Who else could be a better raconteur to describe a society fraught with poverty and injustice? A society where hunger is pervasive. Hunger is in every face. Hunger is in every distressed conversation. A famished land boils in unrest. Who else could portray the mindscape of the populace more aptly than Charles Dickens as he opens his most popular novel with the paragraph:
"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.."
By choosing to pen a novel on revolutionary France, Dickens takes a huge risk stepping on a subject known little to him. His domestic estrangement with his wife and separation from his publisher seem to cloud his career. However, it does not stop him from travelling to Paris for his homework. The cataclysmic events of the revolution are depicted around the family of Doctor Manette who has been imprisoned and released by the despotic French aristocracy. Doctor Manette reunites with his daughter Lucie Manette, lives with her in England. With father's approval, Lucie marries erstwhile French aristocrat Charles Darney who sympathizes with the bourgeois. There are other characters like Miss Pross who is the caretaker of Lucie and Mr Lorry at the Tellsons bank in Paris who is a good friend of the Manettes and so is Sydney Carton, whose role in the plot seems conspicuous. The indignant elements of the bourgeois are depicted by Mr and Madame Defrage at a bar in Paris.
The revolution galvanizes the nation. The juggernaut of change seems to spare no one, not the bad, not the good, not the slothful, not the industrious, not the woodsawyer on the street, not the tyrannical Aristocrat in the Chateau. The castle of Bastille is stormed. Women like Madame Defrage and her ilk have become inured by injustice from childhood. They are stone-hearted enough to be ready to slaughter anyone associated with the regime. When Charles happens to visit Paris, he is incarcerated and the depressing realities of the revolution unfold in the lives of the Manettes. They realize that change need not be always for the better and change could be ruthless, change could lead to mob justice. Madame Defrage turns out to be the nemesis of the of the Manettes and her supporters are ready to decimate any vestiges of the despised royalty.
Dickens unwraps the scenes with contradictory images and It bodes well with his prelude of the "best" and the "worst" of times. The events surrounding this middle class Victorian Family and its resolute opposition to be victimized, epitomizes the promise of love, the promise of humanity irrespective of the outcome of the Darney trial. As the denouement of the novel crystallizes in the fate of Darney, Dickens looks at a land that rises from the ashes. The values of "Liberté, égalité, fraternité ou la mout" seem conceivable and "mort" signifies that people have had enough and are ready for death if even one among the stated Egality, Liberty or Fraternity is compromised.
In effect, this novel is a masterpiece. Its riveting portrayal also helps a reader map the society of today with the society then to perceive quite easily the fact that despotic regimes still exist. Farcical democracies still deceive people of their rights, indulge in massive corruption to empty the coffers of the taxpayer. However there is hope that people will see a future where they can trust their Government. They can feel assured of its motives and they can hold the reigns of power to decide their fate as citizens and the fate of the nation. It is thus certainly appropriate to quote these lines from Dickens in conclusion :
"I see a beautiful city and a brilliant people rising from this abyss, and, in their struggles to be truly free, in their triumphs and defeats, through long long years to come, I see the evil of this time and of the previous time of which this is the natural birth, gradually making expiation for itself and wearing out."
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