Commentary About the Love and Redemption in the Tale of Two Cities

Commentary about the Love and Redemption in The Tale of Two Cities [Abstract] This paper begins with an introduction about the content of The Tale of Two Cities. Under the societal background of England and France during the French Revolution in 18th century, The Tale of Two Cities, which was written by Charles Dickens, describes the veritable living conditions and the vivid era characteristics. The novel not only reflects the poignant class struggle and distorted social circumstances, but also shows the different fates of different characters under the certain social background through depicting positive and negative images and plots.

Meanwhile, The Tale of Two Cities is an expression of the purpose of the author Charles Dickens. That is to say, the novel expresses the deep thinking about oppression and struggle, as well as the high praise about love and redemption, which implicit the anticipation about the bright future. [Key Words] love; redemption; benevolence spirit; typical characters; social background; anticipation about the bright future Contents Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………. 1 Contents……………………………………………………………………………………. 2 1. Brief Introduction about the The Tale of Two Cities ………. ………………………... 3 1. The plot about the novel……………………………………………………….. ….... 3 1. 2 Introduction about the fates of the Main Characters……………….......................... 3 1. 2. 1 Dr. Manatte……………………………………………………………………... 3 1. 2. 2 Lucie Manat………………………………………………………. ……….......... 3 1. 2. 3 Sydney Carton……………………………………................................................ 4 1. 2. 4 Charles Darnay……………………………. ……………………………............. 4 1. 2. 5 Madame Defarge………………………………………………….. ……….......... 4 1. 2. 6 Marquis St. Evremonde………………………………………………………....... 4 2. The Love and the Redemption among the Idealistical Characters………………... 4 2. The memory of Dr. Manette …………………………. ………………………………. 4 2. 2 Get out of the Aristocratic Ring………………………………………………………5 2. 3 The Sacrifice of love……………………………….. ……….. ……………………….. 6 2. 4 The Spiritual Bailment in These Idealists…………………………………………………... 7 3. The Love and the Redemption among the Revolutionary and Federal Aristocracy………………………………………………………………………….. …7 1. Tragedy of Love and Redemption …………………….. ………………………... …... 7 2. The Deserved Punishment of the Federal Aristocracy…………………... ………….. 8 3. The Ruin in the Chaos……………………….. …………………………………... ….. 9 4. The Love and the Redemption between the Two Cities ………………………. .. 10 1. The Complicated World…………………….. ……………………………………. …10 2. Deep Reasons behind the Crazy Revolutionary Wave…………………………. ……10 5. Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………………11 References …………………………………………………………………………... …. 11 1. Brief Introduction about the The Tale of Two Cities 1. The plot about the novel The novel The Tale of Two Cities was set in London and Paris at the time of the great French Revolution. It shows the causes of revolution and its effects on people's daily lives. Before the revolution, the King and the aristocracy treated their people cruelly in France.

Many people were extremely poor and miserable. The crops in the fields were poor as if even the land shared the misery of the people. And there were so heavy taxes that all the villagers had nothing to hand over at last. On the other hand, the aristocracy made their will as the law by using money and gold. There were no justice, no equality and no fairness. Just as what happened to Dr Manette, he wrote to the Minister to show the crime what Marquis Evremonde had done, resulting in him being arrested and sent to the prison Bastille without any reason. Then this situation of darkness was needed to be changed.

As people such as the Defarges prepared and arranged, at length the Revolution came to break out. When the Bastille was captured and the King was tried and put to death as well as many other aristocrats, things didn't go on as what they had been expected. The situation stayed the same or even worse. The prisoners from the Bastille were set free while more prisons were filled with people who had done no wrong again. People who once lived on the bottom of class took the charge now and their heart had been full of evil. The only thing they wanted to do was to revenge.

And these so-called "patriots" would like to see more and more innocent prisoners going to the guillotine and that's their joy. As the novel wrote, “ In everything they did were merciless, for they had been hardened in the fires of suffering and the touch of pity could make no mark on them”. 2. Introduction of the Main Characters 1. 2. 1 Dr. Manatte He was an old doctor from France. Under the tyrannical and unjustifiable judgment, together with the aristocratic persecution, Dr. Manatte spent eighteen years hard time in the Bastille—— an horrible prison, and nearly became crippled.

After releasing from the Bastille, he regained his health under the good care by his daughter, Lucie. Since then, Dr. Manatte had led a peaceful life. 1. 2. 2 Lucie Manatte She was Dr. Manatte’s daughter, a beautiful and smart girl. Although without father’s care since her childhood, Lucie was well raised under the guardianship of her father’s friend Lorry. When her father was released from the prison, the eighteen-years-old beauty took good care of her father. She fell in love with the nobleman, Darnay, and got married with him. Unfortunately, Darnay was arrested during the French Revolution.

Even though Lucie used trial and errors, the situation was still awkward and failure. 1. 2. 3 Sydney Carton He was a young English lawyer who was full of passion and wisdom. One day, he met the nobleman Darnay when he was dealing with some cases in the court. Coincidently, Darnay looked like him. Carton also loved Lucie deeply, but he could not marry her. Finally, he showed his selfless spirit and substituted for Darnay going to the guillotine. 1. 2. 4 Charles Darnay He was born in a noble family in France. However, Charles Darnay gave up his marquis status as well as the right of inheritance, earning the living by himself in England.

The loyal and hard-working man was arrested when he was rescuing his old servant during the French Revolution. 1. 2. 5 Madame Defarge She was the landlady of a grogshop in the slum in Paris. But she has the explosive personality. Her husband, Defarge and she launched the revolution. As one of the leaders in the women team, she was active to guide others to resist the unfairness. Unfortunately, Madame Defarge was killed herself during the fight with maidservant of Manette. 1. 2. 6 Marquis St. Evremonde He was the uncle of Carton. The tyrannical man Marquis St.

Evremonde, murdered innocent people, did anything he wanted to threaten people for his happiness. The bad man was killed by the revolutionary during the turmoil. 2. The Love and the Redemption among the Ideal Characters 1. The memory of Dr. Manette Prisoned in the Bastille for almost eighteen years, Dr. Manette seemed to forget his name and all the things around him. He made the shoes all day and all night. Although he became better under the care of his daughter, he said no words about the life in the Bastille at any time. When Darnay confessed to him about his real name, Dr.

Manette might think about something—— the French aristocracy, the painful past time. He just relied on the shoes to keep him from the indignity and the sorrow, or escaped the memory. However, for love, the love in his daughter, the love among the whole family, Dr. Manette could choose to come back to France and face all the past that he was eager to forget. He told Darnay, his son-in-law, to guarantee not to tell anybody about his noble status. Because he believed that the tyrannical behavior had no connection with the young generation of the Charles family. To save Charles Darnay, Dr.

Manette tried all he could. He did not care about the feel of the gratitude or resentment; what he wished was to own a reunited and safe family. The love made him put the hostility down, and the escape from the old memory let him reserve the horrible truth in his own heart. It was the redemption of him, as well as the love for hope that established the credible bridge. The author Charles Dickens expressed the sense of responsibility into the plots of Dr. Manette. Dickens advocated the peaceful amelioration, hoping that the moral standards and regulations could rescue society. 2. Get out of the Aristocratic Ring

Charles Darney was another character who attempted to escape the old convention for love and redemption. The noble blood did not make him feel the sense of dignity; instead, he was dissatisfied or even resentful about his evil family. There were no influences in his actions, what he did was acting as the normal man who could fight with the unfair classic exploitation. Even though at the time when he was born, he was destined to be a noble aristocracy, he was not ready to continue the violence that nobleman used to do. In the novel, Darney was brave enough that he detest and condemned the offence of his father and uncle.

He once said, “We did run amuck at society”. “Even at my father’s time, we’ve committed lots of crimes, which disturbed and harmed everyone who wanted to own a happy life”. The resistance of Darney was not only rest on the verbal condemn, he also did it in actions that he expected to redeem the guilty of his family. For instance, Darney gave up his property and his title, living as an incognito teacher in England. Obviously, in his heart, the value of a person could not be measured by money, status or power. It was undoubtedly to be the bourgeois humanism.

Charles Darney’s love was so deep that he put down his entire aristocratic stand, taking care of Lucie and Dr. Manatte. No matter how the miserable result of him was, he did successfully jump out of the aristocratic ring, which had been the constraint of his family for a long time. 3. The Sacrifice of love In this novel, the author Dickens did not use outstanding description to lead to the appearance of Sydney Carton. “With his hands in his pockets, staring at the ceiling of the court”; “Carton was rumored to be seen at broad day, going home stealthily and unsteadily to his lodgings, like a dissipated cat”.

The first impression of him was not so deep. However, the man who seemed unruly had kind and exquisite mind. It was he, who first found Lucie falling in a faint; it was also he, who passed the thankfulness to Darney. The miserable man Carton also loved Lucie, but he had never revealed the emotion to anybody. Even though he believed that he would be refused if he confessed the love to Lucie, he thought that if he would be happy to pay a visit to Lucie occasionally and to see Lucie’s happiness that was enough. Carton said to Lucie, “For you and for any dear to you, I would do anything.

If my career were of that better kind that there was any opportunity or capacity of any sacrifice in it, I would embrace any sacrifice for you and for those dear to you. ” It was so touching and selfless. The love that tolerates anything was the warmest light. After the rescue of Darney failed, Carton scheduled all things calmly: looked after Lucie all the time, stranded on the street which Lucie stranded heaps of times, till he went to the guillotine taking place of Darney. Carton was the materialization of the honorable English spirit that the writer Dickens was always pursuing.

Although Carton was not a popular and social man, his sentiment was profound. Perhaps he was self-abased, or maybe he was redeeming for his common life which was asocial and gloomy. The love was powerful, just like the words said, “What I am doing now are better than anything I’ve ever done,; where I am going to rest, is much better than anywhere I’ve rest”. 4. The Spiritual Bailment in These Idealists Dr. Manatte, Lucie, Sydney Carton, and Charles Darney are the materialization of the author’s beautiful perspective.

There is the humanistic light in these people, that is, the sense of justice, the spirit of devotion as well as the standards of behavior. “If ever there were Fraternity in the world, Mr. Sydney Carton owns it, Dr. Manette owns it, and Mr. Charles Darnay, Mrs. Lucie Darnay, Mr. Lorry, Miss Pross and Mr. Cruncher all own it. Because they all have unselfishly fraternized with others, others from the people the barely know to the people who was their love enemies or whose fathers and uncles would have oppressed and imprisoned them. ” 2. The Love and the Redemption among the Revolutionary and Federal Aristocracy 1.

Tragedy of Love and Redemption The representatives of the revolution are Defarge and his wife Madame Defarge. Undoubtedly, Madame Defarge was also the miserable image constructed in this novel. She lost her family members at early time; therefore the love in her heart was completely covered by the so-called Gothic gloomy. The only way for her to redeem was to struggle to change the awkward situation. After the revolution was breaking out, Madame Defarge almost lost her reason in the blood and fire. The frequent behavior of Madame Defarge was to keep recording the aristocratic atrocity in the pattern of her scarf.

As the leader of the women team, Madame Defarge was always on her way to fight, accompanied with her pistol. Her psychology became more and more extreme, even her husband Defarge was made to be one of her murderous tools. At last, Madame Defarge died in her gun which went off fire. It was really a woeful result. Nevertheless, the most distressing thing was not the result; it was the fate of her. Madame Defarge stood for all the suffering and poor people at that time, she used her love and redemption to the wrong place. It was not her fault, of course. The whole world of poor people at that time was hurt; she was the symbol of all the misery.

In The Tale of Two Cities, the part portraying Madame Defarge was credible, which showed her distinguished wisdom and courage vividly. When writing the Defarge Family, the author was clear and sensible. For one thing, he was sympathetic about the encounter of the Defarge Family; for another thing, he denied the terror brought by the revolutionary rage. 2. The Deserved Punishment of the Federal Aristocrac Another image modeled in this novel was the brothers of Marquis St. Evremonde. They are the representative of the French aristocracy. They killed the poor farmers without any explanation or apologie.

The so-called love and redemption in their minds had changed into the shameless atrocity. It was also the mentality of most of the aristocracy in eighteenth century. The author’s purpose of creating the brothers of Marquis St. Evremonde was not only to reflect the detest about their behavior. In one letter of the author Dickens said, “I believe, the dissatisfied emotion like the smoking was much worse than burring. Especially like the common emotions before the first French revolution, it was dangerous. Due to several reasons —— the bad harvest, the arbitrary government, the overseas failure and so on.

All things lead to the significant catastrophe that had never seen before”. Thus it can be seen in these words that Dickens built the images of the brothers of Marquis St. Evremonde aimed at the insinuating the capitalist class during the French Revolution. He would like to warn the dispetious bourgeoisie that if they continue persecuting poor people and never stop reflecting themselves, the fate of the brothers of Marquis St. Evremonde would be their model. 3. 3 The Ruin in the Chaos As the rationality and the advance of the bottom citizens, Madame Defarge’s struggle had the positive side that deserved to be sympathized and confirmed.

The “born in dignity” people got used to not regard poor people as real human being. They were praising the elegant culture while at the same time tolerating these poor people for fun. This made people like the Defarge and Madame Defarge turn the sorrow into anger, into the dead spot. As the result, the helpless people chose to fight otherwise they would wait to die. The burring revolutionary fire was destined to swallow the corrupted society. Yet when we cheer for the standing people, we can not neglect those who were innocent but were affirmed to be guilty.

Their frightened and hopeless eyesight made us raise some questions: Why the new world can only be built in a pile of carcasses? Is there any sensitive status in the passion of the revolution? The novel revealed the pity truth that pushes us to rethink. That is, at the same time that ruining the old and conventional standards, we should know clear how can we construct the new world. Otherwise, human beings will fall into the same or similar outcome in this novel. 3. The Love and the Redemption between the Two Cities 4. 1 The Complicated World

As is known to all, the novel began with a paradoxical paragraph: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way--in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only. ” Theoretically, this paragraph seemed too difficult to explain. In reality, it was the true reflection of our live, which was filled with unexpected events. The author just told us the truth about the deduction of history and society. That was, the love was not always as romantic as people imagined, and a good beginning might not always bring the wonderful ending.

To some extent, the charactors in this novel had struggled against their fates again and again, even though the fates did not bring the best results that they had expected. For instance, Dr. Manatte had undergone the severe circumstance of jail for eighteen years, and had been waiting for so long to accusing the crimes of aristocracy. However, in order to protect his son-in-law, Darney, he chose to keep silent about all he had experienced. As for Lucie, she tried her best to save her husband, even though the final judgement could not be changed. And as for Carton, he sacrifaced his life for saving Darney, just because of his deep love in Lucie.

But he did not ask for any return, even though he knew exactly that Lucie loved Darney instead of him. Moreover, the Defarge were eagering to obtain the peaceful live, so they kept fighting for the freedom of all the suffering citizens, even though the outcome was distorted and miserable. What made these charactors so brave to pursue their purposes? It was probably that the firm belief in each of their minds. The love and redemption among most of the people, which was like the driving force, motivated them to struggle for what they expeced. The author did not show the perfect outcome of them, because he would like to tell us that everything in the world is complicated and the result is often beyond expectation.

In addition, the author Dickens also told us that since we could not change the complicated world, the most essential thing is to stick to our own belief struggling for the bright future, no matter what the result would be like. 4. 2 Deep Reasons behind the Crazy Revolutionary Wave There is a famous experience in psychology. In order to test citizens’ submission to the authority or the professors, the investigators invited some respondents without telling them the purpose of the experiment. They only told the respondents that they were testing the effects of punishment in study. The respondents were made to be teachers to teach students how to remember words. The teachers could use electric shock to punish students who forgot in the exams.

When the fake students failed in the exams, these teachers who were acted by the respondents increased the voltage as what professors said(of course not through the electric current). The students screamed and hoped to stop doing like this. At that time, the teachers turned to the professors to ask whether to continue or not. Obtaining the permission from the professors to continue doing so, the teachers increased the voltage to the maximum without hesitation. This is a real experience conducted during the Second World War. To some extent, it can explain why virtuous citizens did so much violence during the war. The explanation also works on the novel, justifying the main reason about the revolutionary’s abnormal behaviors.

When writing about the French Revolution, the author Dickens mentioned, “all people seemed to get the fever”. The kind-hearted people were taken advantage by the so-called leaders or “professors”, losing themselves in the crazy revolutionary wave. The only interest of these poor people was to enjoy the delight which brought by the massacre. They thought naively that the violence could save themselves from the repression by the aristocracy, without any time and courage to exam their own conscience. Nevertheless, what they acquired was really the “happy life”? I remember Russell once said, “The nature of the happiness is variety”. That is sound.

In The Tale of Two Cities, the citizens between the two cities used various means to realize the redemption and look for the true love. But the purpose underlying these actions was almost the same—— that is , to spread the happiness to more people. 5. Conculsion The structure of this novel is well-organized. Different characters represented different images in the big picture of the French Revolution. Adding the personal emotions and thoughts into this novel, the author Charles Dickens expressed the profound meaning for latter generations. For one thing, though he criticized the offence of oppressors, he still held the prospects of all people. Even though the brothers of Marquis St.

Evremonde were inhumane, their nephew——Charles Darney was totally different from them. To some extent, the goodness was regarded as sacred spirit, which might sweep the evil away. For another thing, the so-called “mobs” were attributed to the certain social conditions, but the author Dickens endowed the Defarge couples with honesty and enthusiasm. Dickens believed that the future would be bright, no matter how difficult it was at the moment. Love is one factor underlying this novel, reflecting the prospect of abandoning the sanguinary chaos. Redemption is another factor penetrating the whole plots, connecting kind people perusing justice with vicious people ruining themselves. To sum up, what is the most significant splendor?

That is, the warm love and moral redemption are lighting the historical sky. The Tale of Two Cities has illustrated such importance to all of us. References Charles, Dickens, ed. 1993. The Tale of Two Cities. London: Wordsworth Editions Limited. George, Orwell, ed. 1981.??????????? :???????? George, Sampson, ed. 1981. Concise Cambridge English Literature. London: Wordsworth Editions Limited. Gedrge,Gissing, ed. 1925. Charle Dickens. London: Heemskerk Bookstore. Joaness,Gross, ed. 1981. ????????? ?? : ???????? Nornan,Page, ed. 1984. A Dickens Companion. London : The Macmillan Press LTD . Guan Wenyi [??? ],2008, ????? ,???? —??????????????? :???????????

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