Body paragraph of Charles Darnay

In A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, Charles Darnay is a very caring, hard-working and intelligent person. For example he says, “I look only to sharing your fortunes, sharing your life and home, and bring faithful to you to the death. Not to divide with Lucie her privilege as your child, companion, and friend; but to come in aid of it, and bind her closer to you, if such a thing can be” (Dickens 103). Darnay is talking to Dr. Manette about his love of Lucie. He tells him he will never come between father and daughter. Darnay wants to share his life with Lucie and in return bind her closer to Dr. Manette. Not only will he stay loyal to Lucie but also to her father, Dr. Manette. Next, Dickens shows Darnay’s intelligence. For instance he says, “He read with young men…and he cultivated a task for its stores of knowledge and fancy. He could write of them, besides in sound English, and render them in sound English” (Dickens 99). Darnay is a well-educated man from all he does. He is said to be a Tutor and teaches young men all that he knows. This develops the expanse of his knowledge. He can write in English and speak it very well which is hard to do without the proper intelligence. Lastly, the author talks of how hard-working he is. For example he says to his uncle, “I must do, to live, what others of my countrymen, even with nobility at their backs, may have to do some day—work” (Dickens 95). In this scene, Darnay’s uncle, the Marquis, asks if he intends to live when Darnay refuses the fortune. Darnay says he wants to live as his countrymen does may have to do one day. He wants to work for his money and not have it supplied to him. His countrymen refer to people of his status and nobility. He knows that one day they will have to work and he will gladly follow them. This really shows how his character is not greedy at all. In A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens creates Darnay to be a caring, hard-working and intelligent man.

Light and Darkness

In A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens uses light and darkness to express the tone of hopelessness and love in Lucie and Dr. Manette’s relationship. For instance, Dickens writes, “Eagerness to lay the spectral face upon her warm young breast, and love it back to life and hope –so exactly was the expression repeated on her fair young face, that it looked as though it had passed like a moving light from him to her” (Dickens 32). The light represents the love that Dr. Manette wants to pass on to his daughter.  Lucie wants to love him and his pining to love her is passed on. Lucie wants to be near him and give him life. She shares the same desires as her father and Dr. Manette’s expression of eagerness moves on to Lucie. Next, Dickens talks about darkness. For example Dickens speaks, “Darkness has fallen in its place…and his eyes in gloomy abstraction sought the ground” (Dickens 32). Hopelessness is what the darkness is in this situation. He realizes as Lucie shares the same expression of longing, that it is hopeless. He doesn’t even know who this woman is, yet he wants to love her. His eyes turn to the ground because he doesn’t want to look at Lucie after realizing this. Lastly, the author talks about light and darkness together and how they can affect someone. For instance Dickens says, “Then the darkness closed in, the daughter laid her head…close to her father’s side…the darkness deepened and deepened until a light gleamed through the chinks in the wall” (Dickens 36). The darkness which in this case is misery is threatening to suffocate them. Dr. Manette knows he is living a terrible life and he hasn’t been present in his daughter’s life. Lucie knows she has just met him but she lies close to him. The misery seemed to consume them but then a light, which is love, shines through. Even though this is their first meeting and times seem dark, love still breaks through that barrier of misery. In A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens explains that while there is hopelessness in Lucie and Dr. Manette’s relationship there is also love.

The Wine-Shop

In A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens is foreshadowing the French Revolution. In the novel he says, “The time was to come, when that wine too would be spilled on the street-stones, and when the stain of it would be red upon many there” (Dickens 22). He is explaining how in the future the stones will be stained red, not with wine, but with blood. The blood will come from the peasants fighting in the French Revolution. Next, Dickens explains how the citizens from that time sensed a rebellion was coming. For example the author writes, “And one tall joker so besmirched, his head more out of  a long squalid bag of a night-cap than in it, scrawled upon a wall with his fingers dipped in muddy wine lees—BLOOD” (Dickens 22). This man sensed the rebellion. He knew soon these walls would be soaked in blood. The wine was red and greatly resembled blood. In another quote, Dickens really shows how the monarchy is doing nothing to help their citizens. For instance he says, “All the people within reach…run to the spot and drink the wine… others devoted themselves to the sodden and lee-dyed pieces of the cask, licking, and even champing the moister wine-rotted fragments with eager relish” (Dickens 21). Everyone instantly ran to get to the wine. This shows that they are not used to the luxury of wine and eagerly drink it up. People were so desperate for the wine that they greedily chomped on parts of the wet cask. The people were most definitely poor and it is obvious the monarchy doesn’t care about their people at all. They let their own people drink wine from the dirty and muddy street. Charles Dickens in A Tale of Two Cities leads the reader to believe that the spilled wine leads to the French Revolution.