SEMI-DEMO OUTLINE

A Tale of Two Cities

Reporter: Marlie Jane T. Sarno
At the end of the lesson, the students will able to:
• Identify the main characters of Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities;
• Analyze primary themes of the book; and
• Appreciate the importance of Historical Fiction.
Review
1. I am the Queen who reigns during the Victorian Era. Queen Victoria
2. I’m a poet and one of my famous works is Ulysses. Alfred Lord Tennyson
3. I’m an English poet and playwright whose dramatic monologues put me high among the Victorian poets.
Robert Browning
4. I’m an Irish poet and playwright, my major work is The Importance of Being Earnest. Oscar Wilde
Motivation
Look around you, can you tell me about the two pictures that was pasted on the wall?
Pictures of Eiffel Tower in Paris, France and Twin Bridge in London, England.
Charles Dickens
 Charles John Huffam Dickens
 February 7, 1812 - June 9, 1870
 English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian era.
 Known for writing a weekly journal for 20 years as well as 15 novels, 5 novellas, hundreds of short
stories and non-fiction articles.
 Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity during his lifetime than had any previous author. Much in his work
could appeal to the simple and the sophisticated, to the poor and to the queen, and technological
developments as well as the qualities of his work enabled his fame to spread worldwide very quickly.
A Tale of Two Cities
 A Tale of Two Cities, novel by Charles Dickens, published both serially and in book form in 1859.
 Although Dickens borrowed from Thomas Carlyle’s history, The French Revolution, for his sprawling
tale of London and revolutionary Paris, the novel offers more drama than accuracy.
 Book 1: Recalled to Life
Book 2: The Golden Thread
Book 3: The Track of a Storm

Characters
 Sydney Carton
- An insolent, indifferent, and alcoholic attorney.
- Has no real prospects in life and doesn’t seem to be in pursuit of any.
- He does, however, love Lucie, and his feelings for her eventually transform him into a man of
profound merit.
 Charles Darnay
- A French aristocrat by birth.
- He exhibits an admirable honesty in his decision to reveal to Doctor Manette his true identity as a
member of the infamous Evrémonde family.
- Husband of Lucie.
  Lucie Manette
- A young French woman who grew up in England.
- Dickens depicts Lucie as an archetype of compassion, “golden thread.”
- Her love has the power to transform those around her.
 Doctor Manette
- Lucie’s father and a brilliant physician.
- Spent eighteen years as a prisoner in the Bastille.
- At the start of the novel, Manette does nothing but make shoes, a hobby that he adopted to distract
himself from the tortures of prison.
 Monsieur Defarge
- A wine shop owner and revolutionary in the poor Saint Antoine section of Paris.
- Formerly worked as a servant for Doctor Manette.
- Proves an intelligent and committed revolutionary, a natural leader.
 Madame Defarge
- A cruel revolutionary whose hatred of the aristocracy fuels her tireless crusade.
- Spends a good deal of the novel knitting a register of everyone who must die for the revolutionary
cause.
- She proves unrelentingly blood-thirsty, and her lust for vengeance knows no bounds.
 Other Characters:
• Jarvis Lorry
• Jerry Cruncher
• Miss Pross
• Marquis Evrémonde
• John Barsad
• Gabelle
Setting
 London - is presented as somewhat old-fashioned, conservative, and out of step with the times. Dickens
dryly notes that England “did very often disinherit its sons for suggesting improvements in laws and
customs.”
 Paris - is shown to be a place of high tensions, perpetually simmering on the edge of violence. “A
narrow winding street, full of offence and stench… in the hunted air of the people, there was yet some
wild beast thought of turning at bay.”

Summary
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.
The upper classes live in luxury while common people suffer and starve.
In England, a man named Jarvis Lorry receives a message to meet "Mam'selle". “Mam'selle" is a kind
and beautiful young woman named Lucie Manette.
Her father, Dr. Manette, thought dead, has been released from a Paris prison after eighteen years. He is
being hidden by the revolutionaries Monsieur Defarge and his cruel wife, who knits endlessly, at the Defarges'
wine shop in a Paris suburb. But Dr. Manette seems to have lost his sanity after his long imprisonment.
Five years later, a good man named Charles Darnay is accused of treason and will die by torture if found
guilty. Two witnesses against him are Lucie Manette and her father, but Lucie is filled with sympathy for
Darnay.
Darnay physically resembles one of the lawyers, the crude and alcoholic Sydney Carton. This casts
enough doubt on the accusers to acquit Darnay. Carton, who is a failure at life, feels increasingly bitter towards
the good and successful Darnay, who is loved by a woman like Lucie.
 Four months after the trial, Lucie is living with her father. Dr. Manette is recovering, though the reason
for his imprisonment is still a mystery. At a Paris reception for the aristocracy, the Marquis St. Evremonde feels
insulted and leaves in a fit of anger. His carriage kills a child but the Marquis only throws a coin to the child's
father, Gaspard, and leaves in a rage. The Defarges witness this incident. The Marquis goes to his country estate
and meets his nephew, Charles Darnay Evremonde. They despise each other and Darnay says he is renouncing
all of his own titles and leaving France.
In the morning, the Marquis is found to have been murdered by Gaspard.
A year later, three men wish to marry Lucie: Darnay, his lawyer Stryver, and Carton. But Lucie does not
find Stryver acceptable and she knows Carton will not change. She knows that she was his last chance to be
"recalled to life."
Gaspard has been hanged for the murder of the Marquis Evremonde. Madame Defarge places the names
of the entire Evremonde family on her knitted death list, including Charles Darnay Evremonde – now engaged
to Lucie Manette – and their future children.
After Lucie's wedding, when Dr. Manette learns that Darnay is actually an Evremonde, Manette
regresses into insanity.
Ten days later, Dr. Manette seems to be recovered. Lucie and Darnay return and Carton visits them,
saying he wishes to apologize and be a friend to them.
They both agree.
Eight years later, Lucie and Darnay are living in England. Lucie's childhood governess, Miss Pross, is
with them. They have two children who are fond of Carton.
In France, the Defarges lead a bloody attack on the Bastille and Monsieur Defarge searches for Dr.
Manette's old cell.
Three years later, the French Revolution has removed the royalty from power. Darnay learns that his
steward in France, Gabelle, has been arrested for acting on behalf of the Evremonde family. Darnay quietly
leaves for France, not realizing that though he renounced the family name and wealth he will still be seen as a
despised aristocrat.
In Paris, Monsieur Defarge captures Darnay and takes him to La Force Prison. Lucie and her father
arrive in Paris. Dr. Manette, unafraid after his years spent in the Bastille, tries to persuade the mob surrounding
La Force to let him rescue his daughter's husband. But Darnay remains in prison for another fifteen months as
the Reign of Terror begins. Darnay is acquitted through the actions of Dr. Manette, but Madame Defarge soon
has Darnay re-arrested.
His accusers this time are the Defarges and Dr. Manette. The doctor objects, but Monsieur Defarge
states he retrieved a buried paper from Manette's old cell in the Bastille and it contains the evidence.
Eighteen years before, Dr. Manette tried to help a wounded peasant man who claimed that 2 noblemen
attacked him – though he was able to get his younger sister to safety. The noblemen were named Evremonde
and one had a son named Charles Darnay Evremonde. Dr. Manette wrote a letter to the Court reporting the
violent incident, but he was captured by the two noblemen before it was delivered. Dr. Manette buried the letter
in his Bastille cell.
Darnay is sentenced to death. He and Lucie say their farewells but their daughter, young Lucie, begs
Carton to help. He goes to the Defarge wine shop, where Madame Defarge sees his resemblance to Darnay.
Carton learns that Madame Defarge is the young peasant woman who survived the attack by the Evremonde
brothers years before and swore vengeance on all of them – including their descendants.
On the day of Darnay's execution, Carton visits him, drugs him into unconsciousness, and trades places
with him. Darnay and the others safely escape France. Madame Defarge goes to Lucie's apartment to denounce
her, but is shot and killed by Miss Pross – Lucie's former governess and protector.
Before he dies on the guillotine, Carton is at peace and feels he has atoned for a wasted life by allowing
Darnay to go free. His final thoughts are that, "It is a far, far better thing I do than I have ever done; it is a
far, far better rest I go to than I have ever known."
Theme/s
Sacrifice
 The theme of sacrifice is most strongly apparent in Sydney Carton’s decision to take Charles Darnay’s
place, even though doing so means being executed. As a man who does not have a family of his own, he
places more value on Darnay’s life than on his own. Carton is also aware that he has lived an
unproductive and dissolute life, and that he has not offered much to the world. Carton believes that his
act of sacrifice will redeem everything that has come before, and make his life meaningful. As he
reflects to himself, “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done before”.
Class
 Social inequality and class conflict are sources of violent disruption and revolution in France. The theme
of class adds an important element of moral complexity to the novel because Dickens presents both the
cruelty of the upper-classes and the brute violence of the lower-classes in equally damning terms.
Justice
 Justice appears in the novel both in terms of the institutions that are supposed to serve it (courts and so
on) as well as something that individuals struggle to achieve outside of those institutions. Justice is
represented literally by the series of trials and imprisonments interwoven through the plot, including
Doctor Manette’s lengthy imprisonment, Darney’s trial in London, and then his additional imprisonment
and trial in France. Perhaps because legal forms of justice so often prove incompetent, characters are
also very invested in taking justice into their own hands.
Point of View
 Third Person Omniscient - An all-seeing and all-knowing narrator recounts the events of the plot, and
provides insights into the thoughts and feelings of various characters.
Genre
Historical Fiction – set in a real place, during a culturally recognizable time. The details and the action in the
story can be a mix of actual events and ones from the author's imagination as they fill in the gaps.

Activity: Guilty or Not Guilty

The class will be divided into two groups: Team London and Team Paris. All of the students will stand and the
first group to sit down will be given the chance to answer first. And the group who got the correct answer will
chose a member from the other team to be imprisoned.

Questions:
1. What is the full name of Charles Dickens? Answer: Charles John Huffam Dickens
2. He is the father of the child killed by the Marquis Evremonde carriage and has been hanged for the
murder of the Marquis Evremonde. Answer: Gaspard
3. Before he dies on the guillotine, His final thoughts are that, "It is a far, far better thing I do than I have
ever done; it is a far, far better rest I go to than I have ever known." Answer: Sydney Carton
4. She is the young peasant woman who survived the attack by the Evremonde brothers and swore
vengeance on all of them – including their descendants. Answer: Madame Defarge
5. Dickens borrowed from Thomas Carlyle’s history, ___________, for his sprawling tale of London and
revolutionary Paris. Answer: The French Revolution