The Theme of Resurrection in ATale of Two Cities
Resurrection or being recalled back to life has been a fascinating aspect in the world culture. For instance, mythologies recorded in the Ancient Greece and Rome have featured heroes, gods and other creatures like Phoenix, Osiris and Orpheus that after dying came back to life in new forms. On the other hand, Christianity which is a predominant religion especially among the Western world has been built on the belief of Jesus Christ resurrecting to save mankind from sin.
In the Charles Dickens novel “A Tale of Two Cities” and which mainly scrutinizes the French Revolution, one of its main themes is resurrection. And although there is no evidence of characters being brought back to life literally, there are various forms of spiritual resurrection which have been presented. For instance, the novels has begun with Dr. Manette being “recalled back to life” after spending 18 years in prisons and ends with yet another form of resurrection although with a minor implication through a character who willingly sacrifices himself but while he is almost at the point of death on the guillotine, he looks forward for a resurrected Paris and that will develop from ash level of bloody revolution.
The first person to undergo resurrection in A Tale of Two Cities is Dr. Manette and where the phrase “recalled to life” is first quoted to denote resurrection theme. This is after Dr. Manette is released from Bastille where he had been solitary confined for 18 years, and the incidence sets the authors plot in motion. Dr. Manette had been separated from his pregnant wife 18 years ago and imprisoned detained in Bastille. Through the torture he is exposed to in prison, he turns out becoming inane. As a result, his condition continuously deteriorates to an extent of forgetting his name and could mindlessly cobble shoes in order to pass time. He had been detained because of a piece of information he knew about Marquis St. Evremonde and which Marquis did not want it to get into public domain. Dr. Manette is set free French government and brought back to his wine shop, where he is picked by his daughter Lucie in the company of Mr. Lorry who was a family friend. This indicates Dr. Manette being recalled back to life.
However, the rebirth of Dr. Manette has just begun at this juncture and cannot be considered as complete until his reunion with his daughter. At the time Dr. Manette is brought back to his home by Lucie and Mr. Lorry is insane and refers himself as “One Hundred and Five, North Tower”. Nothing he knows at all other than his life in prison and reverts busily while making shoes, the hobby he had picked up while detained. Dr. Manette is completely unable to adapt to the life outside the jail because he had forgotten the life because of his long stay at the prison. Lucie’s love to him is however unconditional and vows to do all it takes to help him regain his sanity. In chapter 6 of the first book, we see Lucie greet him for the first time after the 18 years of not being together and the first thing she tells him is that the agony is over because she had come to take him out of it. This is the point at which rebirth starts when Dickens lets us know that Lucie was going to do all it took for her father and love him. As the time passes Dr. Manette regains his mental stability and his shoemaking regressions becomes less often. In chapter 7 of the third book, the narrator updates us on Dr. Manette that “there is no garret, no shoemaking, no One Hundred and Five, North Tower, now!” implying that he had now resurrected fully from his previous state.
Work cited
Charles Dickens. A Tale of Two Cities [M]. Beijing：Foreign Language And Research Press， 1994， 183-184,355,464,466-467