The tale of two cities Synopsis

1. SHORT SUMMARY (Synopsis)
In 1775, Mr. Jarvis Lorry, an official of Tellson's Bank in London, accompanies
Lucie Manette to Paris. He has information that her father, Dr. Alexandre
Manette, who had disappeared eighteen years ago, is alive. He had been
wrongfully imprisoned in the Bastille and left there to die. Lucie is shaken
when she learns that her father is still living. On reaching Paris, they go to
the house of Monsieur Defarge, a wine-seller. He had been Dr. Manette's servant
and has taken care of him after his release from prison. Both Mr. Lorry and
Lucie are shocked to see the terrible state Doctor Manette is in. He has aged
prematurely, having lost both his memory and his sense. He spends his time
cobbling shoes. The revolutionary ardor and hatred against oppression are fanned
every time Defarge and his associates look at this wreck of a man, who has been
a victim of the aristocracy. Mr. Lorry and Lucie take her father back to London.
With love and compassion, Lucie plans to nurse her father back to health and
sanity.
Five years later, in 1780, a young Frenchman, named Charles Darnay, is accused
of being a traitor and a spy. Lucie and her father are reluctant witnesses for
the prosecution, as they had met him while travelling from Calais to Dover.
Lucie stresses the good qualities of the accused while imparting her testimony.
The evidence against him is overwhelming as the prosecution produces a number of
witnesses who swear that he is a spy. The onlookers, too, mentally condemn him
and are waiting for the death sentence to be pronounced. However, it is Sydney
Carton, an advocate present in the courtroom, who points out the resemblance
between the prisoner and himself to the defense lawyer Mr. Stryver. The jury
thus realizes that it could be a case of mistaken identity, and Darnay is
acquitted.
Years pass, and both Darnay and Carton fall in love with Lucie Manette. Carton
is a lawyer who wastes his life in drinking and idling. Lucie has no interest in
him; instead, she marries Darnay. He is a French aristocrat who has renounced
his inheritance and now lives in London under an assumed name and works as a
tutor. His uncle, the Marquis St. Evremonde, is a notorious man renowned for his
cruelty and callousness; he has lived the life of a profligate and has no
respect for human life. This is emphasized in two incidents that take place
while he drives home from a royal reception. He kills a child on the streets and
refuses to help a poor widow in need of a tombstone to mark her husband's grave.
That very night he is murdered in bed.
The French Revolution breaks out in all its fury with the storming of the
Bastille. In London, Darnay has been happily married to Lucie for eleven years,
and they have a beautiful daughter. On hearing that Gabelle, his steward in
France, has been erroneously arrested, Darnay secretly returns to Paris to save
his faithful servant. He is caught and imprisoned. On hearing of her husband's
capture, Lucie, her daughter, Dr. Manette, and Mr. Lorry rush to Paris to save
him. Dr. Manette, himself a victim of oppression, convinces the people of his
son-in-law's innocence, and Darnay is discharged. Madame Defarge, however, seeks
personal revenge against the Evremonde family, for the cruel Marquis had
molested her sister and killed her brother. Largely because of her, Darnay is
re-arrested, tried, and sentenced to death. There is no hope of saving him. Even
the lives of Lucie and her daughter are in danger as the hard-core
revolutionaries, like the Defarges, would like to eliminate anyone who has a
connection with aristocracy.
The story ends dramatically when Sydney Carton decides to save Darnay's life by
taking his place. He gains entry into the prison, drugs Darnay, and with the
help of Mr. Lorry gets him out of danger. The Darnay family flees back to
England while Carton sacrifices his life for Darnay, his look-alike. The
sacrifice is made to fulfill a promise to Lucie whom he loves. Carton feels
noble about his action and knows that he will live in the hearts of the Darnays
forever.

2. THEMES
Major Theme
The major theme centers on resurrection, bringing people back to life from the
seemingly inevitable clutches of death. Dr. Manette is rescued from long
imprisonment and certain death and nursed back to health by the loving attention
of his daughter Lucie. Darnay is twice saved from certain death by the
compassion of Carton. Others, like Foulon, are brought back from an apparent
death, only to meet real death at the hands of the revolutionaries. These
resurrected lives weave through the entire plot and hold the story together.
Minor Theme
The minor theme is the cruelty of war as seen in the French Revolution. Dickens
spares no details in painting the grim, and often senseless, violence of the
patriot mob as they seek revenge and retribution against the patriots. Men are
decapitated and their heads displayed to incite further violence.
MOOD
The mood of the novel is grim and somber. Dickens presents the stark reality of
the revolution in an intense, dramatic form, and there are very few incidents
that help lighten the grimness. Right from the start, the tragedy of Dr. Manette
seated at his shoemaker's bench drives home the horror of his experience. The
oppression and misery of common people are highlighted through a series of grim
scenes. The bloodthirsty mob, too, presents a dismal and frightening spectacle.
This gloomy atmosphere touches all characters and relationships. Jerry Cruncher
alone presents some comic relief to an otherwise dark and serious, historic
novel.