A Tale of Two Cities

Key Facts

full title  ·  A Tale of Two Cities

author  · Charles Dickens

type of work  · Novel

genre  · Historical fiction

language  · English

time and place written  · 1859, London

date of first publication  · Published in weekly serial form between April 20, 1859, and November 26, 1859

publisher  · Chapman and Hall

narrator  · The narrator is anonymous and can be thought of as Dickens himself. The narrator maintains a clear sympathy for the story’s morally good characters, including Sydney Carton, Charles Darnay, Doctor Manette, and Lucie Manette. Though he criti-cizes ruthless and hateful figures such as Madame Defarge, who cannot appreciate love, he understands that oppression has made these characters the bloodthirsty creatures they have become.

point of view  · The narrator speaks in the third person, deftly switching his focus between cities and among several characters. The narrator is also omniscient—not only revealing the thoughts, emotions, and motives of the characters, but also supplying historical context to the events that occur, commenting confidently upon them.

tone  · Sentimental, sympathetic, sarcastic, horrified, grotesque, grim

tense  · Past

setting (time)  · 1775–1793

setting (place)  · London and its outskirts; Paris and its outskirts

protagonist  · Charles Darnay or Sydney Carton

major conflict  · Madame Defarge seeks revenge against Darnay for his relation to the odious Marquis Evrémonde; Carton, Manette, Lucie, and Jarvis Lorry strive to protect Darnay from the bloodthirsty revolutionaries’ guillotine.

rising action  · The ongoing murder of aristocrats after the storming of the Bastille; Darnay’s decision to go to Paris to save Gabelle; the Defarges’ demand that Darnay be arrested

climax  · During a court trial, Defarge reads aloud a letter that he has discovered, which Manette wrote during his imprisonment in the Bastille and which indicts Darnay as a member of the cruel aristocratic lineage of Evrémonde (Book the Third, Chapter 10). In this climactic moment, it becomes clear that Madame Defarge’s overzealous hatred of Darnay can end only in death—either his or hers.

falling action  · The jury’s sentencing of Darnay to death; Darnay’s wish that Manette not blame himself; Carton’s decision to sacrifice his life to save Darnay

themes · The ever-present possibility of resurrection; the necessity of sacrifice; the tendency toward violence and oppression in revolutionaries

motifs  · Doubles; shadows and darkness; imprisonment

symbols  · The wine that spills out of the cask in Book the First, Chapter 5, symbolizes the peasants’ hunger and the blood that will be let when the revolution comes into full swing; Madame Defarge’s knitting symbolizes the vengefulness of the common people; the Marquis is a symbol of pure evil—the Gorgon’s head symbolizes his absolute coldness toward the suffering of the poor.

foreshadowing  · The wine cask breaking outside Defarge’s wine shop; the echoing footsteps in the Manettes’ sitting room; the resemblance between Carton and Darnay; Carton’s indication of this resemblance in a London court, which results in Darnay’s acquittal; Doctor Manette’s reaction after learning Darnay’s true identity