The Theme of Rebirth in "A Tale of Two Cities"
In A Tale of Two Cities, a recurring theme is rebirth, or being "recalled to life." This can be seen in every book and through several different characters.
The first and most obvious character to be "recalled to life" is Doctor Alexandre Manette. After being locked in the Bastille for many years, he is finally released. However, the time in prison cost him his sanity, and all Manette's disturbed mind will allow him to focus on is shoemaking. His friends Jarvis Lorry and Ernest Defarge try to help him, but the only thing that can revive the doctor is the care of his daughter, Lucie. Throughout the book, Manette has two relapses into his mental illness, and both times he experiences rebirth. The cruelty of the Bastille and the aristocratic French permanently scarred him, but love and kindness are always able to bring him back to the brilliant person he is in his normal state.
Roger Cly, or the "Old Bailey Spy", is sentenced to death. He manages to escape, a fact known by none except Jerry Cruncher's band of Resurrection Men. The French aristocrat Foulon attempts the same thing, but is found out and killed. Besides fitting with the theme of rebirth, this also shows the different amounts of vigilance for spies in the two cities.
Sydney Carton started the book as merely Charles Darnay's mean, alcoholic lookalike. When placed in contrast to Striver, the bully lawyer he works for, the reader begins to feel sympathy for Carton. It is not until Book III that Carton is truly "recalled to life" through his own heroic death. By putting himself in Darnay's place and saving the other protagonists, Sydney Carton puts his past behind him and realizes his full potential as a great man.
The reader can be both entertained and inspired by the theme of rebirth in Dickens' novel. By the end of the book, it is difficult not to be moved by the tale of new beginnings and the two parallel cities they occur
The first and most obvious character to be "recalled to life" is Doctor Alexandre Manette. After being locked in the Bastille for many years, he is finally released. However, the time in prison cost him his sanity, and all Manette's disturbed mind will allow him to focus on is shoemaking. His friends Jarvis Lorry and Ernest Defarge try to help him, but the only thing that can revive the doctor is the care of his daughter, Lucie. Throughout the book, Manette has two relapses into his mental illness, and both times he experiences rebirth. The cruelty of the Bastille and the aristocratic French permanently scarred him, but love and kindness are always able to bring him back to the brilliant person he is in his normal state.
Roger Cly, or the "Old Bailey Spy", is sentenced to death. He manages to escape, a fact known by none except Jerry Cruncher's band of Resurrection Men. The French aristocrat Foulon attempts the same thing, but is found out and killed. Besides fitting with the theme of rebirth, this also shows the different amounts of vigilance for spies in the two cities.
Sydney Carton started the book as merely Charles Darnay's mean, alcoholic lookalike. When placed in contrast to Striver, the bully lawyer he works for, the reader begins to feel sympathy for Carton. It is not until Book III that Carton is truly "recalled to life" through his own heroic death. By putting himself in Darnay's place and saving the other protagonists, Sydney Carton puts his past behind him and realizes his full potential as a great man.
The reader can be both entertained and inspired by the theme of rebirth in Dickens' novel. By the end of the book, it is difficult not to be moved by the tale of new beginnings and the two parallel cities they occur