FREE ESSAY ON A TALE OF TWO CITIES

A TALE OF TWO CITIES

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the
age of foolishness . . .
Dickens begins A Tale of Two Cities with this famous sentence. It describes the spirit of
the era in which this novel takes place. This era is the latter part of the 1700s - a
time when relations between Britain and France were strained, America declared its
independence, and the peasants of France began one of the bloodiest revolutions in
history. In short, it was a time of liberation and a time of terrible violence. Dickens
describes the two cities at the center of the novel: Paris, a city of extravagance,
aristocratic abuses, and other evils that lead to revolution and London, a city rife with
crime, capital punishment, and disorder. In both cities, the capabilities of an angry mob
were a dangerous thing, to be feared by all.
The tale begins on a road between London and Dover (in southern England) in 1775. Three
strangers in a carriage are traveling along this dangerous road. The carriage encounters
a messenger on a horse who asks for one of the passengers, Jarvis Lorry of Tellson's
Bank. They are wary, because the messenger could be a highwayman, robber, or other
undesirable. However, Mr. Lorry ventures out into the rain to receive the message. He
recognizes the messenger as a man named Jerry, who works for Tellson's Bank, as well.
Jerry tells him to wait at Dover for the young lady. Lorry tells Jerry to relay to the
people at the Bank this message: Recalled to Life. Jerry has no idea what it means and
rides off into the rain.
Dickens then ponders how the heart of a person is a true mystery. Lorry can tell who or
at least of what class the two other passengers are. Traveling on, Lorry dozes in and out
of dreams. His dreams reveal to the reader that his mission is to metaphorically dig a
man out of the grave. He dreams of imaginary conversations with this man he is to recall
to life. Buried how long? Lorry always asks. Almost eighteen years, replies the man.
Lorry brings the man in his dreams to see a woman (the young woman of which Jerry the
messenger spoke). But the man does not know if he still wishes to live or if he can bear
to see the young lady after having been buried for eighteen long years. Upon arriving at
an inn in Dover, Lorry waits for the young lady.
Here the reader learns that the sixty-year-old Lorry is a well-dressed businessman who
works for Tellson's Bank. Tellson's has an office in London, and an office in Paris.
Lorry is above all a man of business, and tries to reduce everything to business terms.
When the young lady arrives, Lorry goes to see her. She is Lucie Manette, a
seventeen-year-old orphan. Lucie believes that she must go to Paris with Lorry because
Tellson's Bank has discovered something regarding her dead father's small bit of
property. However, Lorry nervously tells her the truth: Her father was a well known
scientist in France, whom Lorry knew while working at Tellson's French office. Lucie
vaguely recognizes Lorry because he brought her to London many years ago when she was
orphaned and Tellson's Bank was put in charge of her.
Lucie is shocked when she learns that Tellson's has found her father alive in Paris. He
was imprisoned in the Bastille (a famous French prison) for eighteen years, but no one
knows why. Lorry calls in the servants, and a strong, brusque woman (who we later
discover is Lucie's servant and who essentially raised her) comes in to take care of the
young lady.
Commentary 
The two cities are very important to the development of this novel. Both are violent
cities rife with injustice. The characters travel between them throughout the novel. The
cities provide two distinct settings, each with its own secrets and perils. The major
themes of this novel are resurrection and revolution. The first of the two themes is
introduced in this section. Resurrection is the literal action of bringing the dead back
to life. However, Dickens uses it metaphorically. Lorry likens his mission to digging up
a man who has been buried for eighteen years, in short, recalling him to life.
Resurrection in this novel appears as many things: a second chance at life, an escape of
a death sentence, release from imprisonment, the digging up of graves, and memories of
the dead.