Important+Quotes

=Important Quotes =
 * "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." (1)

Charles Dickens sets the scene of his novel by describing what life is like in England and France. He wants to clearly point out that there is no in between in the societies. Things are black or white without a hint of gray in the time period Dickens chooses to write about. It sets the mood for the rest of the novel.


 * "[R]ecalled to life" (10)

Dickens begins his overarching theme of Resurrection seen throughout A Tale of Two Cities early in the novel. Resurrection is throughout the entire novel, but it begins with these simple words. Dickens "resurrects" many of his characters in //A Tale of Two Cities//.


 * "Only [Lucie] had the power of charming this black brooding from his mind. She was the golden thread that united him to a Past beyond his misery, and to a Present beyond his misery: and the sound of her voice, the light of her face, the touch of her hand, had a strong beneficial influence with him almost always." (60)

Lucie Manette represents the power of Love in //A Tale of Two Cities//. Dickens chooses to give her this "power of resurrecting people" to represent how the smallest amount of love can change an entire community for the better. He wants to persuade his readers to pursue Love instead of Hate and Bloodshed like Madame Defarge. This point also leads into his reason for writing this book which is to persuade the people of Victorian England not to become like Madame Defarges or the French people as a whole.


 * "The lights were nearly all extinguished in the passages, the iron gates were being closed with a jar and a rattle, and the dismal place was deserted until to-morrow morning's interest of gallows, pillory, whipping-post, and branding-iron, should re-people it." (61)

With the people of England's only form of entertainment being death sentences, the people of the town cannot wait until tomorrow's trial where the accused prisoner will most likely be found guilty and killed. They cannot wait to see their own citizens be put to death, and Dickens uses certain words to describe the people of England as a ruthless and heartless bunch. The nobility of France and the Marquis call them vermin and animals which they soon become when Death leads their lives.


 * "[A]s if they had been mere rats come out of their holes." (84)
 * "'I would ride over any of you very willingly" (85)
 * "'Truly, you did well," said the Marquis, felicitously sensible that such vermin were not to ruffle him" (88)

With these quotes, one can see the disgust the elite look at the lower class with. The Marquis (an elitest) describes the lower class as vermin, and in other parts of the novel, he calls them rats and pigs. These quotes are a representation of a situation in the book that their is an unbalanced social class system and the peasants have no one to help them while the elite flaunt their social status, waste money that could help save the lower class, and disrespect the lower class. It shows Dickens's theme of power and the abuse of power. In this case, the peasant class has no idea how to wield the power that they take from the French nobility.


 * The village had its one poor street, with its poor brewery, poor tannery, poor tavern, poor stable-yard for relay of post-horses, poor fountain, all usual poor appointments." (86)
 * "My husband died of want; so many die of want; so many more will die of want." (89)

These quotes show the desperation of people in France. The "want" in the second quote is hunger, and the upper class does nothing to help provide for the lower class. It describes one of the many themes in A Tale of Two Cities that there is a big clash between the social class system and it is skewed towards those with more money. The upper class does not want to nor care about the lower class while they starve in the street. Dickens wants to point out that the social structure in France was uneven and needed to be avoided by future societies, but he also wants to show more evidence on why the French Revolution occurred in the first place. People were unhappy with the social classes and wanted change. This motif is one of the many motives for the French Revolution and the theme of causes of Revolution is what the quote represents.


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"It was a heavy mass of building, that chateau of Monsieur the Marquis, with a large stone courtyard before it, and two stone sweeps of staircase meeting in a stone terrace before the principal door. A stony business altogether, with heavy stone balustrades, and stone urns, and stone flowers, and stone faces of men, and stone heads of lions, in all directions. As if the Gorgon’s head had surveyed it, when it was finished, two centuries ago." (90)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Dickens chooses to describe the Marquis's house this way to show many things. The nobility has been treating the peasants like dirt for a long time, hence the last sentence about the Gorgon heads. Since the house is made of stone as well, it shows how the nobility will never change until the Revolution destroys everything they own...


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"Madame Defarge let him go—as a cat might have done to a mouse—and silently and composedly looked at him while they made ready, and while he besought her: the women passionately screeching at him all the time, and the men sternly calling out to have him killed with grass in his mouth." (173)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">From this quote, Dickens's prominent theme of Power and how Power is abused is heavily represented. Just a couple of days ago, the peasant people were starving out in the streets, hungry for some kind of change. Now when they finally get the change that they were hoping for, they heavily abuse it. They kill for no reason and posses no mercy within their savage like bodies. The peasant class becomes the vermin that the Marquis describes them as once they finally get their "power", but they have no idea how to use that power.

> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The French Revolution and the revolutionaries of France have destroyed everything good that once was in France. If France had any hope before the Jacobins took over France, it has all been destroyed by this time in the Revolution.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"The ghost of beauty, the ghost of stateliness, the ghost of elegance, the ghost of pride, the ghost of frivolity, the ghost of wit, the ghost of youth, the ghost of age, all waiting their dismissal from the desolate shore, all turning on him eyes that were changed by the death they had died in coming there." (195-6)


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"'Let me take your arm, Miss Pross. This is not a good city, at this time, for you to be out in, unprotected'" (231)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Carton has transformed into a completely different man at this point in the novel. He personifies the theme that Dickens uses representing the idea of Resurrection. He completely changes into a gentleman and is resurrected from his past horrible life. The reader sees his transformation throughout the entire novel, but this is when it really hits its peak.


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"'It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.'” (293)

Sydney Carton represents Dickens's theme of Sacrifice and Resurrection in the novel. He starts out as a lowlife drunk, but by the end of the novel, Dickens transforms him into a proper gentleman. Dickens "resurrects" Sydney Carton from his horrible life. Carton also is the theme of Sacrifice in the novel because he sacrifices himself for the Darnay family which saves people. With this quote, Dickens shows that Carton has not only made a complete transformation, but he also shows how the sacrifice of Carton ends in the success of the Darnay family and saves Carton from the nefarious ways of France and the world as a whole.