Study Questions & Essay Topics
Study Questions
1. Discuss at
least one way in which Dickens parallels the personal and the political
in A Tale of Two Cities.
In his dual focus on the French Revolution
and the individual lives of his characters, Dickens draws many comparisons
between the historical developments taking place and the characters’
triumphs and travails. Perhaps the most direct example of this parallel
comes in the final chapter of the novel, in which Dickens matches
Sydney Carton’s death with the French Revolution’s most frenzied
violence, linking the two through the concept of resurrection.
Throughout the novel, Carton struggles to free
himself from a life of apathy and meaninglessness while the French
lower classes fight for political emancipation. Each of these struggles
involves death—Carton decides to give his life so that Charles Darnay may
escape, and the revolutionaries make a spectator sport out of the
execution of aristocrats. Still, each struggle holds the promise
of renewed life. Nowhere is this promise more evident than in the
prophecy that the narrator ascribes to Carton at the novel’s end.
Here, Carton envisions a new city rising up from the ashes of the
ruined Paris as clearly as he sees Lucie, Darnay, and their son
celebrating and extending his life as a man of worth and honor.
Dickens thus closes his novel with a note of triumphant hope both
political and personal.
2. One of the
novel’s most important motifs is the figure of the double. What
is the effect of Dickens’s doubling technique? Does he use doubles
to draw contrasts, comparisons, or both?
From early on in the novel, various characters
seemed paired as opposites. Darnay, for instance, appears capable
and accomplished, while Carton seems lazy and lacks ambition. Similarly,
Miss Pross represents respectable English order while Madame Defarge embodies
its opposite: hot-blooded revolution. As the novel progresses, however,
these doubled characters come to relate more as twins than as opposites.
Both Carton and Darnay share a common love for Lucie, and Lucie
exerts a power over Carton that enables him to shed his skin as
a “jackal” and adopt a life that actually may exceed Darnay’s in
terms of devotion and heroism. A common ground exists even between
Miss Pross and Madame Defarge. The two women share a sense of uncompromising
duty, as becomes manifest in their confrontation in Lucie’s apartment.
Miss Pross proves as fiercely devoted to Lucie’s life and safety
as Madame Defarge is to the idea of a new French Republic purged
of all aristocrats. Each is willing to give up her life for her
beliefs. In revealing these resemblances, Dickens suggests that
even seeming opposites can possess underlying similarities. This
gesture, along with Dickens’s inclusion of multiple coincidences
in his plot, contributes to the author’s larger message that human
beings inhabit a world of multiple hidden patterns and connections.
3. Discuss
Dickens’s use of foreshadowing in A Tale of Two Cities.
Dickens makes frequent use of foreshadowing,
as it allows him to build suspense throughout his narrative and
imbue it with a haunting atmosphere. He fills the novel with details
that anticipate future events. For example, the wine cask breaking
in the street and the echoing footsteps that can be heard in the
Manettes’ apartment hint to the reader about the imminence of the
great and violent mob that eventually overtakes Paris. In this way,
the reader becomes more aware of the situation than Dickens’s characters
and feels ever more emotionally and psychologically involved in
the narrative. Given that Dickens published A Tale of Two
Cities in short, weekly installments, this technique was
a particularly effective means of sustaining the reader’s interest
in the novel. The reader was teased by hints of terrific events
on the horizon and satisfied only by reading (and first buying)
further installments.
Suggested Essay Topics
1. Some critics charge that Dickens,
in much of his work, failed to create meaningful characters because
he exaggerated them to parodic extremes. Do you find this a fair
assessment of his characterization in A Tale of Two Cities?
Does the author’s use of caricature detract from his novel’s ability
to speak to human nature?
2. Dickens relies heavily on
coincidence to fuel the plot of A Tale of Two Cities:
letters are found bearing crucial infor-mation, for example, and
long-lost brothers are discovered in crowded public places. Do such
incidents strengthen or weaken the plot and overall themes of the
novel?
3. Discuss Dickens’s attitude
toward the French Revolution. Does he sympathize with the revolutionaries?
4. Based on Dickens’s portrayals
of the villainous characters in his novel (particularly Madame Defarge),
what conclusions might the reader draw about the author’s notions
of human evil? Does he seem to think that people are born evil?
If so, do they lack the ability to change? Or does he suggest that circumstances
drive human beings to their acts of cruelty?
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