Tale Of Two Cities Resurrection

In the historical novel, A Tale of Two Cities Charles Dickens talks about two cities, London and Paris and how the French Revolution starts. In the events leading up to the Revolution and during the Revolution, the theme of resurrection is repeatedly shown. When one is resurrected, they get brought back from the dead or brought to a new life. Many characters get “resurrected” throughout the novel, two of these characters being Dr. Manette and Sydney Carton. When Dr. Manette was in the Bastille, he spent much of his time making women’s shoes and looking at the moon wondering about his wife and daughter. When Lucie took him away from the prison, he was in a terrible mental state, with a “vacant gaze”, “unsteady fingers” and unable to look at anyone directly. The first time Lucie saw him, “A broad ray of light fell into the garret, and showed the workman with an unfinished shoe upon his lap, pausing in his labour.” (Dickens 48), he was in the process of making shoes, even though he was out of jail already, it was hard for him to stop something he had done for so long to keep him from going completely crazy. When Dr. Manette started living with Lucy, they grew close and now “only his daughter had the power of charming this black brooding from his mind.”

Manette was brought back from the dead, Sydney Carton brought himself from being lazy and drunk all the time to being a man with a heart of gold and an intense love for Lucie Manette. At the beginning of the book, we learn that Sydney was the “idlest and most unpromising of men” (102). He is lazy and an alcoholic who does nothing to help himself be a better man. He changes when he meets Lucie, falling deeply in love with her. He promises her, “For you, and for any dear to you, I would do anything”(179). His love for Lucie transforms him into a man who would die for her and anyone she loves, even her husband. Under all of his laziness and drinking, he is, in fact, a selfless man who has a heart of