How Does Dickens Present The Power In A Tale Of Two Cities

The historical novel, a Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens takes place in England and France around the time of the French Revolution. It follows two families, the Manettes and the Defarges. Both families have a connection with Charles Darnay, a man who left his aristocratic family to live a normal life. Both families’ relationship with Darnay leads the families together in France during the revolution to cause deadly results. Dickens uses the oppression of the revolutionaries to indicate that living with darkness and suffering for so long leads people so far from the light of humanity that all they see and know is darkness and cruelty. The violence of the revolutionaries is portrayed by the changes in day and nights, the shadows of
Madame Defarge, the cruel leader of the revolutionaries, is the epitome of darkness. She is ruthless and kills without thought, for the shadow of her past motivates her to create a change in the class structure of France. Later in the novel, it is revealed that Madame Defarge’s family was killed by the aristocracy, so by killing the current aristocracy, she believe she will avenge their death of her siblings. The narrator says, “The shadow of the manner of these Defarges was dark upon himself, for all that, and in his secret mind it troubled him greatly” (278). Mr. Lorry, a friend of the Manette’s, meets Madame Defarge and unconsciously sees her as dangerous, but he doesn’t know why he feels that way. Madame Defarge accepts the shadow of her past and lets herself become a shadow herself. She represents darkness and death, and perhaps she is the personification of all revolutionaries. All of the revolutionaries felt as if they had been wronged by the aristocracy, and they all want blood. Madame Defarge is a representation of all the anger the revolutionaries possess, but she just wanted to hurt the people who hurt her and ruin her life. She displays the evil inside people, but Madame Defarge has good intentions, to change and help France, but the evil and anger inside of her blind sides the
Lucie has had a difficult life, for she grew up thinking she was an orphan. She is described as a young pretty woman with long blond hair, which represents the light and humanity inside her. Despite the shadows and darkness of her past, Lucie manages to maintain a sanguine disposition, and her optimistic attitude helps inspires and provides hope of humanity to others. When Lucie first meets her father, Dr. Manette is slightly crazy and in a dark place. Upon their first meeting, Lucie tries to help her father and give him hope for recovery. Dickens says, “Which were now extending towards him, trembling with eagerness to lay the spectral face upon her warm young breast, and love it back to life and hope—so exactly was the expression repeated (though in stronger characters) on her fair young face, that it looked as though it had passed like a moving light, from him to her” (47). Lucie immediately wants to help Dr. Manette, and she acts like a beam of light passing between them. Throughout the novel, Lucie is the “golden thread” that ties everyone together, and she frequently is used as a beacon of hope for the other characters. Her entire being embodies love and compassion, which Dickens uses to rival Madame Defarge’s shadow. Lucie Manette is meant to show the