Tragic Elements in A "Tale of Two Cities":

In spite of the fact that A Tale of Two Cities contains a few grains of humour, it is out and out a tragic novel, containing a large number of melodramatic and sensational meterial. The novelist does not love violence and boodshed for their own sake. Besides the general tragedy of the people of France, the novel also deals with the tragedies of a few individuals. It depicts like a tragedy suffering and misfortune of some characters.

A Tale of Two Cities is first of all a tragedy of Dr. Manette. This man was a promising young physician, leading a quiet and peaceful life with his wife in Paris. His life was destroyed by the cruelty of the two Evermonde brothers who took him to attend upon a dying young girl and her dying young brother, The Evermondes brothers threw him into the Bastille because he had dared to report to the high authorities about the dying girl and boy. Dr. Mannette remained a prisoner for about 18 years. When he is released from the jail he is a broken man. He is put to balance and harmony by the loving care of his daughter, Lucie. Again his son-in-law is arrested. Thereafter his whole life is spent in saving his son-in-law. He fights against misfortunes bravely. Life is very difficult, hard and full of misery to Lucie and her husband Darnay. He is too good to live in this cruel world. Lucie lost her mother when she was still a child. She met her father very late. When she met him, he was a victim of mad fits. No doubt she got the rose of her love, Darnay, but amidst thorns of misfortunes. He goes to Paris to save a servant and is arrested and rearrested and has to undergo trials and tribulation. It is with great difficulty that he comes back to London, but his rescue is a gift from Sydney Carton, who replaces him by imprisoning himself and facing the Guillotine. Thus Lucie and Darnay have to face many mis- fortunes and tribulations. They face the misfortunes heroically.

The tragedy of Sydney Carton is like that of a saint. It is a kind of self-martyrdom on the alter, of-love. He sacrifices his life to save Darnay, the husband of his beloved .This sacrifice arouses in us the deep feeling of pity and fear and lends to A Tale of Two Cities the grandeur of tragedy.

Then there is the tragedy of the people in general. There are numerous borrowing scenes in the novel. The murders of the tenant's girl and boy by Evermonds, imprisonment of Dr. Manette and Darnay, the murder of the Marquis, march of an armed mod, led by Monsieur and Madame Defarge, assault on the Bastille, murder of the Governor of the Bastille, beheading of the king, etc, are the events that are not only melodramatic but also show the general tragedy of the people of France. The whole account of the reign of terror makes the novel tragic in atmosphere.

Finally, this novel also conveys indirectly the tragic conflict of Dickens's own mind when he was writing this novel. Thus the novel is an account of Dickens's own tragedy too. He had separated from his wife as a consequence of a love affair with Ellen Ternar. He had been faced with a painful mental conflict and now going through a kind of revolution both as a man and as an artist. By writing a tragic story with the French Revolution as its background he was able not only to escape from the torments of his personal struggle but also to express those torments.

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1. Dickens's Art of Characterization in the Novel “A Tale of Two Cities”.