The+Opening+Scene

=__**The Opening Scene is Important!**__=

//A Tale of Two Cities// by Charles Dickens opens with a sentence that not only sets the mood and tone for the rest of the novel, but it also gives the lifestyle in both England and France. The opening sentence describes how the world is living in two different extremes. Some people live in the "age of wisdom" (1) and "hope" (1) while the others live in the "age of foolishness" (1) and "despair" (1). Dickens wants to make it clear from the beginning that people are either leading an extravagant lifestyle or living in the streets, barely hanging on to life. He is describing England and France in his opening sentence; moreover, England is the area with hope and "Light" (1), but France contains all of the despair and "Darkness" (1) detailed in the opening scene. Dickens chooses to make England the hopeful city and France the crumbling city because he wants to persuade his Victorian readers not to become like the past French people. His whole purpose in writing //A Tale of Two Cities// is so that the people of Victorian England do not transform or become like the people of France did during the French Revolution. Dickens novel opens with a sentence that sets the mood and tone for the rest of the novel, and it details the lifestyles of the English and French peoples.