ENGLISH LITERATURE

CRITICAL ANALYS OF

A A TALE OF TWO CITIES ' BY CHARLES DICKENS

2004

CRITICAL ANALYS OF A A TALE OF TWO CITIES ' BY CHARLES DICKENS

In one of his most dramatic novel ever , A Tale of Two Cities Charles Dickens apparently provides analysis of two neighbor countries - England and France on the eve of their most serious social tempests Great French Revolution and American Independence war . The author 's intentions become clear already from the first page of his novel . The main idea of Charles Dickens is to describe the

ruination phase in the history of the United Kingdom as a world metropolitan state and compare it with the revolutionary events in France . The author doesn 't hide his purpose as he deliberately tells the year of the described events , i .e 1775 A .D , the very beginning of King George III and Louis XVI reign 1

From Dickens point of view , those two events broke the old Europe and ruined the traditional way of life . They also undermined the role of London and Paris as the world capitals . The author describes both revolutions through the idea of fate and sacred predestination , though on the other hand , as inevitable events that were certainly progressive This idea of revolutions ' inevitability is supported with the authors narration about the Life Guards ' vision of London and Westminster 's disaster . One doesn 't need to possess a prophet gift to grasp what Dickens meant to say by this allegory

Dickens ideals and nostalgic feelings belong to the England of the early seventeen century , the epoch of a rural country that hadn 't felt yet the problems of industrial society of 1800s . As Dickens claims , [it] was the best of times , the age of wisdom , the epoch of belief ' which however , from the eighteenth 's century perspective turned to be the worst of times , the age of foolishness , the season of Darkness 2 . With these lines written already on the first page of the novel one understand the conflict of Dickens ideas , his sorrow for the old times that , as it often happens , he loved and hated much the same

As probably any British , Charles Dickens feels controversial emotions of these events : he compares the independence of America with the most sad events ever heard by English Crown and People and , at the same time with the most important events for the people all over the world

Dickens doesn 't express his feelings , though they are clearly seen between the lines starting from the first page of the novel he doesn 't say about the Independence war directly , however , these thoughts and comparisons with French revolution could be easily tracked throughout the whole book . Being a true social writer Dickens well understood the crucial role of these revolutions , the raise of masses and decline of gentlefolks . The revolutionary masses , well-spoken , were pictured on the cover of novel 's first edition in 1859

Never before in his novels Dickens had written about any other country but...