thesubstitution of 

Sydney Carton and conclusion of the whole incident.).

The Tragedy of Dr. Manette

: This man was a promising young physician, leading a quiet andpeaceful life with his wife in the city of Paris. His life was blighted by the cruelty of the twoEvremonde brothers who 

took him to attend upon a young girl and her dying young brother. Givehis story of suffering…to the end…

Sufferings of Lucie and Darnay

: Life is not very kind to Lucie and her husband either. Lucie losther mother when he was still a child. She had never seen her father who lay in the Bastille. She

falls in love with Darnay and marries him though she doesn’t leave her father. Describe their sufferings. Lucie’s sufferings as a wife and daughter. Darnay’s trial at the Bailey and later 

imprisonment at the Bastille and his rescue etc.

The Tragedy of Sydney Carton

: Describe his profligate and depressed life. He himself says toLucie, “

I am like one who died young 

.” He is a frustrated individual who sinks lower and lower inlife and who is without any hope of improvement. Describe his resurrection and sacrifice for Darnay.

The Tragedy of People in General

: The grim instance of Marquis’ running over a child, thedrinking of spilled wine. The storming of the Bastille, Defarge’s cutting the governor’s head, thesharpening of the weapons, the 

carmagnole and the National Razor and all tragic incidences.(Describe them in detail from the precious answers.)

Dickens’ own Tragedy

: Finally, this novel also conveys indirectly and in a veiled manner thetragic conflict that had been going on in Dickens’ own mind just before he wrote this novel. In1855 he separated 

from his wife because of his love for Ellen Ternan, an actress.

The Moral and the theory of revolution

: Although Dickens doesn’t present any systematictheory of revolution, he certainly reveals a well-defined attitude towards the revolution and seemsto have formed certain definite 

views about it. In writing this novel, he was he was very particular about integrating the personal lives of his characters with wider pattern of history. It is theprincipal scheme of the 

novel to show the individual fate mirroring the social order. The lives of both Dr. Manette and Sydney Carton are parables of the revolution, of social regeneration thoughsuffering and 

sacrifice. (

Describe suffering of Manette and sacrifice of Carton and theme

). According to one critic, there is no other piece of fiction in which the domestic life o a few simpleprivate people is in such a manner integrated and knitted with the outbreak of a 

terrible publicevent, so that one seems to be a part of it. Although Dickens was obsessed with the revolutionand its massacre, but he was no revolutionist. It is true that certain Marxist 

critics have treated ATALE OF TWO CITIES as the text of revolutionary intentions. A revolution, according to Dickens,fills prisons, just as the just social order fills them. Madam Defarge is 

the ultimate personificationof the FR in A TALE OF TWO CITIES; and she is a person whose uncontrolled desire for revenge has changed her into a monster or pure evil. The final struggle 

between her and Miss.Pross is a contest between the forces of hatred and of love. It is love that wins when MadamDefarge is self-destroyed thought the accidental shooting off her own 

pistol. This incident showsthat Dickens feels no sympathy for the revolutionaries of Madame Defarge type. The actual fact isthat Dickens regarded the revolution as a monster. The scenes 

painted in A TALE OF TWOCITIES are a nightmare it is Dickens’s own nightmare. He teaches us that violence leads toviolence, that prison is the consequence of prison and that hatred is 

the reward of hatred. If allFrench noble men had been as willing to give up their class privileges as Darnay and if allFrench intellectuals had been so as keen to expose social abuses as Dr. 

Manette, there mighthave been no revolution or at least no revolution of this intensity. His conclusion about theFrench Revolution in the final chapter is as follows:

Crush humanity out of shape and once more, under similar hammers, and it will twist itself into the same tortured forms. Sow the sameseed of rapacious license and oppression over 

again and it will surely yield the same fruit according to its kind.

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