A Tale of Two Cities By Charles Dickens Plot: It is the beginning of the French revolution and the countries at war with it's self. Many if not all of the lower class people believe it is time for change in the French Social and political system. Dr. Alexander Manette was a prisoner in the Bastille (Frances symbolism for Royal Authority) for 18 years. He is eventually released and he travels to London with Jarivs Lorry of Tellson bank, who had raised his daughter since Manette was imprisoned. Since Alexander had been imprisoned for so long he had lost touch with life, love, rest, duty and comfort which his daughter helps to bring out in him again.
After the Count escaped from prison, he discovered that all his enemies had moved to Paris. He became acquainted with people from that city and eventually moved there so that he could have his revenge. The revenge taken on Danglars matches the crime which he committed toward the Count. When Danglars wrote the incriminating letter about the Count, calling him a Bonapartist, his
The Manette Family went to Paris to save Charles Darnay. They went to his (first) trail and he was found innocent. When Madame Defarge found Dr. Manettes old journal it said that he hates Charles Darnay for being one of the nobilities and he condemns him to death. They take him back to trail and find Charles Darnay guilty and they put him back in “la Force” to get the guillotine ready. Sydney Carton found his way into “La Force” by blackmailing the former French/England spy.
The history tells a sordid tale of rape and murder, the crimes committed by Charles’s father and brother. Furious, the jury of French revolutionary "citizens" decides that Charles should pay for the crimes of his father. Before he can be executed Sydney Carton comes to the rescue. A few tricks and a couple of disguises later, Charles is a free man. He and his family head back to England.
Five year pass and Charles Darnay is being tried in London on a charge of treason for providing the French and Americans with the English’s secrets. Lucie and Doctor Manette met Darnay while traveling from Calais to Dover and told the court of his good qualities. However then Mr. Sydney Carton, who looks exactly like Darnay, suddenly appears and allows for Darnay’s acquittal. Meanwhile in France, Marquis Evremonde, Darnay’s uncle, runs down a plebian child with his carriage and shows no regret before hurrying to his home. Darnay arrives later that night and renounces his identity as an Evremonde before leaving for England.
A year later, the two men profess their love for Lucie, but she marries Charles. Charles then admits to Mr. Manette that he is the descendant of those who imprisoned him, and Mr. Manette has a breakdown, but quickly recovers. Darnay travels to Paris and is arrested for emigration by the Revolutionaries, to then be rescued and re-arrested for the wrongs of his father and uncle—who killed a man and raped a woman, then blamed Mr. Manette, causing his imprisonment—once he is free. Awaiting the death of her husband, Lucie waits sadly in an inn when Sydney hears Madame Defarge plotting to kill the daughter of Luce and Lucie herself. In a desperate act of love for his friends, Sydney plans a course of action to save his friends: he planned an escape from the inn for the Manettes via carriage, then he ... ... middle of paper ... ... gives up literally everything—including his own life—for the sake of keeping a family together.
Dr. Manette attempts once again to have him released, but to no avail. But Sydney Carton, who has arrived in Paris, conceives a scheme to spare Darnay's life. He forces John Barsad, who is now a spy for the prisons, to aid him in the scheme. He manages to visit Darnay's cell, change clothes with the prisoner, drug him, and have him taken out by Barsad to a coach, where Mr. Lorry is waiting with Lucie and Dr. Manette. Carton remains in the cell in Darnay's place.
Darney, since he travled back and forth between countries was a perfect suspect for treason. The French Government had just been overthrown by the beggars, and middle class and now run by them, the British on the other hand was still a monarchy and had awful factories and many slums, like France did. Darnay was acquitted when a lawyer, Carton, looked much like him and an eye witness faltered to positively distinguish between them. Carton loved Lucie but he was a drunk. Knowing that their relationship was hopeless, he stated that he would sacrifice himself for her or anyone she loved in an emotional conversation.
His sons tried to overthrow him, hungry for power they were. Once again the English throne was at a merce of a family flight. Henry, was defeated to Richard, his son (land and power to son), and pay homeage to the French King Phillip August. Died of blood poisoned. Shame, shame on a conquered King.
Laertes’ father, Polonius, is stabbed and killed through the arras by the Prince after spying upon the royal mother and son. Once Laertes gets word of his father’s murder, he storms back to Elsinore bent on balancing out the injustice done to his father. The good son proclaims, “...That both the worlds I give to negligence,/ Let come what comes; only I’ll be revenged/ Most thoroughly for my father.” (4:5.140-142). Laertes foreshadows later events by saying that he will have his revenge in this world, even if it means he has to die in the process, damning his soul in the afterlife. Like the protagonist, the son takes on his father’s revenge as an act of honor in expressing, “That drop of blood that’s calm proclaims me bastard,…” (4:5.120-121).