Book Review #4-A tale of two cities

A tale of two cities telling the story happened in the year 1775, when England and France are undergoing a period of social upheaval and turmoil. The forces that are leading to revolution in France are colliding with a circle of people in England, causing their destinies to be irrevocably intertwined. Charles Dickens did a great job to reveal the colliding between classes and the motion behind French revolution by telling the story of two cities which implies to a lot of two opposite objects.

In the “Book the First” called “Recalled to life” illustrates the first two cities in this story—dark life and hope life. Dr. Alexander Manette has been imprisoned in the Bastille for eighteen years. Under the dark prison and savage torture, he didn’t really remember who he was. To the other people, he has been burned lively. That becomes his dark life city. At the meantime, author gave us a lot of background about French at that time; we feel hunger, anxiety and hatred around the city. However, Charles Dickens gave us the image of the hope life city which is the city that Dr. Alexander Manette recalled to his life. From the conversation between Defarge and his wife, as well as the members of Jacques, we feel energy, confidence and the decision in their heart. The strength of those people is lighting the candles in the dark city and that becomes the bridge from dark life to the new hopeful life.

Fate and duality have been another two major roles playing in this story which creates other ideas for the two cities. “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times”. As we open the book and this sentence emerges into our mind. This strong duality has been set up in the beginning. Charles Dickens vividly portrays the hunger of the French people and the brutality of the French aristocracy by showing the Evremonde family. It was the best times that lower class can show their desire for retribution against the wrongs that have been done to those of the class. It was the worst time that it was a period of terror. Trees were waiting to be formed into guillotines in France, and blood spread over the cities. However, these things were inevitable which has been revealed as fate in this story.

The A tale of two cities kept tracking of time by describing tree waiting to be formed into guillotine, hunger getting worse and worse, which is really important because time carries out the fate. All the things happened in this story was inevitable. It was not some kind of accident. It was the fate determining their fortune. When Darnay met Luice and fell in love with her, her family has been put into dangerous, even though Luice’s father has really good reasons to be a hero at that time. But Darnay’s past does catch up with him and he must pay for the wrong s of his ancestors. Although Madame Defarge has too much reasons to hate aristocracy, her ceaseless bloody thirstiness drove her to death. Everything has its own limits, once we overstep the bound of that limits, we will be decided by fate not ourselves’ faith. I think that is what Charles Dickens trying to tell us.