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Abstract：through the analysis of main characters the author wants to show us Charles Dickens’s humanitarian in the novel, the author has analyzed different endings of different characters and concluded the love and vengeance, which has reflected Dickens’s humanitarian.
Keywords：love; vengeance; a tale of two cities
Ⅰ. Introduction
Charles Dickens is the greatest representative of English critical realism. His writings can be divided into three periods. During these three periods, he has written many novels which have reflected his humanitarianism. In my opinion, the novel A Tale of Two Cities is the one that has mostly reflected his humanitarianism, which advocates universal love and mercy rather than hatred and violence, because in his novel he arranges different endings for the ones who have hatred and ones who have love. In my thesis, I will compare the different endings of different characters. Dr. Manette and Mrs. Defarge are two opposites, one is selfless, and the other is selfness; one is great for love, the other one is crazy for hatred. They stand for love and hatred. At last, the great one is safe while the crazy one is dead. So we can conclude that the author praises love, which is the reflection of his humanitarianism.
Ⅱ. DR.Manette: incarnation of love
Dr. Manette is one of the main characters. Born in an intellectual family, he is right-hearted, kindhearted and never giving up to the evils; all of these are good qualities the author highly prizes. He is a brilliant doctor and has helped many poor people. One day he is called to do predation on one young beautiful woman and a young man who are beaten by the nobles. Because of his vocation, he happens to see evil of feudal nobles.
Dr. Manette is taken into the prison for defending others against an injustice, which has arisen his hatred to the marquis. He said later: “when I am in prison, sometimes I cannot help thinking about revenge.” Out of prison, he has changed into another person. His heart is full of love to his daughter. When he knew his daughter and nephew of Monsieur who is his enemy and has put him into prison for eighteen years fell in love with each other, he controlled his inside hatred. He is so great that he can become relatives with his enemies for his daughter. He proves to be a loving, kind father, because he prizes his daughter’s happiness above everything.
When the French revolution breaks out, the revolutionary people fight against the nobles. Darnay is put into prison. For his daughter, Dr .Manette saved out Darnay from the prison regardless of his own life. At this time, Dr. Manette has become the incarnation of humanitarianism. His tolerance and noble spirit reflect the humanitarianism of author. Though he has burdened unimagined mental sufferings, his goodwill still beats the inside hatred. He is kind, brave and self-surrender. These are the characters the author highly praises. The author not only shows great sympathy to Dr, Manette but also respects his perseverance and calmness. Ⅲ. MRS.DEFARGE:VENGEANCE
Mrs. Defarge is shaped as a negative figure in this novel. Her former name is Dickens. Born in a poor farmer family, her father, brother, and sister are killed by marquis brothers. She is the only family member that survives. So she deeply hated the nobles. Having grown up, she and his husband Mr. Defarge join in the revolution and has become a decisive revolutionist. She not only continuously takes part in the revolution, but also encourages her husband to be decisive in revolution when he is not confident with the revolution.
She joins in the revolution, not only for her family, but also for the oppressed class. She not only revenges towards marquis, but also all the nobles. She struggles to grow to be an avenger. She is brave and wise. Before the revolution she wittily records for the revolution using basketworks of her own. During the revolution, she bravely attacks Bastille with arms. After the revolution successes, she actively exposes nobles’ crime and asserts to kill the nobles. She can be regarded as a great woman.
Dickens Dickens vividly depicts her revolution fighting spirit, but when it comes to the part when revolution breaks out, he expresses his fears and opposition against the violent revolution from the stand of humanitarianism. He implies his hatred towards Mrs. Defarge and shapes her to be a cold, cruel and bloodthirsty devil: she destroys happiness of Manette family; breaks up family of Lucie and Darnay. Though Darnay gives up status of noble, Mrs. Defarge still regardless wants to kill him. What’s more, she even wants to kill his whole family in order to revenge. On this point, Dickens portrays her as an inhumane character. For the aims to propagate bourgeoisie humanitarianism, he uses the death of Mrs. Defarge to indicate the results of revolution. Mrs. Defarge, same as the cold Marquis, is the product of times and age. She happens to die when she last comes out in the novel. If we analyze in the normal train of thought of Dickens, Mrs. Defarge, a woman as one of the oppressed class, should be the positive figure and should have a good end after the revolution. But the author focuses on her coldness, cruelty and abnormal psychology. People feel that she is deserved to death. On this point, Dickens expresses inhumane behavior and reflects cruel revenge and violence. Her end clearly implies author’s humanitarianism which is against violence.
The Defarges have been working with never-ceasing diligence to prepare the Day of Wrath and are in the forefront of the assault on the Bastille. They are relentless revolutionaries, seeking the people’s vengeance on the criminal noble lords. The character of Dr. Manette, however, is not so consistent. He hated the Evremonds for their atrocities, wrote an accusation against them, and was put in prison by them for 18 long years. But after his release, he first let his daughter marry the son and nephew of his own oppressors, then sorrows over his son-in-law’s death sentence, and thus gets himself into trouble with the revolutionary people, from which he is extricated only by the self-sacrifice of another person. His fate is typical of those bourgeois intellectuals who had hoped for a revolution, but recoiled aghast before the excesses of the French Revolution. From the view of her life experience, Mrs. Defarge should be shown sympathy: her family has to give the nobles high tax; her young and beautiful sister is grabbed off by nobles; her brother is killed by nobles when he tries to save her sister. All of these have grown vengeance seed in her inside. Before the revolution, she is tolerant, calm, and firm and wisely keeps revolutionary actions, and she is always weaving to record the evil names that have done against revolution. Nothing can change her determination. She even tells her husband it will take a long time to take revenge. But when the time comes, it will break out terribly and it will destroy everything. When the revolution breaks out, she is so brave that she has become the leader of her district.
Ⅳ. the conflicts between Dr. Manette and Mrs. Defarge
The author pays more attention to depict Mrs. Defarge’s cold and dangerous black eyebrows. When the message sender sees her, he cannot help shaking. Just as the author says, at that time, many women are changed by the times, they become cold and cruel. But no women are more terrible than this ruthless woman, since an early age she trampled on the full awareness of being humiliated and deep-rooted. So when the time comes, she will become a tiger. She is absolutely without pity, if she was previously with such virtue, which has already been destroyed. She is simply born to revenge. Living in this world, revenge has become her only belief and pursuit. The inside hatred has replaced the human nature of goodness. The author arranges Mrs. Defarge dies in the end. He has expressed that he is against violent revolution and inhumane violence. At the same time he has criticized the feudal nobles who are cruel and violent.
On the other hand, Dr. Manette is the perfect incarnation of love, compared to Mrs. Defarge. From the ends of them, we can say that love is always going beyond hatred. Being in prison for eighteen years, he has suffered from physical and psychological harassment. But he has decided to forget them for her daughter’s happiness, because his wise of goodness has triumphed over blindness of hatred. The author has shown great mercy to him and admires his bravery and calmness, which has reflected his humanitarianism. Humanitarianism?is an ethic of kindness, benevolence and sympathy extended universally and impartially to all human beings. Humanitarianism advocates love and sympathy. In the novel the author arranges that Dr. Manette forgets the past hatred for his love to his daughter. It is really a good example to reflect the author’s humanitarianism. For love, and to forget hatred, it is what the author wants to express. They are all from the oppressed and poor class and they both has suffered from great harassment, but they acts quite differently after the harassment, one is for love, one is for hatred. Through the comparison of love and hatred, the author has clearly expressed his humanitarianism. In the novel, Dr. Manette chooses to forget hatred for his love to his daughter, and he has a good result: survive in the revolution and begin a new life with his daughter. However, Mrs. Defarge is arranged to be die in the end. From the two diffident ends we can see the author is highly praising love and advocating forgetting hatred, which is core of the humanitarianism.
BACKGROUND OF AUTHOR
Jiang Li(1987- ): a graduate student in the School of Economics and Management, Beijing University of posts and telecommunications.
References
[1]The Glancy, Ruth. A Tale of Two Cities：Dickens’s Revolutionary Novel. Boston：Twayne Publishers: 1981
[2]The Charles,Dickens. A Tale of Two Cities. Dover Publications Inc: 1998
[3]A S Hornby.ADVANCED LEARNER’S English-Chinese Dictionary.THE COMMERIAL PRESS, 2004
[4]Liu Bingshan. Brief introduction of British literature..Henan people press:2007
[5]The Duncan, Sidwell. Europe Literature Introduction. BEIJING
: FOREIGN LANGUAGE AND RESEARCH PRESS: 2008
Keywords：love; vengeance; a tale of two cities
Ⅰ. Introduction
Charles Dickens is the greatest representative of English critical realism. His writings can be divided into three periods. During these three periods, he has written many novels which have reflected his humanitarianism. In my opinion, the novel A Tale of Two Cities is the one that has mostly reflected his humanitarianism, which advocates universal love and mercy rather than hatred and violence, because in his novel he arranges different endings for the ones who have hatred and ones who have love. In my thesis, I will compare the different endings of different characters. Dr. Manette and Mrs. Defarge are two opposites, one is selfless, and the other is selfness; one is great for love, the other one is crazy for hatred. They stand for love and hatred. At last, the great one is safe while the crazy one is dead. So we can conclude that the author praises love, which is the reflection of his humanitarianism.
Ⅱ. DR.Manette: incarnation of love
Dr. Manette is one of the main characters. Born in an intellectual family, he is right-hearted, kindhearted and never giving up to the evils; all of these are good qualities the author highly prizes. He is a brilliant doctor and has helped many poor people. One day he is called to do predation on one young beautiful woman and a young man who are beaten by the nobles. Because of his vocation, he happens to see evil of feudal nobles.
Dr. Manette is taken into the prison for defending others against an injustice, which has arisen his hatred to the marquis. He said later: “when I am in prison, sometimes I cannot help thinking about revenge.” Out of prison, he has changed into another person. His heart is full of love to his daughter. When he knew his daughter and nephew of Monsieur who is his enemy and has put him into prison for eighteen years fell in love with each other, he controlled his inside hatred. He is so great that he can become relatives with his enemies for his daughter. He proves to be a loving, kind father, because he prizes his daughter’s happiness above everything.
When the French revolution breaks out, the revolutionary people fight against the nobles. Darnay is put into prison. For his daughter, Dr .Manette saved out Darnay from the prison regardless of his own life. At this time, Dr. Manette has become the incarnation of humanitarianism. His tolerance and noble spirit reflect the humanitarianism of author. Though he has burdened unimagined mental sufferings, his goodwill still beats the inside hatred. He is kind, brave and self-surrender. These are the characters the author highly praises. The author not only shows great sympathy to Dr, Manette but also respects his perseverance and calmness. Ⅲ. MRS.DEFARGE:VENGEANCE
Mrs. Defarge is shaped as a negative figure in this novel. Her former name is Dickens. Born in a poor farmer family, her father, brother, and sister are killed by marquis brothers. She is the only family member that survives. So she deeply hated the nobles. Having grown up, she and his husband Mr. Defarge join in the revolution and has become a decisive revolutionist. She not only continuously takes part in the revolution, but also encourages her husband to be decisive in revolution when he is not confident with the revolution.
She joins in the revolution, not only for her family, but also for the oppressed class. She not only revenges towards marquis, but also all the nobles. She struggles to grow to be an avenger. She is brave and wise. Before the revolution she wittily records for the revolution using basketworks of her own. During the revolution, she bravely attacks Bastille with arms. After the revolution successes, she actively exposes nobles’ crime and asserts to kill the nobles. She can be regarded as a great woman.
Dickens Dickens vividly depicts her revolution fighting spirit, but when it comes to the part when revolution breaks out, he expresses his fears and opposition against the violent revolution from the stand of humanitarianism. He implies his hatred towards Mrs. Defarge and shapes her to be a cold, cruel and bloodthirsty devil: she destroys happiness of Manette family; breaks up family of Lucie and Darnay. Though Darnay gives up status of noble, Mrs. Defarge still regardless wants to kill him. What’s more, she even wants to kill his whole family in order to revenge. On this point, Dickens portrays her as an inhumane character. For the aims to propagate bourgeoisie humanitarianism, he uses the death of Mrs. Defarge to indicate the results of revolution. Mrs. Defarge, same as the cold Marquis, is the product of times and age. She happens to die when she last comes out in the novel. If we analyze in the normal train of thought of Dickens, Mrs. Defarge, a woman as one of the oppressed class, should be the positive figure and should have a good end after the revolution. But the author focuses on her coldness, cruelty and abnormal psychology. People feel that she is deserved to death. On this point, Dickens expresses inhumane behavior and reflects cruel revenge and violence. Her end clearly implies author’s humanitarianism which is against violence.
The Defarges have been working with never-ceasing diligence to prepare the Day of Wrath and are in the forefront of the assault on the Bastille. They are relentless revolutionaries, seeking the people’s vengeance on the criminal noble lords. The character of Dr. Manette, however, is not so consistent. He hated the Evremonds for their atrocities, wrote an accusation against them, and was put in prison by them for 18 long years. But after his release, he first let his daughter marry the son and nephew of his own oppressors, then sorrows over his son-in-law’s death sentence, and thus gets himself into trouble with the revolutionary people, from which he is extricated only by the self-sacrifice of another person. His fate is typical of those bourgeois intellectuals who had hoped for a revolution, but recoiled aghast before the excesses of the French Revolution. From the view of her life experience, Mrs. Defarge should be shown sympathy: her family has to give the nobles high tax; her young and beautiful sister is grabbed off by nobles; her brother is killed by nobles when he tries to save her sister. All of these have grown vengeance seed in her inside. Before the revolution, she is tolerant, calm, and firm and wisely keeps revolutionary actions, and she is always weaving to record the evil names that have done against revolution. Nothing can change her determination. She even tells her husband it will take a long time to take revenge. But when the time comes, it will break out terribly and it will destroy everything. When the revolution breaks out, she is so brave that she has become the leader of her district.
Ⅳ. the conflicts between Dr. Manette and Mrs. Defarge
The author pays more attention to depict Mrs. Defarge’s cold and dangerous black eyebrows. When the message sender sees her, he cannot help shaking. Just as the author says, at that time, many women are changed by the times, they become cold and cruel. But no women are more terrible than this ruthless woman, since an early age she trampled on the full awareness of being humiliated and deep-rooted. So when the time comes, she will become a tiger. She is absolutely without pity, if she was previously with such virtue, which has already been destroyed. She is simply born to revenge. Living in this world, revenge has become her only belief and pursuit. The inside hatred has replaced the human nature of goodness. The author arranges Mrs. Defarge dies in the end. He has expressed that he is against violent revolution and inhumane violence. At the same time he has criticized the feudal nobles who are cruel and violent.
On the other hand, Dr. Manette is the perfect incarnation of love, compared to Mrs. Defarge. From the ends of them, we can say that love is always going beyond hatred. Being in prison for eighteen years, he has suffered from physical and psychological harassment. But he has decided to forget them for her daughter’s happiness, because his wise of goodness has triumphed over blindness of hatred. The author has shown great mercy to him and admires his bravery and calmness, which has reflected his humanitarianism. Humanitarianism?is an ethic of kindness, benevolence and sympathy extended universally and impartially to all human beings. Humanitarianism advocates love and sympathy. In the novel the author arranges that Dr. Manette forgets the past hatred for his love to his daughter. It is really a good example to reflect the author’s humanitarianism. For love, and to forget hatred, it is what the author wants to express. They are all from the oppressed and poor class and they both has suffered from great harassment, but they acts quite differently after the harassment, one is for love, one is for hatred. Through the comparison of love and hatred, the author has clearly expressed his humanitarianism. In the novel, Dr. Manette chooses to forget hatred for his love to his daughter, and he has a good result: survive in the revolution and begin a new life with his daughter. However, Mrs. Defarge is arranged to be die in the end. From the two diffident ends we can see the author is highly praising love and advocating forgetting hatred, which is core of the humanitarianism.
BACKGROUND OF AUTHOR
Jiang Li(1987- ): a graduate student in the School of Economics and Management, Beijing University of posts and telecommunications.
References
[1]The Glancy, Ruth. A Tale of Two Cities：Dickens’s Revolutionary Novel. Boston：Twayne Publishers: 1981
[2]The Charles,Dickens. A Tale of Two Cities. Dover Publications Inc: 1998
[3]A S Hornby.ADVANCED LEARNER’S English-Chinese Dictionary.THE COMMERIAL PRESS, 2004
[4]Liu Bingshan. Brief introduction of British literature..Henan people press:2007
[5]The Duncan, Sidwell. Europe Literature Introduction. BEIJING
: FOREIGN LANGUAGE AND RESEARCH PRESS: 2008