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A Tale of Two Cities
Charles dickens.
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| Theme Analysis |
Closely connected to the theme of sacrifice is the promise of resurrection. Christianity teaches that Christ was resurrected into eternal life for making the ultimate sacrifice (his death) for mankind. Near the end of A Tale of Two Cities , Carton remembers a Christian prayer: "I am the resurrection and the life." As he goes to the guillotine to sacrifice himself, Carton has a vision of his own resurrection, both in heaven and on earth through Lucie and Charles 's child, named Sydney Carton, whose life fulfills the original Carton's lost potential. Yet Carton's is not the only resurrection in the novel. After having been imprisoned for years, Dr. Manette is "recalled to life" by Lucie's love. Jerry Cruncher , meanwhile, works as a "resurrection man" stealing body parts from buried corpses, but by the end of the novel he gives it up in favor of praying for a holier resurrection of his own.
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A Tale of Two Cities: Resurrection Theme
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Published: Jun 29, 2018
Words: 2008 | Pages: 4.5 | 11 min read
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Examples Of Resurrection In A Tale Of Two Cities
The theme of resurrection is present throughout A Tale of Two Cities. A key example of this is when Sydney Carton sacrifices himself to save Charles Darnay’s life. Darnay had been previously sentenced to death, but Carton takes his place, knowing that he will be executed instead. This act of self-sacrifice demonstrates the power of resurrection, as Carton is reborn in a sense through his willingness to give up his own life.
Another example of resurrection can be seen in the character of Madame Defarge. After her husband and son are killed by the revolutionaries, she becomes consumed with revenge. However, after witnessing the execution of her enemies, she has a change of heart and decides to forgive them. This transformation shows the potential for resurrection in all people, no matter how evil they may seem.
Ultimately, the theme of resurrection in A Tale of Two Cities represents the hope and possibility for change in humanity. Even in the face of death and destruction, there is always the chance for rebirth and redemption. This makes A Tale of Two Cities a powerful and timeless story about the human condition.
Charles Dickens employs a variety of motifs in A Tale of Two Cities, including revenge, revolution, fate, imprisonment, and more. Despite their significance as fundamental components of the book, resurrection was the main topic aside from the obvious one that is revolution. I chose rebirth instead of revolution since it is relevant outside of this novels context (though Dickens made some excellent points about mob-mentality). It’s also worth noting that resurrection has a lot to do with forgiveness and sacrifice.
A Tale of Two Cities is a novel about the French Revolution, and in particular the events leading up to and following the execution of King Louis XVI. The story follows several characters, including Charles Darnay, Sydney Carton, Dr. Manette, and Lucie Manette.
A Tale of Two Cities is a novel about resurrection in the sense that many characters are given a second chance, including Charles Darnay who was originally sentenced to death but was pardoned, Sydney Carton who gives his life for Charles Darnay, and Dr. Manette who is reunited with his daughter after 18 years of imprisonment.
These examples illustrate how Dickens uses resurrection as a metaphor for hope and second chances. Another example which highlights this theme is when the Marquis St. Evrémonde is killed. Though he was a cruel and evil man, his death sparks the beginning of the end for the Reign of Terror.
In this way, his death can be seen as a resurrection, in that he was given a second chance to make things right. Finally, sacrifice is another important theme which is closely tied into resurrection. Many characters in A Tale of Two Cities are willing to make sacrifices for others, including Charles Darnay who gives up his life for Sydney Carton, and Dr. Manette who makes many sacrifices for his daughter Lucie.
These examples demonstrate how Dickens uses resurrection as a metaphor for hope and sacrifice. Ultimately, A Tale of Two Cities is a story about rebirth and hope in the face of darkness and despair. Though the novel is set during the French Revolution, the themes are still relevant today, and remind us that there is always hope for a better tomorrow.
The term “recalled to life” introduces the main theme of resurrection, with Dr. Manette’s release from the Bastille after 18 years of solitary confinement, and sets Dickens’ plot in motion. Charles Darnay’s sentence to die is directly as a result of secret papers left in Manette’s cell at the conclusion of the novel. Cruncher’s exhumation graphically illustrates the idea of rebirth: he literally resurrects people from their graves.
Dickens skillfully uses resurrection throughout A Tale of Two Cities to underscore the novel’s main theme: that there is a “curious inverse relationship between the worth of men and the importance of their affairs.” Resurrection underscores this theme by dramatizing that life, even in its most unjust form, ultimately triumphs over death. This triumphant note is sounded repeatedly in A Tale of Two Cities, most notably in Sydney Carton’s sacrifice on the guillotine.
The resurrection of Charles Darnay from the dead after his execution symbolizes the hope for renewal that pervades A Tale of Two Cities. In an age of great political and social turmoil, Dickens offers his readers a message of hope. The theme of resurrection reinforces this message, suggesting that no matter how great the darkness, there is always the possibility of new life and new hope.
Years after his cemetery dig, Cruncher reveals that Cly’s coffin was simply made of stones and earth. This knowledge allows Sydney Carton to get John Barsad, Cly’s associate, to help him arrange a plot to save Charles Darnay’s life. Another crucial but often overlooked example of resurrection is when Dr. Manette regains his confidence and rises to become the leader of the group. Dr. Manette overcomes his previous existence and has a rebirth in some sense.
Carton’s death is the final act of redemption that completes his self-sacrifice and resurrection as a new person. In A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens uses the theme of resurrection to represent hope in the midst of despair, and to show that through self-sacrifice, rebirth and new life are possible.
The novel A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens is set during the time of the French Revolution. The story follows the lives of several characters who are caught up in the events of the revolution. One of the major themes in the novel is resurrection, which is represented both literally and figuratively.
Literally, resurrection refers to the physical act of coming back to life after being dead. In A Tale of Two Cities, there are several examples of characters being resurrected from the dead. One of the most notable examples is when Jerry Cruncher goes to dig up a grave in order to sell the body for money. When he opens the coffin, he finds that the body inside has already been stolen. This provides an opportunity for Sydney Carton to save Charles Darnay’s life later on in the story.
Figuratively, resurrection refers to the act of coming back to life in other ways than physically. A character can be resurrected emotionally, spiritually, or mentally. In A Tale of Two Cities, Dr. Manette is a good example of a character who undergoes a figurative resurrection. After being imprisoned for many years, he is finally released and slowly starts to recover from the trauma of his experience. He eventually becomes a leader of the group of people who are fighting against the unjust social system.
Sydney Carton is another character who undergoes a figurative resurrection. Throughout the novel, he is shown to be a very unhappy person who drinks heavily and doesn’t care about anyone but himself. However, towards the end of the story, he makes the selfless decision to sacrifice his own life in order to save Charles Darnay. This act of redemption completes his transformation into a new person, and represents the hope that is possible even in the midst of despair.
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Student Essay: Resurrection in A Tale of Two Cities
By Katie Holford
Both central and secondary characters in dickens' novel are defined in terms of miraculous restorations to life..
“He that believeth in me, although he were dead, yet shall he live.” This scripture reference in A Tale of Two Cities profoundly represents the spiritual death of several characters that brings them to the power of resurrection. In the story, several men are beaten into moral and physical submission by a corrupt society; this repression of their right to happiness causes the decay of hope in their lives. However, the deterioration of their humanity eventually leads them to their respective redemptions: Dr. Manette, Mr. Cruncher, and Sydney Carton all find new life in the ruins of their past.
Dr. Manette, the father of the lovely Lucie, suffered greatly at the hands of the French government. Because of his compassion and fervor for justice, he was cruelly locked up for eighteen long years. In those years, although he was physically weak, his autonomy and intellect were rendered even more feeble, suppressed by the looming prison walls. Even when he was set free bodily, his mind and spirit were left in captivity. He was weak, but “it was not the faintness of physical weakness … it was the faintness of solitude.” It was only through his daughter that he was finally able to reclaim control of his life and expel the darkness that had been thrown, shroud-like, over his mind. She was the “golden thread that united him to a Past beyond his misery, and to a Present beyond his misery: and the sound of her voice, the light of her face, the touch of her hand, had a strong beneficial influence with him almost always.” Slowly but surely, Dr. Manette regained his hope and vivacity as Lucie replaced the years he had spent as a dead man with tranquility and promise. Dr. Manette’s glorious resurrection was complete when “for the first time the Doctor felt … that his suffering was strength and power.” Thus, the same suffering that had condemned Dr. Manette to a life of uncertainty and fear lifted him out of those same troubles, to his and his family’s redemption.
By contrast, Mr. Cruncher’s spiritual decay was of his own doing. In the beginning of the novel, Cruncher was a terror to his family, treating his wife without mercy. He “led the unfortunate woman a hard life by dwelling on any complaints he could bring against her.” He had no regard for her well-being; instead, he incessantly raged at her for “flopping” (i.e., praying). He lived with a complete lack of regard for right and wrong, treating those in his life who deserved the most respect with utter indecency. He willfully deceived his family so that he could rob people’s graves for profit; he even lacked any concern for his son. But the close prospect of death at the hands of the blood-thirsty French mob made him rethink his ways. It was then that he saw the flaws of his actions, and he understood the negative ways in which he was affecting not only his family, but himself as well. He was empty, suffering under a self-inflicted burden, filling his life with deception and anger. Fortunately, this did not drive him to despair: Cruncher had the fortitude to confront his previous lifestyle and transcend it, resolving to become a better man. He renounced his grave-robbing, vowing to “never do it no more,” as well as sorrowfully promising to not “interfere with Mrs. Cruncher’s flopping.” Cruncher’s genuine change of heart uplifted his soul and led it towards the good despite his unethical past.
"O Miss Manette, when the little picture of a happy father's face looks up in yours, when you see your own bright beauty springing up anew at your feet, think now and then that there is a man who would give his life, to keep a life you love beside you!" Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
Sydney Carton had also led an immoral life that caused his spiritual demise. At the beginning of the novel, he was the “idlest and most unpromising of men”; he filled his time with drinking and wallowing in misery. However, his redemption began as he met the Manettes and Darnay and began to find love inside him, even while he still appeared to others as a rough, unfeeling lowlife. In the ruins of his immorality, there was the seed of budding hope, only recognized by the most innocent: Lucie’s daughter, “little Lucie.” She had a “strange sympathy with him—an instinctive delicacy of pity for him.” Slowly, Sydney Carton was able to access this inward longing for a meaningful life, and manifest it in the most selfless action: laying down one’s life for a friend. The tired beginnings of Carton’s life would grow by his death into something memorable; his sacrifice would be forever remembered not only by Lucie junior, but also by her family and even her descendants. He was the man who had given his life so they could live, the man who had paid the ultimate sacrifice honorably and without fear. Sydney Carton “had wandered and struggled and got lost, but … at length struck to his road and saw its end.” Because of his insignificant and troubled life, death for him was not an end, but the establishment of his legacy in the hearts of those whom he loved. Without his initial brokenness, his sacrifice would only be a meaningful death; with his broken life, that meaningful death became a shining redemption.
Dr. Manette, Mr. Cruncher, and Sydney Carton all improved themselves in the midst of suffering. Instead of bowing under the temptation of what was easy but false, they found it within themselves to stand up against their debilitating pasts and turn them into instruments for good. They transformed their suffering into their own redemptions, making sacrifices for those they loved. In doing so, they not only created peace in the lives of those around them, but also within themselves. As Sydney Carton said, “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.”
__________________________________________________________________________________
Katie Holford is a junior at Scottsdale Preparatory Academy, AZ, where she plays soccer, indoor volleyball, and beach volleyball. She also loves spending time with her family and two dogs, as well as driving to different spots around Scottsdale with her friends. She is looking forward to attending a college where she can continue her liberal arts education.
Each time we administer the CLT, the forty highest-scoring students are invited to contribute to the Journal. Congratulations to Miss Holford on her high score! To see more from our top students, check out these essays on female villains in classical tragedy , the philosophy of St. Thomas , and the shared themes of Beowulf and Ecclesiastes ; and be sure not to miss out on our podcast on education and culture, Anchored .
Published on 29th April, 2022. Page image of The Storming of the Bastille by Jean-Pierre Houël, 1789.
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Home / Essay Samples / Literature / A Tale of Two Cities / A Theme Of Resurrection In A Tale Of Two Cities By Charles Dickens
A Theme Of Resurrection In A Tale Of Two Cities By Charles Dickens
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