A Tale of Two Cities was written in 1859 by Charles Dickens. This book is historical fiction and is considered a classic. The overall themes are duality, resurrection, and violence. It tells the story of life in England and France in the year 1775. There are many main characters and they are followed as the French Revolution unfolds. The writing seems to sympathize with the overthrow of the government, but it is clearly against the violence and terror that happened during the revolution. The themes come up a lot, especially resurrection as each character is brought back to life in some metaphorical way. The opening line of the book states “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.” This large opening sentence is to introduce a major plot of good versus evil, light versus dark, and many more.
Nate A.
Comments