Tale of Two Cities In the Christian faith, the picture of making the ultimate sacrifice, that sacrifice that is done for the better of society, is an image that is constantly linked with Christ’s ultimate sacrifice to save society. This kind of sacrifice is usually done for the greater good and out of a love that is so great, that it doesn’t mind to give up what is treasured most within us, our life. In the novel A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens portrays this concept of sacrifice to represent the outcome of the French Revolution and the effects of this on the people involved in it. Throughout the novel, the many sacrifices that are portrayed have a deeper meaning than just a personal-level based sacrifice since the pain that the characters or mobs eventually give up are for the greater good. In this sense, the sacrifices people take in order to redeem the faults of the society during the French Revolution will eventually resurface in the future as the “beautiful city” that Sydney Carton imagines as he makes the greatest sacrifice of all in order to redeem mankind from the sins they have committed during the French Revolution (p. 351). In A Tale of Two Cities, there are many personal-based sacrifices that people would argue, are not entirely Christian because they are based more upon the personal gain from it, such as happiness. However, the very nature of a sacrifice as “the salvation of the world’s evils” suggests that no matter the true reason behind the sacrifice, it is the actual act of giving up something for others that constitutes this noble act (Wilson). This notion of sacrifice is an exemplified in the novel with Darnay’s renunciation of his aristocratic title because he didn’t feel comfortable with the current situation of his aristocratic family and the peasants. Although this kind of sacrifice is a release of guilt for Darnay and thus, a personal sacrifice, it does have values that apply for the greater good of the society. This action is
