A Tale Of Two Cities by Charles Dickens(Gabe Serrano)
This is one of two historical novels written by Charles Dickens, it is set in London,in Paris, and the French countryside at the time of the French Revolution. The book is sympathetic to the overthrow of the French aristocracy but highly critical of the reign of terror that followed.
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The novel is about how Charles Darnay was sentenced to death during the French Revolution because his uncle had many crimes charged agaist him for hurting the French Citizens.He was tried twice. The first time with the help of Doctor Manette,Lucie Manette,Jarvis Lorry,and Sydney Carton he was found innocent. He was tried again but this time was sentenced to death. In the end Sydney Carton,who looked similar to Darnay,died instead of Charles.
The French Revolution was when French citizens razed and redesigned their country’s political landscape, uprooting centuries-old institutions such as absolute monarchy and the feudal system. Like the American Revolution before it, the French Revolution was influenced by Enlightenment ideals, particularly the concepts of popular sovereignty and inalienable rights.
The Enlightenment was a European intellectual movement of the late 17th and 18th centuries emphasizing reason and individualism rather than tradition and religion.
More background information on the French Revolution.
The French Revolution relates to the book in many ways. One is by explaning the punishment of Charles Darnay.Charles was sentenced to death after giving secrets to the colonists during the Revolutionary war and because his uncle had harmed many french citizens. although he was supposed to die in this time period many other people would die at the same time for different crimes as well. He was only the twenty third person scheduled to die.
Charles Darnay's uncle was a Marquis. A Marquis a nobleman ranking above a count and below a duke. The French Revolution was about getting rid of these types of people. This is why when the citizens found out about the crimes that the former Marquis had done they took it out on Charles and charged him with the crimes as well as being an emigrant.
An emigrant is a person who leaves their own country in order to settle permanently in another. This was a crime back during the French revolution because he was not supposed to leave France because of his role and the citizens were mad. So he was charged as an emigrant and with his uncles crimes.
The quote helps describe the lives of the characters and the time period by implying that the this era had some positive outcomes like getting rid of the constituional monarchy. The quote also says it was the worst of times which mean there are some negative outcomes like how many lives were loss.
