A Brief Introduction to A Tale of Two Cities

Synopsis: A Tale of Two Cities tells the story of two cities, Paris and London. Before the French Revolution, a surgeon named Magnet, who was practicing medicine in Paris, was framed by Mr. vermont, who was privileged by the nobility, for exposing to the government the crime of persecuting a brother and sister in the countryside for no reason. Dr. Magnet was thrown into the Bastille for no reason and was imprisoned for 65,438+08 years. Later, the Marquis of vermont fell out of favor, and Dr. Magnet was released from prison. While in prison, Dr. Magnet managed to record his persecution and vowed to take revenge on the family in Vermont. After she was released from prison, she and her daughter Lucy lived in London, England. Lucy met a young Frenchman, Charles Darnay. She didn't know that Charles Dyer was the nephew of the Marquis de Evremonde who sent Dr. Magnet to prison. For the sake of her daughter's happiness, Dr. Magnet agreed to marry Lucy and Darna. 1789 When the French Revolution broke out, Gabriel, who was in charge of affairs in France instead of Darnay, was arrested by the revolutionary court. Darnay ventured to Paris to rescue Gabriel in prison. Madame Defarge, the sister of the murdered brother and sister, recognized Darnay as a descendant of the Marquis of Evremonde and decided to guillotine him. After hearing the news, Dr. Magnet and Lucie rushed to Paris and rescued them in various ways. But at the crucial moment of the court trial, Monsieur Defarge and his wife presented the complaint of Dr. Magnet hidden in the Bastille cell, and Darnay was sentenced to death. On the eve of the execution, Kalden, a British lawyer who was madly in love with Lucie, was smuggled into prison and traded for Darnay, because he looked like Darnay. When the coach took the Darnay couple and Dr. Magnet away from Paris, Kalden bravely walked to the guillotine and gave his life for his beloved woman.

Dickens, in A Tale of Two Cities, borrowed the past and compared the present, using the situation in France before and after the French Revolution to hint at the domestic situation in Britain at that time. Using the "inevitable inevitability" of the French Revolution to imply that if the situation in Britain has not changed fundamentally, the history of France will repeat itself in Britain. In A Tale of Two Cities, on the one hand, he is full of sympathy for the oppressed poor people in France, on the other hand, he is afraid of the outbreak of revolutionary forces he has saved. In Dickens' view, once the revolution breaks out, the anger of the masses will be uncontrollable, and the country will inevitably be thrown into the abyss of anarchy and disorder; Killing each other will not only destroy the inherent nature of human beings, but also lead to self-destruction in the end.

In A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens further developed the Christmas spirit with kindness as the core advocated in his previous works. He hoped that people would "not fight evil with violence" and treat hostile classes with kindness and forgiveness. Anyone who "fights violence with violence" violates this kind spirit of Christianity and will surely suffer the consequences. The novel describes that Dr. Magnet vowed to take revenge on the descendants of Mr. Fraimon in the Bastille prison. As a result, Fraimon's nephew Charles Darnay was sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Court. When Dr. Magnet interceded for Darnay, Mr. Defarge read the complaint that Dr. Magnet hid in his cell in public, and Dr. Magnet became the prosecutor who sent Darnay to the guillotine. The novel also describes that the poor people in France rose up to overthrow the feudal nobles who oppressed them by violence, but the violence made them lose their rationality and turned them into crazy beasts. They destroyed the Bastille prison, but built a new prison where nobles and civilians were arrested without trial. In particular, the image of Madame Defarge is the embodiment of Nemesis. When the revolution broke out, she led the women to attack the Bastille with an axe in her right hand and a pistol and a knife around her waist. During the reign of terror, she madly revenged herself on the noble class according to the woven patterns. She longs for revenge and wants to eradicate the Vermont family, even Manette and Lucy. Finally, she was killed by Lucy's pistol when she wrestled with Pross, her maid.

In sharp contrast to this crazy revenge, it is the Christian love spirit embodied in Dr. Magnet, Lucie, Darnay and Kalden. In Dickens' works, this kind spirit can not only make hostile classes and hostile people understand each other, but also change people's distorted minds and make people spiritually reborn.

The name of the first novel is Resurrection, which describes that Dr. Magnet was detained in the Bastille 18 years and lost his mind. It was his daughter Lucy who brought him back to normal with the power of love. Later, on the eve of Lucie's wedding, Dr. Magnet knew that the future son-in-law was a descendant of Mr. vermont, and he vowed to take revenge, but for Lucie's happiness, he agreed to the marriage without considering the old enmity. This kindness has an infinite power, which enabled him to withstand a heavy mental blow in France and try his best to rescue Darnay from prison. Similarly, Darnay also embodies this kind spirit. Before the French Revolution broke out, he sympathized with the unfortunate experience of tenant farmers and voluntarily gave up the property and title of nobility. In order to get the housekeeper out of prison, he was put in prison and on death row.