A TALE OF TWO CITIES
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A TALE OF TWO CITIES |
Plot Overview
The year is 1775, and social ills plague both France
and England. Jerry Cruncher, an odd-job man who works for Tellson’s Bank, stops
the Dover mail-coach with an urgent message for Jarvis Lorry. The message
instructs Lorry to wait at Dover for a young woman, and Lorry responds with the
cryptic words, “Recalled to Life.” At Dover, Lorry is met by Lucie Manette, a
young orphan whose father, a once-eminent doctor whom she supposed dead, has
been discovered in France. Lorry escorts Lucie to Paris, where they meet
Defarge, a former servant of Doctor Manette, who has kept Manette safe in a
garret. Driven mad by eighteen years in the Bastille, Manette spends all of his
time making shoes, a hobby he learned while in prison. Lorry assures Lucie that
her love and devotion can recall her father to life, and indeed they do.
The year is now 1780. Charles Darnay stands accused of
treason against the English crown. A bombastic lawyer named Stryver pleads
Darnay’s case, but it is not until his drunk, good-for-nothing colleague,
Sydney Carton, assists him that the court acquits Darnay. Carton clinches his
argument by pointing out that he himself bears an uncanny resemblance to the
defendant, which undermines the prosecution’s case for unmistakably identifying
Darnay as the spy the authorities spotted. Lucie and Doctor Manette watched the
court proceedings, and that night, Carton escorts Darnay to a tavern and asks
how it feels to receive the sympathy of a woman like Lucie. Carton despises and
resents Darnay because he reminds him of all that he himself has given up and
might have been.
In France, the cruel Marquis Evrémonde runs down a
plebian child with his carriage. Manifesting an attitude typical of the
aristocracy in regard to the poor at that time, the Marquis shows no regret,
but instead curses the peasantry and hurries home to his chateau, where he
awaits the arrival of his nephew, Darnay, from England. Arriving later that
night, Darnay curses his uncle and the French aristocracy for its abominable
treatment of the people. He renounces his identity as an Evrémonde and
announces his intention to return to England. That night, the Marquis is
murdered; the murderer has left a note signed with the nickname adopted by
French revolutionaries: “Jacques.”
A year passes, and Darnay asks Manette for permission
to marry Lucie. He says that, if Lucie accepts, he will reveal his true
identity to Manette. Carton, meanwhile, also pledges his love to Lucie,
admitting that, though his life is worthless, she has helped him dream of a
better, more valuable existence. On the streets of London, Jerry Cruncher gets
swept up in the funeral procession for a spy named Roger Cly. Later that night,
he demonstrates his talents as a “Resurrection-Man,” sneaking into the cemetery
to steal and sell Cly’s body. In Paris, meanwhile, another English spy known as
John Barsad drops into Defarge’s wine shop. Barsad hopes to turn up evidence
concerning the mounting revolution, which is still in its covert stages. Madame
Defarge sits in the shop knitting a secret registry of those whom the
revolution seeks to execute. Back in London, Darnay, on the morning of his
wedding, keeps his promise to Manette; he reveals his true identity and, that
night, Manette relapses into his old prison habit of making shoes. After nine
days, Manette regains his presence of mind, and soon joins the newlyweds on
their honeymoon. Upon Darnay’s return, Carton pays him a visit and asks for his
friendship. Darnay assures Carton that he is always welcome in their home.
The year is now 1789. The peasants in Paris storm the
Bastille and the French Revolution begins. The revolutionaries murder
aristocrats in the streets, and Gabelle, a man charged with the maintenance of
the Evrémonde estate, is imprisoned. Three years later, he writes to Darnay,
asking to be rescued. Despite the threat of great danger to his person, Darnay
departs immediately for France.
As soon as Darnay arrives in Paris, the French
revolutionaries arrest him as an emigrant. Lucie and Manette make their way to
Paris in hopes of saving him. Darnay remains in prison for a year and three
months before receiving a trial. In order to help free him, Manette uses his
considerable influence with the revolutionaries, who sympathize with him for
having served time in the Bastille. Darnay receives an acquittal, but that same
night he is arrested again. The charges, this time, come from Defarge and his vengeful
wife. Carton arrives in Paris with a plan to rescue Darnay and obtains the help
of John Barsad, who turns out to be Solomon Pross, the long-lost brother of
Miss Pross, Lucie’s loyal servant.
At
Darnay’s trial, Defarge produces a letter that he discovered in Manette’s old
jail cell in the Bastille. The letter explains the cause of Manette’s
imprisonment. Years ago, the brothers Evrémonde (Darnay’s father and uncle)
enlisted Manette’s medical assistance. They asked him to tend to a woman, whom
one of the brothers had raped, and her brother, whom the same brother had
stabbed fatally. Fearing that Manette might report their misdeeds, the
Evrémondes had him arrested. Upon hearing this story, the jury condemns Darnay
for the crimes of his ancestors and sentences him to die within twenty-four
hours. That night, at the Defarge’s wine shop, Carton overhears Madame Defarge
plotting to have Lucie and her daughter (also Darnay’s daughter) executed as
well; Madame Defarge, it turns out, is the surviving sibling of the man and
woman killed by the Evrémondes. Carton arranges for the Manettes’ immediate
departure from France. He then visits Darnay in prison, tricks him into
changing clothes with him, and, after dictating a letter of explanation, drugs
his friend unconscious. Barsad carries Darnay, now disguised as Carton, to an
awaiting coach, while Carton, disguised as Darnay, awaits execution. As Darnay,
Lucie, their child, and Dr. Manette speed away from Paris, Madame Defarge
arrives at Lucie’s apartment, hoping to arrest her. There she finds the
supremely protective Miss Pross. A scuffle ensues, and Madame Defarge dies by
the bullet of her own gun. Sydney Carton meets his death at the guillotine, and
the narrator confidently asserts that Carton dies with the knowledge that he
has finally imbued his life with meaning.
Plot Analysis
A Tale of Two Cities is structured around a central
conflict between Charles Darnay’s desire to break free of his family legacy,
and Madame Defarge’s desire to hold him accountable for the violent actions of
his father and uncle. This conflict embodies conflicting aspects of the French
Revolution in general: on one hand, the Revolution led to the deaths of many
people who hadn’t done anything wrong, and were likely good people on a
personal level. On the other hand, the Revolution was a response to generations
of well-documented injustices. Like Darnay, many French aristocrats could be
considered guilty by association, or as a result of profiting from systems of
exploitation. The plot is set in motion years before the action of the novel
begins, when the Evremonde brothers participate in a series of violent and
cruel actions toward members of Madame Defarge’s family, and then unjustly
imprison young Dr. Manette in order to conceal their crimes.
Readers don’t find out about these incidents until
late in the novel, but the fact that they have been propelling the plot mirrors
how history unfolds. The violence of the Revolution doesn’t just come out of
nowhere: it breaks out because of the accumulation of decades of unjust
treatment and abuses of power. Similarly, crimes committed generations earlier
continue to haunt and threaten Darnay, Lucie, and Dr. Manette. Key events like
Darnay building a career for himself in England, getting married, and starting
his own family seem to be taking him closer to his desire of living a good and
honest life without exploiting or hurting anyone. However, as Darnay eventually
realizes, he hasn’t actually resolved the conflict because he has never taken
responsibility for the suffering his family has caused: he has only run away
from it. As Darnay admits, “He knew very well that in his love for Lucie, his
renunciation of his social place… had been hurried and incomplete.” In order to
fully obtain his desire and break all bonds with a system he despises, Darnay
returns to France.
Darnay’s return moves the action quickly toward its
climax. When Darnay gets arrested, freed, and then arrested a second time, the
conflict intensifies between Darnay’s freedom, and Madame Defarge’s desire to
see him and all of his family punished. The novel resolves this conflict with
twin climaxes: Sidney Carton smuggles Darnay out of prison and takes his place
on the execution block, while Madame Dafarge becomes a victim of her own desire
for violence after she is killed while struggling with Miss Pross. These
climaxes allow Darnay to achieve his goal of being fully liberated from his
family burden: after another man dies for his sins, he goes on to live a happy
and peaceful life. The falling action is largely revealed in Carton’s
hypothetical final vision, showing the Manette-Darnay family living happily
together, and faithfully remembering the man who gave up his life for them.
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