Symbolism
BURIED ALIVE :
Dr.Manete is buried alive when he is imprisoned for 18 years and is cut
off from any contact with his
family or the outside
world.
THE COLOR RED :
The red wine spilled in the street in Paris foreshadow the blood that will
be spilled in the revolution.
The revolutionaries use the Defarge's wineshop as a meeting place.When Barsad comes in, she
pins a
rose in her hair, as a warning to them that a spy is present.
When the evening sun shone red on the Marquis, he said "It will die out
directly."It was prophetic of
his imminent death at
the hands of the man whose child he killed. The Marquis' hands were red
with the
blood of other victims,too.
FISHING :
Jerry Cruncher refers to his body-snatching business as "fishing".
When Barsad engages Madame Defarge in a seemingly casual conversation about
Gaspard, he is really fishing for information.
BUZZ OF BLUEFLIES :
The
courtroom audience is hoping for the spectacle of a public execution,and
they "buzz" around in court
like flies searching
for a body to feast upon.
WATER :
Unfathomable
water - the inability to really understand a person. Locked in eternal
frost-never to discover
someone's innermost feelings.
The memorable storm in London with its "sweep of water...crash,fire and
rain" all prefigure the revolution.
Track of the storm - events of the revolution and how they impact Darnay's
life.
FOOTSTEPS :
The
echo of unseen footsteps in the street forshadow the people and events
which are coming into the
lives of Darnay and his family.
SHADOWS :
The
inscrutability of those we think we know. On our deepest level,each of
us remains a stranger to everyone
else.
"Stirred up old
shadows..." - the deep feelings and people fron Carton's past that he thought
were gone
forever.
Madame DeFarge
threw a shadow over Lucie and all her hopes. The substance of the shadow
was the
events recorded in Dr. Manette's prison
journal.
STONE :
The
chateau and its steps and fountain are all stone as are the gargoyles.The
heart of the Marquis is as
stone in its lack of
feeling for others.When he is awakened by his assasin, his face becomes
"petrified",
turned to stone. The
Gorgon's head is that of Medusa - one look at her would turn a person
to stone.
LODESTONE ROCK :
Lodestone
is magnetic ore. Events are drawing Darnay to France like a magnet.
TELLSON'S BANK :
The
bank is compared to a prison with "bars to its windows"and its back rooms
like a "condemned hole".
When a young man first came to work, "they
hid him somewhere til he was old", like a prisoner in a dungeon.
WINDING SHEET OF THE CANDLE :
The
melting wax that runs down a candle is called a winding sheet.Before body
bags were invented, the dead were wrapped in a length of cloth called a
winding sheet. The winding sheet of a candle is used to represent death,
and as it dripped
down on the sleeping Carton, it prefigured his death.
BRANDY :
During his interview with Barsad in Mr.Lorry's rooms in Paris,Carton asks Mr. Lorry specifically if he
has any brandy. This is surprising since all through the story, Carton's drink of choice is port.Maybe
Dickens had in mind a quote from Boswell's classic biography "Life of Johnson" where Samuel Johnson says
"Sherry is for boys, port is for men, but he who aspires to be a hero must drink brandy." As Carton
finalizes his heroic plan to save Darnay,he pours out the last remnants of the brandy on the hearth,"like
a man who was done with it".From this point on, Carton is through with alcohol, and pours it out almost in
symbol of pouring out his lifeblood for Darnay.
DECAPITATION :
In
Lucie's hotel room in Dover there is a mirror with a carved frame picturing
"a...procession of...cupids,
several headless..."
In Darnay's
London trial, the Attorney-General stated in his opening remarks to the
jury that they "...could
never lay their heads upon their pillows... unless
the prisoner's head was taken off."
Tellson's Bank
was next to Temple Bar, where the severed heads of those executed for treason
were dis-
played as a warning to all.
The
woodsawyer says that he is the "Samson of the firewood guillotine" and
likens cutting his firewood to
decapitating victims of the guillotine.
CARTON AS CHRIST FIGURE:
Carton dies so that others may live. His death in place of Darnay's atones for the sins of the St.Evremonde family.
SYDNEY :
This has a double symbolism.The name is a derivative of "Saint Denis" which in turn is derived from "Dionysus".
Dionysus,also known as Bacchus,was the ancient Greek god of wine,a symbol of Carton's alcoholism.Saint Denis is the
patron saint of Paris and was a martyr who died by decapitation, foreshadowing Carton's death.
WEBSTER'S
DICTIONARY : jackal : / 'jak el n.: one who
does routine work for another's advantage.
visitors since Feb.9,2000
updated: Feb. 11, 2001
HELPFUL BOOKS:
A Tale of Two Cities: Dickens' Revolutionary Novel by Ruth Glancy,Twayne Pub.,1991
A Tale of Two Cities:Modern Critical Interpretations, ed. by Harold Bloom, Chelsea House Pub., 1987
Readings on A Tale of Two Cities, ed. by Don Nardo, Greenhaven Press, 1997
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