Essay On Tale Of Two Cities Theme

Dickens is arguing that resurrection is possible not only for individuals like Manette and Carton, but whole societies.

Dickens is arguing that resurrection is possible not only for individuals like Manette and Carton, but whole societies.But as with individual resurrection, which necessarily involves death (or close to it, in Dr.Sydney Carton experiences a spiritual resurrection through his self-sacrificing death, which redeems his wasted life and saves Darnay and his family.

Resurrection, or coming back to life from the dead, has been a constant fascination in world culture.

Mythologies from Ancient Greece to Rome feature gods, heroes, and creatures like Osiris, Orpheus, and the Phoenix that come back from the dead, often in a new form.

Throughout the novel, characters and situations again and again allude to rising to a new life.

Most prominently so are Alexandre Manette, Charles Darnay, and Sydney Carton.

And while he is about to die on the guillotine, Carton looks forward to a resurrected Paris that will grow out of the ashes of the bloody revolution.

The first book of A Tale of Two Cities is titled 'Recalled to Life,' a reference to the cryptic message Jarvis Lorry receives early in the story. Manette, the physician who has spent 18 years as a political prisoner in the horrible Bastille prison. Manette's freedom from the prison is a type of resurrection.When we first meet him, he has no memory of his previous life or family. Manette is resurrected, regains his memory, and reestablishes himself as a doctor in London. Manette's resurrection opens the book, Sydney Carton's closes it.After a life spent as a drunk, self-loathing loser, Carton makes the decision to be executed in the place of his lookalike Charles Darnay, realizing Darnay, unlike himself, has a family to care for.Charles Darnay also is influenced, to the point of asking Lucie to marry him—and bring new life into the world.Lucie accepts, and thus forms a family tie that will prove essential when Darnay becomes imprisoned in later years.In A Tale of Two Cities, deep symbolism and complex themes are an integral part played by the book to capture the reader's attention and fill one with a sense of intrigue.One of the most recognizable is the theme of resurrection.His 18 years in prison for threatening to expose the crimes of the corrupt aristocrats the St.Evremonde brothers have robbed him of his previous life.Book I of A Tale of Two Cities is centered mostly on the rescue of Alexandre Manette from the horrid French prison, the Bastille; thus, it is titled “Recalled to Life”.Alexandre Manette once had a full life; one of peace and contentment.