A Tale of Two Cities Essays: A Sad Tale Of Two Cities :: Tale Two Cities Essays

A recital Of Two Cities The focus of A Tale Of Two Cities concerns the heading and fervor of 18th carbon European socio-political turmoil, its consequences, and what Dickens presents as the suspend response of an enlightened aristocracy and just citizenry.   The tale opens with Dr. Manettte having spent the conclusion 18 years of his life in the Bastille - innocent of all crimes surrender his disdain for the base actions of a French Marquis. The heinous nature of his childbed induced a madness remedied only by the devoted crawl in of his Lucie.   We next encounter these characters five years later attending the mental testing of Charles Darnay - a nobly born French immigrant who relinquished his station alternatively than partake in the barbarous class structure of 18th century France.   The beautiful and virtuous Lucie Manette is admired by both Sydney Carton and his hideous legal partner, C.J.Stryver. It is the inherently ethical Carton, not the aristocra tic (and bellicose) Stryver who realizes that marriage to Charles Darnay would figure out the greatest happiness to Lucie. Their bliss is short lived however,as the honor bound Darnay returns to Paris.   His prosecution is propelled by a vengeful and newly empowered Madame Defarge a nationalist of the revolution who utilizes the revolutionary Peoples Tribunals to redress grievances committed by the Evremonde clan. Aided by her cohort (aptly given the code name of Vengeance) retribution, not justice, is her furbish up concern. ...I have this race a long time on my register, damned to destruction and extermination.(370).   This savage character - Madames resolute right hand was intermeshed with an axe,...and in her girdle were a pistol and a cruel clapper(244) - exhibits an anger so resolute and ferocious that its like may be comparable only to newly divorced female students here at N.Y.U. - but that is simply my experience.   Dickens does not portray Madame Defarge and her compatriots as morally bankrupt but rather depicts their inevitable creation in the heavy aristocratic class structure of 18th century Europe. A Tale Of Two Cities is written in a perfectly linear overture of this theme. It initially portrays the oppressive nature of the aristocracy (the imprisonment of Dr. Manette, the accidental death of a child and the trite response of the Marquis - among other lifelike illustration) which leads to the fervor of revolutionary assassins seeking justice.