A Tale of Two Cities

CHARLES DICKENS A Tale of Two Cities is set before and during the
French Revolution, and examines the harsh con-
ditions and brutal realities of life during this
1859 difficult time. While the conditions before the
revolution were deplorable, things were far
from ideal afterward as the violence toward,
and oppression of, one class was reversed once
the poor overthrew the nobility. In the end, the
only glimmer of hope comes with the heroic
sacrifice of Sydney Carton, as he gives his life
for the good of others.
According to Dickens’s Preface, the inspira-
tion for the story came from two sources. The
first was Wilkie Collins’s play The Frozen Deep,
in which two rivals unknowingly embark on the
same doomed Arctic expedition, and one ends
up dying to save his rival. The second was
Thomas Carlyle’s The French Revolution: A
History. The details in the portions of A Tale of
Two Cities that take place in France closely echo
Carlyle’s work, and critics have noted that
Carlyle’s account seems to be Dickens’s only
source of historical information.
One of the most-discussed aspects of A Tale
of Two Cities is the ambivalence with which
Dickens seems to regard the revolution and the
revolutionaries. Although he clearly under-
stands why the French people rose up to over-
throw their government and seize power for
themselves, he seems troubled by the manner in
which this occurred. The violence and brutality

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THE NEW ERA BEGAN; THE KING WAS TRIED,

DOOMED, AND BEHEADED; THE REPUBLIC OF LIBERTY,

EQUALITY, FRATERNITY, OR DEATH, DECLARED FOR

BIOGRAPHY
VICTORY OR DEATH AGAINST THE WORLD IN ARMS; THE
Charles Dickens
BLACK FLAG WAVED NIGHT AND DAY FROM THE GREAT
Charles Dickens, one of England’s most famous
TOWERS OF NOTRE DAME; THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND
and beloved authors, was born February 7, 1812
MEN, SUMMONED TO RISE AGAINST THE TYRANTS OF in Portsmouth, England. As a child, Dickens
loved reading, but only received a couple of
THE EARTH, ROSE FROM ALL THE VARYING SOILS OF
years of formal education. Though he came
FRANCE.’’ from a middle-class family, his father was sent
to debtor’s prison after overspending on enter-
tainment, and his family lived in a tiny cell in
Marshalsea Prison for three months. Young
Dickens was sent to work in a shoe polish factory
of the revolution clearly bother him, and the lack at age twelve to support his family. Because of
of any real change, since the oppressed become this experience, he spent his adult life advocating
the new oppressors, is an unnecessarily tragic for the poor and writing novels in which his
outcome of the otherwise justified pursuit of a sympathy for them—and outrage at those who
better life by the lower classes. exploit and mistreat them—is evident.
Dickens’s central concern, both in the novel By the time Dickens wrote A Tale of Two
and in his life, is how to achieve meaningful social Cities, he was already a popular and well-
change without violence and chaos. He sees peo- regarded author, having published such classics
ple’s mentality as being significantly shaped by the as Oliver Twist (1838), A Christmas Carol (1843),
institutions that govern their lives. Thus, even if and David Copperfield (1849). A Tale of Two
the institution goes away, the mentality produced Cities was written in the wake of the 1848
by it still remains. He describes how this happens Revolutions that occurred throughout Europe,
in his depiction of the French Revolution: the which led Dickens to worry that a violent upris-
oppressed do not find a new way to govern, rather ing would occur in Britain.
they simply repeat the practices of the previous
Dickens died June 9, 1870. None of his
rulers, the very practices that led the oppressed to
books has ever gone out of print, a testament
revolt in the first place.
to his enduring popularity with readers through
For Dickens, the way out of this dead end is the modern age.
for individuals to change their ways of thinking
in order to bring about meaningful institutional
change and thus social progress. As Nicholas
Rance notes in ‘‘Charles Dickens: A Tale of Revolution is thus, in many ways, a cautionary
Two Cities’’ (1859), Dickens tends ‘‘to subordi- tale for his own nation, a warning that, if genu-
nate the historical event to the illumination of ine changes are not made, the ruling class could
private character,’’ for he sees individuals as the face the inexorable revenge of those pushed
true engines of historical change. Carton is the beyond the limits of human endurance.
model for this sort of change, as he gradually
emerges from his selfish laziness and makes his
final, dramatic sacrifice for the good of others.
PLOT SUMMARY
Although he clearly favored the measured,
gradual process of reform, Dickens worried that Book the First: Recalled to Life
the pace of change in Britain was too slow and A Tale of Two Cities begins with one of the most
that the unmitigated misery of the poor might famous passages in all literature. This passage
lead to violence. His account of the French not only conveys a sense of the confusion of the

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having been unjustly imprisoned for eighteen

years. Mr. Lorry is going to Paris to verify
Dr. Manette’s identity, and Lucie must also
come to ‘‘restore him to life’’ after being ‘‘buried
alive’’ for so many years.
The story shifts to Paris, where the scene
begins with an extended metaphor that prefi-
gures the bloodshed and destruction of the revo-
lution to come. A cask of red wine drops and
bursts on the street. A mob of poor people des-
cends upon the wine, scooping it up with their
hands and gleefully licking their fingers. One
man, Gaspard, dips his finger in the wine and
writes the word ‘‘blood’’ on the wall. This scene
occurs outside of the wine shop of Monsieur
and Madame Defarge, former servants of
Dr. Manette who have been entrusted to care
for him since his release from the Bastille, the
most notorious prison in France. Mr. Lorry and
Lucie arrive and visit Dr. Manette, who is phy-
sically and mentally fragile. He does not realize
that he is no longer in prison and sits alone in an
Book illustration from A Tale of Two Cities
attic making shoes, oblivious to his new sur-
ª Stapleton Collection/Corbis
roundings. Although he does not recognize his
old friend, Mr. Lorry, he sees Lucie’s resem-
blance to his dead wife, which brings him at
least partially out of his fog and leads to an
time and the difficulty of making sense of it, but emotional reunion. Mr. Lorry then takes the
also establishes a direct parallel between the per- Manettes back to England.
iod leading up to the French Revolution and the
time in which Dickens writes his book, over sixty
years later. The first chapter elaborates upon the Book the Second: The Golden Thread
time period in which the novel begins (1775), The events shift five years into the future. Dr.
describing both France and England in bitter Manette is recovering well under the care of his
detail as places of disorder and injustice where daughter. Cruncher, the bank messenger of the
the ruling classes care nothing for the suffering opening scene, is called to court to assist Mr.
of the lower classes. The first chapter ends with a Lorry during the trial of Charles Darnay, a
sense of foreboding, of unavoidable fate leading French immigrant to Britain. Darnay, a gentle-
inevitably to death, as events are set down man, is charged with treason, accused of helping
‘‘along the roads that lay before them.’’ France fight against the British in the American
The action of the novel begins in November Revolution.
1775 with Jarvis Lorry, a British banker, travel- During the trial, John Barsad and Roger Cly
ing from London to Dover on his way to France. are called as eyewitnesses to Darnay’s participa-
His coach is overtaken by Jerry Cruncher, a tion in the plot, as is Mr. Lorry, who is asked
messenger from Lorry’s employer, Tellson’s to identify Darnay as a fellow passenger on the
Bank, instructing him to wait at Dover for a boat to and from France. The Manettes are also
young woman. Lorry sends back the cryptic called to identify him, although Dr. Manette
message ‘‘recalled to life,’’ and awaits the arrival cannot do so because of his poor condition at
of Lucie Manette, who is to accompany him to the time. Just as things look dire for Darnay, a
France. Upon her arrival, Mr. Lorry, who was a singular event occurs—a member of the trial
friend of Lucie’s dead father and who took her to audience, Sydney Carton (who happens to be a
England after she was orphaned in France, tells friend of Darnay’s lawyer, Mr. Stryver), turns
Lucie that her father is, in fact, still alive after out to look just like Darnay, thus putting all of

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the witness identifications in doubt. Darnay is the blot upon his escutcheon if his chocolate
subsequently acquitted. had been ignobly waited on by only three men;
he must have died of two.
After the trial, Carton and Darnay dine
together. Neither man is particularly fond of The ruling class suffers from the ‘‘leprosy of
the other, but both are enamored of Lucie, who unreality,’’ engaging in inane, silly pursuits while
is clearly falling in love with Darnay. Carton is ignoring the suffering of the poor and the pro-
described as a bit of a drunkard who is disap- blems of their nation. Their disdain for the lower
pointed by life and has no ambition. ‘‘I am a classes is epitomized by the Marquis’s actions
disappointed drudge, sir. I care for no man on after his coach, traveling through the Defarge’s
earth, and no man on earth cares for me,’’ he tells neighborhood, runs over and kills one of
Darnay. However, despite their differences, they Gaspard’s children. The Marquis literally
are described as each other’s ‘‘counterpart,’’ and throws money at him and prepares to continue
Carton muses to himself about changing places on his way. When Monsieur Defarge throws the
and having Lucie look on him as she does money back at him, the Marquis exclaims: ‘‘You
Darnay. dogs. . . . I would ride over any of you very will-
ingly, and exterminate you from the earth.’’ A
Four months after Darnay’s trial, the
man ‘‘whiter than the miller,’’ looking like a
Manettes are doing well and both Carton and
‘‘spectre,’’ follows him home, hanging from a
Darnay stop by often to pursue Lucie’s affec-
chain behind the coach.
tions, although Carton does not appear to really
want them. There is some concern about Dr. Darnay returns to France to visit his uncle,
Manette’s mental well-being as Mr. Lorry and the Marquis. They have opposite political views:
Lucie wonder if he is repressing his memory of Darnay supports egalitarian, or democratic and
how he came to be imprisoned. One evening, classless, principles. The Marquis believes in
Darnay mentions his experiences as a prisoner keeping all power in the hands of the elite by
in the Tower of London while awaiting trial, and any means necessary: ‘‘Repression is the only
describes how some workmen, while performing lasting philosophy. The dark deference of fear
repairs, had discovered a message written by a and slavery . . . will keep the dogs obedient to the
prisoner hidden under the stone floor. Dr. whip.’’ Darnay laments the wrongs done by his
Manette has a brief fit, but does not say why he family, while his uncle claims it is their ‘‘natural
is so unnerved by what Darnay said. As they all destiny’’ to live that way. Darnay disagrees and
sit in the garden, a foreshadowing occurs as the renounces his inheritance of the Marquis’s prop-
footsteps of an unnamed and unseen multitude erty and France itself. That night, Gaspard, the
can be heard echoing on the stones of the streets specter earlier seen behind the carriage, kills the
around them, unnerving all but Carton, who Marquis while he sleeps, leaving a note signed
welcomes the ‘‘great crowd coming one day ‘‘Jacques,’’ a very common name for French
into our lives.’’ men, implying that Gaspard has killed in the
name of the common people.
In Paris around the same time, the Marquis
St. Evrémonde, a French nobleman who also A year later, back in England, Darnay is a
happens to be Darnay’s uncle, visits the home French teacher and fully in love with Lucie.
of Monseigneur, an aristocratic clergyman. He asks for Dr. Manette’s support and help in
Monseigneur is a representative of the decadent, pursuing her. Dr. Manette agrees, so long as
selfish, vain, and extravagant ruling class who Lucie loves him back. Meanwhile, Carton con-
feel that ‘‘the world was made for them.’’ fesses his love directly to Lucie, but says that he
Dickens humorously mocks him, describing, will not act upon it because he is incapable of
for example, how it takes four servants to pre- making her happy. He claims that she inspires
pare and serve his chocolate: him to become a better man, but he lacks the
One lacquey carried the chocolate-pot into the energy to act upon that inspiration. He promises
sacred presence; a second, milled and frothed to ‘‘embrace any sacrifice’’ for her or for the ones
the chocolate . . . a third, presented the that she loves.
favoured napkin; a fourth . . . poured the cho-
colate out. It was impossible for Monseigneur
Back in Paris, the Defarges are secretly
to dispense with one of these attendants on the working to organize republicans into an effective
chocolate and hold his high place under the movement (in which everyone uses the name
admiring Heavens. Deep would have been Jacques) and to stir opposition to the governing

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regime. Monsieur Defarge is anxious and wants The scene then shifts to the countryside,
to speed the revolution on, but Madame Defarge where the violence has spread as the hungry,
is patient, waiting for the right moment in order desperate peasants rise up against the land own-
for it to succeed. Meanwhile, she knits con- ers and aristocrats, once again represented by
stantly, creating a register of all the wrongs com- the character of Monseigneur. The chateau
mitted by the regime and of the names of those to where the Marquis had lived is burned to the
be killed once the revolution has succeeded. ground, and this fire becomes a metaphor as
revolution quickly spreads across the country.
They learn that a spy, Barsad (who earlier
This fire rages unabated for three years, and
had given false testimony in Darnay’s trial), is to
much of the French aristocracy flees the country,
be stationed in their neighborhood. He comes to
many of them to Britain. As they plot how to
the wine shop and tries to trick Madame Defarge
regain power, they, and their counterparts in
into saying something incriminating regarding Britain (including Mr. Stryver), refuse to
the execution of Gaspard, who was arrested for acknowledge the causes of the revolution. They
killing the Marquis. She avoids the trap. talk about it
However, Barsad does note that Monsieur
Defarge is visibly troubled when he mentions as if it were the one only harvest ever known
under the skies that had not been sown—as if
that Lucie Manette is to marry Charles Darnay.
nothing had ever been done, or omitted to be
On the day of the marriage, Darnay reveals done, that had led to it—as if observers of the
his real name to Dr. Manette—St. Evrémonde— wretched millions in France, and of the mis-
used and perverted resources that should have
causing him great distress and pushing him back
made them prosperous, had not seen it inevita-
into his trance-like state and obsessive shoemak- bly coming.
ing. He remains that way for nine more days,
during which Mr. Lorry and Miss Pross, Lucie’s In the midst of this intrigue, a letter arrives
servant, attend to him. After he emerges from his at Tellson’s Bank, addressed to the heir of the
state with no memory of it, Mr. Lorry presents Marquis St. Evrémonde. The letter comes from a
his ‘‘case’’ to Dr. Manette for diagnosis, thus prisoner in Paris who appeals to the Marquis
jogging his memory and leading to an apparent (now Darnay) to intervene on his behalf since
cure. After Darnay and Lucie return from their the crimes with which he is charged resulted
honeymoon, Carton pledges his friendship to from his acting on behalf of the Marquis’s estate.
Darnay, who reluctantly accepts it. Though no one but Dr. Manette knows of his
identity, Darnay obtains the letter by chance
Several years later, Darnay and Lucie are and, in the spirit of noblesse oblige—a feeling of
the parents of a six-year-old daughter and all obligation to, and responsibility for, those
seems to be going well for them. However, a beneath him—he immediately decides to depart
sense of foreboding hangs over them as the for France. Believing he is innocent of any
echoes of footsteps haunt them and, later, they responsibility for the suffering of the poor,
hear an ‘‘awful sound, as of a great storm in Darnay naively thinks that he can go and help
France with a dreadful sea rising.’’ In July without endangering himself. Without telling
1789, Mr. Lorry tells them of a growing uneasi- anyone, he leaves for Paris, as a
ness in France.
glorious vision of doing good, which is so often
That same day, violence breaks out in Paris, the sanguine mirage of so many good minds,
with the Defarges, the Jacques, and an enormous arose before him, and he even saw himself in
the illusion with some influence to guide this
mob storming the Bastille. After liberating the
raging Revolution.
prisoners and killing the jailors, Monsieur
Defarge heads to the cell that Dr. Manette had Book the Third: The Track of a Storm
occupied and searches for something. After a On his trip to Paris in August, Darnay learns of a
week of relative calm, the mob rises again, direc- decree condemning any returning aristocrats
ted by Monsieur Defarge, taking brutal revenge (‘‘emigrants’’) to death. He is arrested and
upon an aristocrat who had refused to help when escorted to Paris by Monsieur Defarge, where
people were starving. As the mob spins out of he is consigned to solitary confinement in La
control, Monsieur Defarge proclaims that the Force prison. Even though he knows that
revolution has come at last, to which his wife Darnay is married to the daughter of his com-
replies, ‘‘Almost.’’ rade, Dr. Manette, Defarge refuses to help him

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or send a message on his behalf because, he says, him out of the prison in Carton’s clothes.
‘‘my duty is to my country and the People.’’ Unbeknownst to the others, who are set to
In September, having learned of Darnay’s leave Paris just before the execution in case
imprisonment, Dr. Manette and Lucie come to there is further trouble for them, Darnay
Paris to help him. Because of his own severe emerges from the prison instead of Carton, and
mistreatment at the hands of the old regime, they speed away toward Britain and a happy
Dr. Manette has great influence on the revolu- reunion.
tionaries whose plight he has shared. For several Meanwhile, Madame Defarge, who happens
weeks, Dr. Manette works tirelessly on Darnay’s to be the sister of one of the peasants murdered
behalf. At the same time, episodes of madness by the St. Evrémondes, has plotted to have the
and butchery proliferate as La Guillotine kills whole lot of them arrested as part of her own
relentlessly. King Louis XVI is executed and the revenge on the Marquis’s descendants. She
Republic is declared as three hundred thousand arrives at their house after they have left but
men rise up across France, like a ‘‘deluge rising encounters Miss Pross, who fights with her.
from below, not falling from above,’’ as ‘‘the Madame Defarge dies accidentally by her own
raging fever of a nation’’ runs rampant. hand when her gun goes off. As the Darnays and
Mr. Lorry travel to London, Carton is executed
When Darnay’s trial begins, things look bad
in Paris, uttering another of the most famous
until Dr. Manette stands up for him, swaying the
lines in literature before he dies: ‘‘It is a far, far
jury. Darnay is set free and even celebrated by
better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is
the crowd who carries him home on their backs.
a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever
However, the next day, Darnay is again arrested,
known.’’
having been denounced by Monsieur and
Madame Defarge and Dr. Manette. When the
doctor denies this, it is revealed that a testament
written by him during his time in the Bastille has
been found by Monsieur Defarge. THEMES
The testament details the crimes of the Revolution and Revolt
Marquis St. Evrémonde and his brother who, In A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens conveys an
in 1757, raped a young woman and were respon- ambivalent attitude toward the French Revolu-
sible for the deaths of several peasants. The doc- tion. While it is clear from the beginning that he
tor was called to attend the woman and, repulsed sympathizes with the French people, who are
by the action of these nobles, reported their neglected and abused by the elite, it is equally
crimes. They had him imprisoned under a lettre clear by the end of his novel that he does not see
de cachet—a blank warrant that allowed power- the revolution as a success. Instead, he presents a
ful people to fill in the names of whomever they vicious circle of history in which the oppressor
wished and have them imprisoned without becomes the oppressed, and vice versa, with no
trial—and for this and their other crimes, the deeper change occurring that could be described
doctor condemned the brothers, and all their as real progress.
descendants. Persuaded again by the words of Dickens knows quite clearly, however, the
Dr. Manette, the jury—described as ‘‘a jury of causes of the French Revolution, and he pre-
dogs empanelled to try the deer’’—unanimously sents it, in many ways, as inevitable given the
convicts Darnay and sentences him to death. existing conditions. He repeatedly uses meta-
Dr. Manette, horrified that he is responsible for phors of nature—storms, earthquakes, fires,
Darnay’s death sentence, reverts to his trance etc.—to describe the coming revolution. He
and his shoemaking. establishes parallels between Britain and
However, Carton has arrived in Paris at the France early in the book and emphasizes them
time of the second arrest and is working behind again later, after the revolution has begun,
the scenes to free Darnay. He discovers that when the aristocracy still fails to understand
Barsad is working as a spy in the prison and their responsibility in creating the conditions
blackmails him to let Carton visit Darnay in his that led to mass revolt. Dickens directly warns
cell. Carton, making use of his resemblance to that, so long as the ruling class refuses to take
Darnay, switches places with him, first drugging responsibility for the way that they govern, they
him unconscious and then having Barsad take are destined to be violently overthrown:

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It was too much the way of Monseigneur under brutality of the uprisings. We see this not only
his reverses as a refugee, and it was much too in his description of the storming of the Bastille
much the way of native British orthodoxy, to and the slaughter of the jailors, with their heads
talk of this terrible Revolution as if it were the
raised on pikes, but in the gory details with
one only harvest . . . that had not been sown.
which he describes, at length, the attack on the
However, Dickens was always a reformer at aristocrat, Foulon.
heart, not a revolutionary. He does not ulti-
mately present the French Revolution as a neces- For Dickens, all of this violence is just a
sary, inevitable step toward freedom and repetition of the conditions before the revolu-
democracy. Instead, he sees it as an understand- tion; only the perpetrators have changed. What
able, though ultimately tragic, response to the is lost in the frenzy of class war and revenge is the
failure of the ruling class to enact sufficient possibility of truly changing the conditions and
reforms that would improve the lives of the peo- improving people’s lives. One group’s violence
ple and remove the motives for revolution. He and oppression of another, no matter how real
concludes the book on a somewhat optimistic, the grievances motivating it, is neither better,
hopeful note, not only with Carton’s individual nor more justified, than any other.
sacrifice for the greater good and an image of Ultimately, Dickens seems to imply, only
reconciliation as he embraces the seamstress on through private virtue rather than class war can
the way to the guillotine, but directly through change for the better occur. It is only through an
Carton’s thoughts as well: individual’s heroic sacrifice for the greater good,
I see . . . long ranks of the new oppressors who like Carton’s—and not the self-interested and
have risen on the destruction of the old, perish- vengeful motives of a Madame Defarge—that
ing by this retributive instrument, before it social reform and justice can possibly be
shall cease out of its present use. I see a beauti- achieved. And though he ends the book on a
ful city and a brilliant people rising from this somewhat optimistic note, it is also a very cau-
abyss, and, in their struggles to be truly free, in tionary one, directed at his countrymen, warning
their triumphs and defeats, through long, long
years to come, I see the evil of this time and of
of the potential violence awaiting it if the gov-
the previous time of which this is the natural ernment does not enact necessary reforms.
birth, gradually making expiation for itself and
wearing out. Women and War
In the end, Dickens envisions a better future Women played a central role in the uprisings
for the common people, not because of the revo- that led to the French Revolution. Through the
lution, but in spite of it, as the people gradually characters of Madame Defarge and The
experience the kind of real change of heart (as Vengeance, a fellow female revolutionary,
Carton does) that is needed to spur progressive Dickens rightly includes women at the center of
reforms. the story. However, his depiction of these
women as aggressive, menacing Furies, who
Violence and Brutality coldly calculate murder and revenge, takes their
One thing is absolutely clear: though he may be representation beyond the limits of social rea-
guardedly optimistic about the possibilities for lism. Instead, as in many other Dickens
genuine change, Dickens is mortified by the use novels—perhaps most famously with Miss
of violence and does not see it as the means to Havisham in Great Expectations—female char-
accomplish the changes that he desires. Though acters tend to be associated with murder and
Dickens advocated for social reform throughout death.
his professional life, he never believed that a In A Tale of Two Cities, these women are
violent revolution was a viable option. Indeed, not merely associated with death, but are agents
one of the prime motives for his pursuit of of it. In battle, ‘‘the women were a sight to chill
reform was to prevent violent uprisings from the boldest.’’ They are threatening, cold, merci-
happening in the first place. less, and intimidating, even pathologically com-
The horror and outrage that Dickens pelled to seek revenge. And, tellingly, this
expresses at the conditions experienced by the pursuit of revenge has personal, emotional
poor in both France and Britain is matched, roots, as Madame Defarge ultimately seeks to
and perhaps even exceeded, by the revulsion avenge the murder of her brother by the
with which he regards the bloodiness and St. Evrémondes. It was very common at the

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French troops storming the Bastille during the French Revolution Archive Photos/Getty Images

time Dickens wrote the book to relegate female HISTORICAL OVERVIEW

characters to the private sphere of personal and
emotional relationships rather than the tradi- The French Revolution
tionally masculine public sphere of rational rea- A variety of issues contributed to the French
soning and political decision. In A Tale of Two Revolution of 1789–99. There was widespread
Cities, the factual and political reasons for the discontent in France with the privilege enjoyed
revolution are always discussed in an authori- by the nobility, land owners, and the Church
tative male voice, whether character or narra- that excluded the lower and middle classes
tor. On the other hand, violence and inevitable from improving their situation. Peasants and
death in the story are often associated with wage earners suffered greatly under a system of
women and their bloodthirsty desire for land ownership that left them exploited and
revenge. Further, the novel contains hints that powerless, particularly under the heavy burden
Madame Defarge’s motives are tainted by cal- of taxation they bore to pay for the privileges
culated self-interest rather than the selflessness and extravagances of the aristocracy. At the
implied in the motives of Monsieur Defarge and same time, Enlightenment philosophy cham-
the Jacques. pioning the liberty and rights of individuals
became popular and generated hope for change,
Despite his inclusion of female revolution- particularly in the wake of the success of the
aries, Dickens does not present them in the same American Revolution. On top of all this, a food
vein that he does their male counterparts. shortage occurred, leading to widespread
Ultimately, he seems to imply that it is women’s desperation.
impulse for vengeance that exacerbates, or In the late 1780s, with their problems unad-
makes worse, the conflict, preventing calmer, dressed by King Louis XVI, the people began to
more rational heads from prevailing and ending rebel. To appease them, the king called for the
the bloodshed. election of a parliamentary body, which met in

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1789. Instead of obeying the will of the King, the The 1848 Revolutions
elected body declared itself to be the ruling In January 1848, a rebellion broke out in Sicily
authority and vowed to write a constitution. and the people succeeded in imposing a consti-
Violence erupted across France as peasants tution on their king. Soon after, similar rebel-
attacked the ruling classes, leading to the aboli- lions broke out in Piedmont and Milan (in the
tion of the feudal system and the nobility’s north of what is now Italy), then quickly spread
acceptance of the Declaration of the Rights of throughout Europe, to Austria, Germany,
Man. In 1791, the powers of the monarch were Poland, and France, as populations rose up
limited by law, but by then revolutionary fervor against the rule of absolute monarchs and their
had taken grip. Revolutionaries fought under often-corrupt appointed governors. In some
the motto, Liberte´, e´galite´, fraternite´, ou la places, constitutional monarchies were estab-
mort! (Liberty, equality, brotherhood or lished. In other places, such as France, monarchs
death!). The monarchy was abolished altogether were forced to flee as their people attempted to
in 1792, and King Louis XVI was executed for establish republics governed by the people rather
treason. than a king.
Rather than a democratic government being While these uprisings did not make it across
established, a dictatorship was formed that the English Channel, they came very close. Not
imposed order by killing its potential opponents, only did Britain have its own popular move-
particularly land owners and aristocrats. During ment, the Chartists, pushing for democratic
this Reign of Terror (1793–94), over twenty- reforms, it was also swamped by a large number
eight hundred people were guillotined in Paris of desperately poor Irish immigrants fleeing the
alone. Dickens’s horror at such brutality, espe- potato famine. The combination of these forces
cially since the violence was committed by those put great pressure on the British government to
who had themselves been brutalized by the rul- address the needs of its people. Through a policy
ing class they overthrew, is at the heart of his of gradual reform, the government was able to
novel. avert the sort of mass uprisings that occurred on
the continent.
The Industrial Revolution and Victorian Dickens was keenly aware of the potential
Britain for revolt in Britain. Indeed, he had been one of
From 1750–1850, Britain underwent an enor- the leading advocates of reform in order to pre-
vent violent uprisings. But after the events of
mous cultural upheaval. Technological changes,
1848, he began to despair that reform would
such as the development of steam power and
not be enough, especially since little progress
advances in the textile industry, combined with
the rapid growth of overseas markets for trade, had been made by the late 1850s. As quoted in
led to a major population shift from rural areas Michael Goldberg’s article ‘‘Carlyle, Dickens,
to the cities. At the same time, workers had very and the Revolution of 1848,’’ Edgar Johnson
few rights or protections and were at the mercy recounts that in the 1850s, Dickens noted the
of their employers. Hours were long (up to six- similarities between the ‘‘sullen, smouldering dis-
content’’ in England and the ‘‘general mind of
teen hours per day, six days per week), condi-
France before the . . . Revolution,’’ worrying that
tions were dangerous, wages were low, and a
the slightest incident might trigger a violent
large portion of the workforce were children,
who often experienced even worse conditions explosion. Dickens’s conflicted feelings of sym-
than adults. pathy for the downtrodden poor but fear of the
violence of revolution permeates A Tale of Two
In 1832, the Reform Bill was passed, which Cities.
expanded voting rights to property-owning
males but did little to address the needs and
demands of the working class. In the 1840s,
economic conditions declined, leading to wide- CRITICAL OVERVIEW
spread unemployment and even some localized
riots. When conditions did not improve in the Because A Tale of Two Cities differs so greatly
1850s, Dickens and many others began to note from Dickens’s other works, it has received a
parallels with the period leading up to the mixed reaction from critics. While it remains
French Revolution. one of the most popular and widely read of

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Elizabeth Allan as Lucie Manette and Ronald Colman as Sydney Carton in the 1935 film version of A
Tale of Two Cities ª Bettmann/Corbis

Dickens’s works with the general public, A Tale feelings. Some writers of the time considered it
of Two Cities is one of the least popular among the best of Dickens’s novels, but the vast majority
Dickens fans and scholars of his work. It is fre- of them condemned it as flawed, inferior, and
quently omitted from works on Dickens in gen- even immoral. As Ruth Glancy notes in ‘‘A Tale
eral, and when it is discussed, it is often briefly of Two Cities’’: Dickens’s Revolutionary Novel,
dismissed as atypical and thus uninteresting or ‘‘Most of the critics writing in the intellectual
unimportant. Some critics, however, have found and literary journals of the day considered popu-
in the most unique element of the novel—its lar success a good reason to condemn a work,’’
treatment of a specific historical event—an and many criticized it simply because it appealed
issue of great interest, precisely because it stands to the masses.
apart from the rest of Dickens’s novels.
Not all the criticism was directed at the
While A Tale of Two Cities was popular when book’s popularity, though. Many critics were
it was first published in 1859, the critical response dissatisfied by more substantive aspects of the
was not so positive. Although some critics were book, such as its lack of humor, lack of memor-
enthusiastic—John Forster, in a review for the able and entertaining characters, the implausi-
Examiner, praised the ‘‘author’s genius’’ and the bility of the plot, or the melodramatic and
‘‘subtlety with which a private history is asso- sentimental tone of many episodes. Sir James
ciated with a most vivid expression of the spirit Fitzjames Stephen, in a famous review written
of the days of the great French Revolution’’— for the Saturday Review in 1859, combines criti-
most were very critical. Reactions tended to be cism of the book’s mass appeal with outrage at
polarized, with few critics expressing mixed its lack of artistic quality. He claims that

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In 1980, A Tale of Two Cities was adapted

for television by Artisan Entertainment for the
Hallmark Hall of Fame movie series on CBS.
Directed by Jim Goddard and starring Chris
Sarandon as Carton, this version takes some
MEDIA liberties with the plot of the novel but is rela-
ADAPTATIONS tively faithful to the spirit and themes of the
book. It is available on video.
A Tale of Two Cities has been adapted to film
In 1989, an excellent Anglo-French mini-
and television a number of times, beginning in
1911 with the Vitagraph Films silent version, series version of A Tale of Two Cities, starring
directed by William Humphrey and starring James Wilby and John Mills, was directed by
Maurice Costello and Florence Turner. Philippe Monnier for British television and
later shown in the United States on PBS’s
The 1935 production of A Tale of Two
Cities, produced by David O. Selznick for Masterpiece Theatre. This version is very faith-
MGM Studios, directed by Jack Conway, and ful to the plot and pays great attention to realis-
starring Ronald Colman as Sydney Carton, in tic details of costume, setting, and language, and
perhaps the most memorable role of his career, is French actors play the French roles. It is avail-
considered one of the great film classics. It is able on video and DVD from Granada
available on Warner Home Video. Television.
The 1958 British version of A Tale of Two There are a variety of unabridged audio ver-
Cities, directed by Ralph Thomas for Rank sions of A Tale of Two Cities. It is available in
Organization Film Productions and starring cassette, CD, and MP-3 formats from Audio
Dick Bogarde as Carton, is a faithful retelling Editions.
of Dickens’s novel, although the scenes from the
French Revolution are perhaps not as dramatic A free, unabridged ebook version of A Tale of
and compelling as the 1935 MGM adaptation. Two Cities, in plain text format, is available online
Though available on video, this film can be hard at www.gutenberg.org/etext/98 from Project
to find. Gutenberg.

thebook appeals to the common reader’s feelings center of attention. With the theme of sacrifice
only through the ‘‘coarsest stimulants’’ and that for the greater good brought to the fore, critics
Dickens’s technique is ‘‘the very lowest of low began to explore a range of other thematic issues
styles of art’’; he concludes that it would be ‘‘hard rather than emphasize stylistic and aesthetic con-
to imagine a clumsier and more disjointed frame- cerns. The themes of doubling, or a character
work for the display of the tawdry wares which saying what he or she believes another character
form Mr. Dickens’s stock-in-trade.’’ to be thinking, and resurrection, in particular,
receive much attention, especially from psycho-
Modern critical opinion, however, puts A
logical critics.
Tale of Two Cities in the category of Dickens’s
best works, particularly for its complex thematic However, while thematic issues dominate
issues and the ambivalence with which he treats the criticism of the last hundred years, analyses
the French Revolution. Early in the twentieth of the historical events depicted in the novel have
century, it began to receive more positive also been prominent. George Orwell, in his land-
responses from critics. One reason for this shift mark work on Dickens in the book Dickens, Dali
is the emphasis placed on the character of & Others, notes the tension expressed in A Tale
Sydney Carton rather than the historical events of Two Cities between Dickens’s sympathy for
in the book, due, in part, to the wildly successful the terribly mistreated poor and his horror at
1899 stage version of the book, The Only Way, their own mistreatment of the aristocracy once
which puts Carton, the romantic hero who sacri- they gain power. Others, such as J. M. Rignall, in
fices his life so that others may be happy, at the ‘‘Dickens and the Catastrophic Continuum of

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History in A Tale of Two Cities,’’ have taken this and hangings. Throughout the novel, the
observation one step further, seeing in Dickens’s English mob is in potential what the French
novel a grim view of history in which the French revolutionary hordes are in bloody fact. At the
Revolution is just one event in a greater cycle of English trial of the falsely accused Darnay, the
historical violence, one from which it is impos- ‘‘ogreish’’ spectators, eagerly awaiting the con-
sible to escape. But regardless of whether critics demnation, vie with one another in their lip-
see Dickens as commenting specifically on the smacking description of how a man looks being
French Revolution or on general historical pro- drawn and quartered. Again in France, the
cesses, or whether they focus on themes or on the details of torture and savagery exercise an
depiction of historical events, the question of obscene fascination over the imagination of the
how Dickens views the possibility of change is characters (and perhaps of the writer as well)—
most prominent in modern criticism. nightmarish images of tongues torn out with
pincers, gradual dismemberment, boiling oil
and lead poured into gaping wounds, float
through the darkness of the novel and linger on
the retina of the memory.
CRITICISM
The energy of destruction that gathers to
Robert Alter such acts of concentrated horror pulses through
In the following excerpt, Alter notes how Dickens the whole world of the novel, pounding at its
explores the relationship between evil and history foundations. It is conceived as an elemental
in the perpetuation of cycles of violence. He argues force in nature that works through men as well.
that the novel, through its use of allegory, is less Dover Beach as Jarvis Lorry contemplates it
about a specific historical moment than a medita- near the beginning of the novel is a replica in
tion on the impersonal forces (primarily destruc- nature of the revolution to come, the scene most
tive) that determine history as they work through strikingly serving as event: ‘‘The sea did what it
individuals. liked, and what it liked was destruction. It thun-
dered at the town, and thundered at the cliffs,
What Dickens is ultimately concerned with in
and brought the coast down madly.’’ The image
A Tale of Two Cities is not a particular historical
of the revolutionary mob, much later in the
event—that is simply his chosen dramatic set-
novel, is simply the obverse of this vision of the
ting—but rather the relationship between history
ocean as chaos and darkness: ‘‘The sea of black
and evil, how violent oppression breeds violent
rebellion which becomes a new kind of oppres- and threatening waters, and of destructive
sion. His account of the ancien régime and the upheaving of wave against wave, whose depths
French Revolution is a study in civilized man’s were yet unfathomed and whose forces were yet
vocation for proliferating moral chaos, and in this unknown. The remorseless sea of turbulently
one important regard the Tale is the most com- swaying shapes, voices of vengeance.’’ These
pellingly ‘‘modern’’ of his novels. He also tries same pitiless forces are present in the rainstorm
hard, through the selfless devotion of his more that descends upon the quiet Soho home of the
exemplary characters, to suggest something of Manettes as Lucie, Darnay, and Carton watch:
mankind’s potential for moral regeneration; but the lightning, harbinger of revolution, that they
he is considerably less convincing in this effort, see leaping from the stormy dark is the only light
partly because history itself offers so little evidence that can be born from the murky atmosphere of
that the imagination of hope can use to sustain this world—the hot light of destruction. Later
itself. the revolution is also likened to a great earth-
quake, and when Madame Defarge adds to this
The most powerful imaginings of the novel
her grim declaration—‘‘Tell wind and fire where
reach out again and again to touch ultimate
to stop . . . but don’t tell me’’—all four elements
possibilities of violence, whether in the tidal
of the traditional world-picture have been asso-
waves of mass destruction or in the hideous
ciated with the forces of blind destruction, earth
inventiveness of individual acts of cruelty. In
and water and fire and air.
the first chapter we are introduced to France
through the detailed description of an execution There is, ultimately, a peculiar impersonal-
by horrible mutilation, and to England by a ity about this novel, for it is intended to drama-
rapid series of images of murder, mob violence, tize the ways in which human beings become the

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slaves of impersonal forces, at last are made inexorable fate works itself out through
inhuman by them. In order to show the play of human lives. ‘‘At last it is come,’’ Defarge
these elemental forces in history, Dickens adopts declares to his wife as the Revolution begins,
a generalizing novelistic technique that fre- the affirmation of an eternally destined decree
quently approaches allegory, the mode of imagi- ringing through his words. It is as though a law
nation traditionally used for the representation of moral physics were operating with mathema-
of cosmic powers doing battle or carrying out a tical certainty in the events of history: ‘‘Crush
destined plan. The Darkness and Light of the humanity out of shape once more, under similar
novel’s first sentence are almost immediately hammers, and it will twist itself into the same
supported by the introduction of two explicitly tortured forms.’’
allegorical figures in the same chapter; the Source: Robert Alter, ‘‘The Demons of History in
Woodman, Fate; and the Farmer, Death. In Dickens’s Tale,’’ in Motives for Fiction, Harvard
the action that follows, events and characters University Press, 1984, pp. 104–113
often assume the symbolic postures and formal
masks of allegory.
The man seen clinging to the chains of the
Marquis’s carriage, ‘‘all covered with dust, white
as a spectre, tall as a spectre,’’ is no longer the SOURCES
flesh-and-blood father of the child murdered by
Dickens, Charles, A Tale of Two Cities, Pocket Books,
the Marquis but has become a ghastly Messenger,
2004.
sent to exact vengeance from the nobleman. The
Marquis himself, always seen from an immense Forster, John, Review of A Tale of Two Cities, in
distance of implacable irony, is far more an alle- Dickens: The Critical Heritage, edited by Philip Collins,
Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1971, p. 424; originally pub-
gorical representation of the French ruling classes
lished in the Examiner, December 10, 1859.
than an individual character. The elaborate figure
used to describe the Marquis’s death—a new face Glancy, Ruth, ‘‘A Tale of Two Cities’’: Dickens’s
struck to stone by the Gorgon’s head—is entirely Revolutionary Novel, Twayne Publishers, 1991, p. 11.
appropriate, for his death is not a ‘‘realistic’’ mur- Goldberg, Michael, ‘‘Carlyle, Dickens, and the
der but the symbolic acting out of the inexorable Revolution of 1848,’’ in Critical Essays on Charles
workings of retribution. In this novel, it is fitting Dickens’s ‘‘A Tale of Two Cities’’, edited by Michael A.
that one Frenchwoman should actually be called Cotsell, G. K. Hall and Co., 1998, p. 155; originally
published in Dickens Studies Annual, Vol. 12, 1983.
‘‘The Vengeance’’; the narrator at the end will
ironically bid her by name to shout aloud after a Marcus, David D., ‘‘The Carlylean Vision of A Tale of
Thérèse Defarge who is forever beyond answering. Two Cities,’’ in Charles Dickens’s ‘‘A Tale of Two Cities’’,
It is equally fitting that Charles Darnay’s French edited by Harold Bloom, Chelsea House Publishers,
1987, p. 27; originally published in Studies in the Novel,
name, Evrémonde, should sound like an English
Vol. 8, No. 1, 1976.
name of a different sort: he is the Everyman who is
drawn to the heart of destruction and virtually Orwell, George, ‘‘Charles Dickens,’’ in Dickens, Dali &
gives up his life there, in legal fact and physical Others, Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1946, p. 16.
appearance, to be reborn only through the expia- Rance, Nicholas, ‘‘Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities
tory death of another self, and so to return to his (1859),’’ in Critical Essays on Charles Dickens’s ‘‘A Tale of
beloved, whose name means ‘‘light.’’ Two Cities’’, edited by Michael A. Cotsell, G. K. Hall and
Co., 1998, p. 83.
The essence of history, at least when we
view it retrospectively, is inevitability, for his- Rignall, J. M., ‘‘Dickens and the Catastrophic
Continuum of History in A Tale of Two Cities, in
tory above all else the record of what has
Critical Essays on Charles Dickens’s ‘‘A Tale of Two
already happened, which, because it has already Cities’’, edited by Michael A. Cotsell, G. K. Hall and
happened, must forever be as it is and not other- Co., 1998, p. 157; originally published in English
wise. By dramatically translating this notion of Literary History, Vol. 58, No. 3, 1984.
inevitability into the irreversible progress of
Stephen, Sir James Fitzjames, ‘‘A Tale of Two Cities,’’ in
violence in the life of a nation, Dickens, who is The Dickens Critics, edited by George H. Ford and
usually anything but an austere writer, gives Lauriat Lane, Jr., Cornell University Press, 1961, pp.
this novel a kind of oblique reflection of the 40–41, 43; originally published in the Saturday Review,
stern grandeur of the Greek tragedies, where December 17, 1859.

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