Resurrection is a powerful theme found
throughout the plot of A Tale of Two Cities.
Many of the characters in
the novel are
involved with the intertwining themes of love, redemption, and good versus
evil. The theme of resurrection
involves certain
aspects of all of these themes and brings the story together.
Dr. Manette is the first person to experience
resurrection in A Tale of Two Cities. He
is taken away from his
pregnant wife and
then imprisoned for eighteen very long years.
Over the years, his condition deteriorates until he
forgets his real
name and mindlessly cobbles shoes to pass the time. In "Book the First", he is released
by the French
government and
then put in the care of Monsieur Defarge. He is suddenly "recalled to
life"(19, 35). However, his
rebirth has just
begun and does not become complete until he is reunited with his daughter; Lucy
Manette.
In "Book the Second; The Golden
Thread," the resurrection theme appears several times. At the start of this
book, Charles
Darnay is on trial for treason in England.
He has been traveling back and forth between France and
England and is
thought to be a spy. The people in the
crowd are sure that he will be found guilty, the punishment for this
crime being
death. Darnay is saved by the
ingeniousness of Sydney Carton, and he too is suddenly resurrected or
"recalled to
life".
In both "Book the Second" and
"Book the Third," the reader gets different perspectives of the
resurrection theme.
Jerry Cruncher is
a body-snatcher and he refers to his late night activities as though it is an
honest trade. His son knows
of his father's
nocturnal activities and expresses his
desire to follow in his fathers footsteps: "Oh, Father, I should so
like to be a
resurrection-man when I'm quite growed up!" (166). This parodies the resurrection theme because
it is a
simple physical
resurrection of corpses from the graveyard with seemingly little meaning. The reader later realizes the
significance of
the activities of the resurrection-man in "Book the Third."
In the battle of good versus evil in A Tale of
Two Cities, good tends to resurrect or be resurrected, while the
forces of evil
mimic or parody the resurrection theme.
This is shown twice in the novel.
Old Foulon, the evil French
aristocrat, fakes
his own death so that he will not be slaughtered by the revolution. He is found later, alive, and is
murdered
anyway. This pattern of false death and
false resurrection is also followed by Roger Cly. He too is evil,
faking his death
and being "reborn" as a spy again in a different country.
In "Book the Third," the resurrection
theme plays a pivotal role in the development of the plot. Miss Pross
recognizes the
spy Barsad as her lost brother, Solomon.
In the eyes of Miss Pross, Solomon is resurrected and her
brother is
restored. Sydney Carton meets Barsad
and shortly after, Jerry Cruncher reveals to them that Roger Cly is not
dead. Cruncher knows this through his "honest
trade" of body-snatching. This
allows Barsad to be manipulated by
Sydney Carton so
that Darnay might be saved from death once again.
Sydney Carton is the character that is most
involved with the theme of resurrection in A Tale of Two Cities.
Carton is a man
of very little self esteem, but a tremendous amount of courage and devotion.
Carton is the man who
helped to
resurrect Charles Darnay in England, but it would not be the only time he would
save Darnay's life. Carton has
led a miserable
life and he has always looked up to Darnay.
In Sydney Carton, the theme of love is deeply involved with
the theme of
resurrection. He is in love with Lucy
Manette, even after she marries Charles Darnay. His love for Lucy is
similar to the
knights during the age of chivalry. He
vows to give his life for her or anyone she loves.
Carton soon realizes that he may have to make
good on the promise he made to Lucy.
Darnay is taken prisoner
for a second time
in France and Carton knows that the French rebels will stop at nothing to kill
him this time. Carton
realizes that he
may be able to use his influence over Barsad to switch places with Darnay. Carton looks remarkably
similar to Darnay
and he knows that this may be his only chance to save Darnay.
As Carton organizes the switch, the inner
purpose of his actions can be seen.
Sydney Carton has never succeeded
in life like he
wanted. His vow to Lucy wasn't the only
thing that drove him to endanger his own life, he also saw it as a
way to
redemption. The switch is done
successfully and Carton then realizes fully what he has done. He does not back
away from his
inevitable death, he embraces it. He
becomes peaceful and prophetic as he befriends a women who has
also been
unjustly sentenced to death by the bloodthirsty mob. Carton is content in knowing that his action
will allow
Lucy to live
happily.
In his final moments before death, Carton is
portrayed as a sort of Messiah. He is
giving up his life so that others
may enjoy
theirs. Just before he is beheaded, the
words of Jesus are mentioned; "I am the Resurrection and the life, saith
the Lord: he that
believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall live: and whosoever liveth and
believeth in me shall
never
die"(366).
After Carton is beheaded, Darnay and his family
escape to England. The reader gets a
brief glimpse of their life
after they escape
and how Sydney Carton is literally resurrected.
Sydney Carton's resurrection and redemption are
described as how
he might describe them:
I see that child who lay upon her bosom and
who bore my name, a man winning his way up in
the path of life
which was once mine. I see him winning it so well that my name is made
illustrious by the
light of
his. I see
the blots I threw upon it faded away. I
see him, foremost of the just judges
and
honoured men,
bringing a boy of my name, with a forehead I know,
to this place... and I hear him tell the child my
story, with a
tender and faltering voice.(367)
Carton lives on and with the end of the book the final resurrection
occurs. Criticism of this book comments
that effortless
running on-and-on is rare in the major novels of the middle period, including A
Tale of Two Cities
(Guerard
150). This means that every thing, like
the separate themes intertwining, have a specific purpose in the novel.
The classic
themes of love, redemption, and good versus evil are all included in the
closing use of the resurrection
theme, uniting
and unifying the plot of the novel, capturing and adding to Dickens's style of
writing.
Works Cited
Guerard, Albert. The Triumph of the Novel: Dickens,
Doestoevsky, Faulkner. New York: Oxford
University
Press,1976.
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