SYMBOLISM IN A TALE OF

TWO CITIES
AUTHOR: CHARLES DICKENS
GENRE : HISTORICAL FICTION
CHARLES DICKEN

CRITICIZED SOCIAL INJUSTICES BOTH IN

PUBLIC SPEECHES AND IN HIS WRITING.
A TALE OF TWO CITIES COMPARING AND
CRITICIZING THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH
SOCIETIES OF 18TH CENTURY
 BUSTING THE TWO CITIES (SETTING)

LONDON AND PARIS ON THE EVE OF FRENCH REVOLUTION

“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”

(NARRATOR, BOOK 1, CHAPTER 1)

 PROTAGONISTS

CHARLES DARNAY LUCIE MANETTE SYDNEY CARTON

ROMANTIC ARISTOCRAT BOTH LOVE HER REGRETFUL DRUNKARD

ANTAGONIST

• OWNER OF WINE SALOON (PUB)

• HER ELDER SISTER RAPED BY CHARLES
DARNAY’S FATHER & UNCLE. BROTHER &
BROTHER IN LAW MURDERED
• COLD BLOODED & VINDICTIVE
 SEQUENCE OF IMPORTANT EVENTS
1. DR MANETTE IMPRISONED FOR 18 LONG YEARS IN BASTILLE IS
UNITED WITH HIS DAUGHTER LUCIE WHO CURES HIM OF HIS
MENTAL ILLNESS. THE REASON FOR HIS IMPRISONMENT IS
UNKNOWN.
2. CHARLES DARNAY IS ACCUSED OF TREASON BY BRITISH
GOVERNMENT BUT IS ACQUITTED OF HIS CHARGES. HE MEETS
SYDNEY CARTON AND LUCIE MANETTE ON THE SAME DATE. CARTON
AND DARNAY STRONGLY RESEMBLE EACH OTHER
3. MEANWHILE IN FRANCE, A FRENCH NOBLEMEN ST MARQUIS
EVREMONDE RUNS HIS CARRIAGE OVER A PEASANT’S SON AND IN
RETURN ONLY THROWS A COIN AS COMPENSATION. THE NOBLEMAN
IS MURDERED BY REVOLUTIONARIES
4. FURTHER AS CHARLES AND LUCIE ARE SET TO MARRY IT IS REALISED
THAT CHARLES DARNAY IS ACTUALLY CHARLES EVREMONDE,
NEPHEW OF ST MARQUIS EVREMONDE WHO IN PAST, PUT DR
MANETTE IN PRISON.
5. REVOLUTIONARIES MARCH LEADING TO FALL OF BASTILLE. FRENCH
NOBLEMEN’S CHATEAUX ARE RAIDED AND BURNT.

6.MONSIEUR DEFARGE DISCOVERS A LETTER WRITTEN BY DR MANETTE

DESCRIBING THE HORRIFIC CRIMES COMMITTED BY THE EVREMONDE
BROTHERS.

7. THE MYSTERY IS UNVEILED TO THE READERS WHEN CHARLES

RETURNS TO FRANCE TO SAVE HIS SERVANT BUT IS SENTENCED TO
DEATH BECAUSE HIS FATHER AND UNCLE RAPED MADAME DEFARGE’S
SISTER, AND KILLED HER BROTHER-IN-LAW AND BROTHER. DR
MANETTE WHO WAS THE SOLE WITNESS O THEIR CRIMES WAS
UNFAIRLY IMPRISONED.

8. RIGHT BEFORE CHARLES’ EXECUTION, CARTON DRUGS HIM AND

SWITCHES PLACES WITH CHARLES, SACRIFICING HIS OWN LIFE
INSTEAD, FINALLY FINDING A SENSE OF PURPOSE IN HIS LIFE.
SYMBOLS AND THEMES
 CASKET OF
BROKEN WINE

• IN CHAPTER 5, CASKET OF WINE

BREAKS ON THE COBBLESTONE
STREETS. OF ST ANTOINE, PARIS.
• CROWD POSSESS THE WINE IN FRENZY
• SYMBOLISES HUNGER AND BLOOD
• COMMOTION OF MOB DEPICTED
“The wine was red wine and had stained the ground of the narrow street in
the suburb of St Antoine., in Paris, where it was spilled. It had stained many
hands too, and many faces, and naked feet, and many wooden shoes. And
one tall joker so besmirched, his head more out of a long squalid bag of a
nightcap than in it., scrawled upon a wall with his finger dipped in muddy
wine-lees – BLOOD.

The time was to come when that wine too would be spilled on street stones,
and then the stain of it would be red on many there”
KNITTING OF
MADAME DEFARGE
CONTINOUSLY KNITS THE NAMES OF THE
PEOPLE SHE WANTS DEAD

“It would be easier for the weakest poltroon

that lives, to erase himself from existence,
than to erase one letter of his name or
crimes from the knitted register of Madame
Defarge”
(Monsieur Defarge, Book 2, Chapter 15 )
 THREE FATE
GODDESSES
IN CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY, THREE
SISTER GODS CALLED THE FATES
CONTROLLED THE THREADS OF
HUMAN LIVES. ONE SISTER SPINS
THE WEB OF LIFE, ANOTHER
MEASURES IT, AND THE LAST CUTS
IT. IN A TALE OF TWO CITIES
MADAME DEFARGE ATTEMPTS TO
IMITATE THE ROLE OF THE FATE
GODDESSES. MME DEFARGE
ATTEMPTS TO IMITATE THE ROLE
OF THE FATE GODDESSES. SHE USES
HER POWERS TO BIND PEOPLE TO
THE DESTINY OF DEATH
 GUILLOTINE
GUILLOTINE, AN ENDURING PRODUCT OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

“The figure of the sharp female called La Guillotine. It was the popular theme for jests; it was the best
cure for headache, it infallibly prevented the hair from turning grey, it imparted a peculiar delicacy to
the complexion, it was the National Razor which shaved close”
(Narrator, Book 3, Chapter 4)

GUILLOTINE BECOMES SYNONYMOUS TO REPUBLIC

“How goes the Republic?

You mean the Guillotine. Not ill. Sixty-three to-day. We shall mount to a hundred soon."
(Book 3, Chapter 9)
ALLEGORY TO THE CHRISTIAN CROSS

“IT SUPERSEDED THE CROSS. MODELS

OF IT WERE WORN ON BREASTS
FROM WHICH THE CROSS WAS
DISCARDED, AND IT WAS BOWED
DOWN TO AND BELIEVED IN WHERE
THE CROSS WAS DENIED”.
(NARRATOR, BOOK 3, CHAPTER 4)
DEATH OF SYDNEY
CARTON & THEME OF
RESURRECTION

• FUTILITY OF DEATH BY GUILLOTINE

• HIS DEATH INSPIRES MAN TO BE
MORALLY RESURRECTED.
• HIS LOVE AND SACRIFICE EMBODIES
REBIRTH AND IMMORTALITY
MONOLOGUE OF SYDNEY CARTON

“I SEE A BEAUTIFUL CITY AND A BRILLIANT PEOPLE RISING FROM THIS

ABYSS, AND, IN THEIR STRUGGLES TO BE TRULY FREE, IN THEIR
TRIUMPHS AND DEFEATS, THROUGH LONG, LONG YEARS TO COME, I
SEE THE EVIL OF THIS TIME AND OF THE PREVIOUS TIME OF WHICH
THIS IS THE NATURAL BIRTH, GRADUALLY MAKING EXPIATION FOR
ITSELF AND WEARING OUT.”
(Sydney Carton, Book 3, Chapter 15)
CONCLUSION

• A TALE OF TWO CITIES IS A

SYMBOLIC NOVEL
•MAN IS A PART OF HISTORY
AND THERE IS NO ESCAPE
•NOVEL IS HYPED AND
EXCESSIVELY DRAMATIC
 BEYOND THE TALE OF TWO CITIES :
PERSONAL REFLECTIONS ON THE REVOLUTION IN FRANCE

FINALLY, ONE MUST REMEMBER THAT THE FRENCH REVOLUTION COMMANDS A

SPECIAL PLACE IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD. IT IS A TESTIMONY TO THE RISE
OF THE COMMON MAN AT AN ABSOLUTIST ERA WHEN PEOPLE WERE STARVING
IN THE STREETS AND PRICE OF A LOAF OF BREAD WAS EQUAL TO A MONTHS
WAGE OF A PEASANT. QUOTING THOMAS SANKARA, FRENCH REVOLUTION
TAUGHT US THE RIGHTS OF MAN. THE PEOPLE OF THE WORLD WITNESSED THE
TRIUMPH OF LIBERTY, EQUALITY AND FRATERNITY AGAINST CLASS AND
MONARCHY. THE FRENCH REVOLUTION IS OUR MODEL EVEN TODAY. HISTORY
HAS WITNESSED A FORCEFUL CHANGE AND THIS CHANGE GOES BY THE NAME OF
PROGRESS. FRENCH REVOLUTION IS SOMETHING TO BE REMEMBERED, REVELED
AND CELEBRATED. EQUIVALENT TO INDEPENDENCE DAY IN INDIA, FRENCH
NATIONAL DAY CELEBRATES THE FALL OF BASTILLE EVERY YEAR ON 14TH OF JULY.
THEREFORE, ON A FINAL NOTE, 18TH CENTURY FRANCE IS NOT ONLY A HISTORY
OF REVOLUTION, BUT AN EVOLUTION OF PHILOSOPHY AND AN INSPIRATION TO
LITERATURE AS THE TALE OF TWO CITIES. FINALLY, THE FRENCH REVOLUTION IS
BEYOND THE LITERATURE THAT DEFINES IT.
THANK
YOU