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| Charles Dickens Jeremiah Gurney, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons |
Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities (1859) is one of the most celebrated historical novels in English literature. Set against the turbulent backdrop of the French Revolution, it interweaves personal drama with political upheaval. What makes the novel remarkable is not only its compelling plot and characters but also Dickens’s narrative technique.
Through devices such as antithesis, doubling, symbolism, foreshadowing, repetition, and serial suspense, Dickens crafts a story that is both grand in historical scope and intimate in emotional depth. His stylistic innovations contribute significantly to the enduring popularity of the novel and its powerful themes of resurrection, sacrifice, and revolution.
This essay, around 2500 words in length, explores the narrative technique Dickens employs in A Tale of Two Cities, with direct citations from the novel’s public-domain text. We will analyze how his stylistic choices—ranging from the paradoxical opening line to the rhythmic closing words—serve to deepen meaning, build suspense, and underscore universal truths.
Episodic Structure and Serial Narrative
When Dickens wrote A Tale of Two Cities, serialization was the dominant mode of publication. The novel was originally published in weekly installments in Dickens’s own literary magazine, All the Year Round, before being collected into a single volume. This episodic form profoundly shaped the narrative style.
Each chapter is structured almost like a self-contained scene, often ending with suspense or foreshadowing to keep readers eager for the next installment. For example, the chapter The Mail ends with the mysterious message: “Wait at Dover for Mam’selle.” This cryptic conclusion teases readers with unanswered questions, ensuring their continued engagement.
The episodic form also gives the novel a cinematic quality. Dickens frequently shifts between London and Paris, creating a rhythm of juxtaposed scenes that mirrors the novel’s broader theme of duality. This narrative oscillation builds momentum, reflecting the mounting tension of the revolution.
Antithesis and Juxtaposition
Perhaps the most famous example of Dickens’s narrative brilliance lies in the opening 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…” (Book I, Chapter 1)
This passage exemplifies his use of antithesis—the deliberate juxtaposition of opposites—to set the thematic foundation. The paired contrasts capture the contradictions of the 18th century, presenting history as a paradoxical blend of enlightenment and barbarity, progress and regression.
The rhythm of the opening also establishes the novel’s rhetorical style. The balance and cadence of the clauses echo biblical parallelism, imbuing the text with a sense of grandeur. Beyond stylistics, the antithesis reflects the divided nature of the era, foreshadowing the doubling motif that runs throughout the novel.
Doubling and Character Foils
A hallmark of Dickens’s technique in A Tale of Two Cities is the use of doubles—characters and situations that mirror or contrast each other to highlight central themes.
The most striking pair is Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton. Both men physically resemble each other, yet their lives diverge dramatically: Darnay is honorable and principled, while Carton is dissolute and wasted. Dickens develops their doubling to its climax when Carton sacrifices his life to save Darnay, redeeming himself in the process. Carton’s final words underscore the theme of substitution:
“It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.” (Book III, Chapter 15)
This repetition epitomizes Dickens’s lyrical style and emphasizes the transformation of a wasted life into an act of transcendent meaning.
Other doublings abound: Miss Pross and Madame Defarge embody opposing female archetypes—one fiercely protective, the other implacably vengeful. London and Paris represent stability versus chaos, law versus mob rule. By structuring the narrative around such pairs, Dickens illustrates the tension between order and revolution, love and hate, life and death.
Symbolism and Motifs
Dickens enriches his narrative with recurring symbols and motifs that deepen thematic resonance.
The Wine Cask Scene
In Book I, Chapter 5, a wine cask breaks in Saint Antoine, and the crowd scrambles for the spilled wine:
“The wine was red wine, and had stained the ground of the narrow street… It had stained many hands, too, and many faces, and many naked feet, and many wooden shoes.”
This vivid imagery foreshadows the blood that will soon flood the streets of Paris. The description of red-stained hands and faces transforms the communal scramble into a chilling vision of revolutionary violence. Here Dickens employs symbolism to prefigure the horrors of the Revolution.
Madame Defarge’s Knitting
Another powerful symbol is Madame Defarge’s knitting:
“Madame Defarge knitted with nimble fingers and steady eyebrows, and saw nothing with her eyes; for she saw a great deal with her imagination.” (Book II, Chapter 16)
Her knitting encodes the names of those condemned by the revolutionaries, transforming a domestic activity into a metaphor of fate and vengeance. It epitomizes Dickens’s ability to invest ordinary objects with sinister meaning.
The Golden Thread
Lucie Manette, often described as the “golden thread,” symbolizes love, compassion, and continuity. Her influence binds together her father, Charles Darnay, and Sydney Carton, providing a moral counterweight to the violence of the era.
Foreshadowing and Suspense
Dickens skillfully uses foreshadowing to build suspense and thematic depth.
The wine cask scene foreshadows bloodshed. Likewise, in Echoing Footsteps (Book II, Chapter 21), the approaching turmoil is hinted at through the metaphor of footsteps:
“Along the Paris streets, the death-carts rumble, hollow and harsh. Six tumbrils carry the day’s wine to La Guillotine.”
Here the “wine” metaphor reappears, linking the earlier symbolism with the Revolution’s culmination in mass executions. The footsteps also serve as a recurring auditory motif, representing the march of fate and the inevitability of conflict.
By weaving such anticipatory images throughout the narrative, Dickens ensures that readers feel the tension of impending catastrophe even before it arrives.
Tone, Imagery, and Repetition
Dickens’s prose in A Tale of Two Cities is notable for its lyrical repetition and vivid imagery. Repetition is not mere redundancy but a rhythmic device that reinforces key ideas.
The opening and closing passages exemplify this technique. The repeated clauses in the opening establish duality, while Carton’s final words employ repetition to create a cadence of sacrifice and redemption.
Imagery is equally crucial. Dickens renders Paris as a grotesque landscape of hunger and violence, while London, though safer, is depicted as complacent and morally stagnant. His descriptions are often cinematic, with sharp contrasts of light and darkness.
Character Voice and Narrative Perspective
The narrator in A Tale of Two Cities is largely omniscient, shifting fluidly between panoramic historical commentary and intimate psychological insight. This narrative voice allows Dickens to move seamlessly from depictions of mob violence to the private struggles of individuals like Dr. Manette or Sydney Carton.
The interplay of personal and political perspectives is one of Dickens’s greatest achievements. He grounds the monumental events of the Revolution in the human experiences of love, suffering, and sacrifice, ensuring the novel resonates with universal emotion.
Conclusion
Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities remains a literary masterpiece not only for its compelling story but also for its narrative technique. Through antithesis, doubling, symbolism, foreshadowing, repetition, and an episodic structure designed for serialization, Dickens created a novel that is both historically sweeping and deeply personal.
The selected passages—the paradoxical opening, the wine cask foreshadowing, the echoing footsteps, Madame Defarge’s knitting, and Sydney Carton’s redemptive farewell—demonstrate his mastery of style and narrative craft. Together, they illustrate how Dickens transforms historical fiction into a meditation on human suffering, sacrifice, and the possibility of renewal.
In the end, Dickens’s narrative technique ensures that A Tale of Two Cities is not merely a story of the French Revolution but a timeless reflection on the dualities of human existence—best and worst, wisdom and folly, despair and hope.
