Themes of Novel A Tale of Two Cities are described here very well.

2.  Resurrection is the overriding theme of this
novel.
 Book 1 named “Recalled to life” concerns the
rediscovery of Doctor Manette, who has been
jailed in the bastille for eighteen years.
 This theme is treated humorously through
JERRY CRUNCHER’s trade of digging up dead
bodies and selling their parts seems gruesome.
 This provides him with a knowledge that a spy
named ROGER CLY has been literally
resurrected that he was never burried at all.
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3.  The most important resurrection is of CHARLES
DARNAY. Sydney Carton’s resemblance with him
saves him from being convicted and executed in
England.
 These resurrections are surrounded with heavily
religious language that compare carton’s sacrifice
of his own life for other’s sins to christ’s like
sacrifice on the cross.
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4.  This theme is inevitable in the novel
concerning the french revolution.
 Dickens shows opposition of the
revolution due to the uncontrolled
force of its aroused mobs.
 The story of MARQUI’S rape of
peasent is shown as a aristocratic
mistreatment of the lower class.
 The french mobs acts with such a
force that it resembles a natural
element like fire or water.
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5.  This novel carefully marks the passage of time.Track
of time is important because time carries out fate.
 Individual characters also feel the pull of fate.
Darnay feels himself drawn back as if under the
influence of a magnet.
 Lucie’s feeling of noise of feet in her home describes about
some future intrusions that are going to happen.
 Fate operates omniously rather than optimistically among
the characters in the novel.
 Darnay also pays for the wrong of his ancestors.
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6.  Dickens signal that this novel is about
Duality. Everything from the setting
(London, Paris) to the people come in
pairs.
 The pairs often are related together. A
crucial incidence of doubling involves the
resemblance of CHARLES DARNAY and
SYDNEY CARTON.
 The pairs are more often oppositional.For
example, LUCIE’s physical and moral
brightness is played off against the dark
MADAME DEFARGE.
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7.  One of the major effect caused by the
French revolution was that it turned the
society upside down.
 When Darnay returns to France, he
observes that the noblemen are in prison,
while criminals are their jailors.
 The replacement of Darnay with Carton
at the end of the novel is another reversal
showing that a bad man can replace a
good man in such a revolutinary society.
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8.  The novel focus attention on the
preservation of family groups.
 The first manifestation of this theme
occurs in LUCIE’S trip to meet her father
in Paris.
 Although she thought that he will seem
like a ghost. The possibility of reunion is
enough to make her undertake a long trip.
 After LUCIE married CHARLES
DARNAY,the novel is concerned with
their struggle to keep their family
together.
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9.  When DARNAY laments his own death
sentence, it is for the sake of his family, not for
his own sake.
 The final triumph is the sacrifice of CARTON,
a man who is unattached to any sort of family,
who thus preserves the group consisting of the
Doctor, her husband and her children.
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10.  This theme is related to the theme of
class struggle. Because those who feel
the negative effects of injustice begin
to struggle against it.
 Dickens sympathized with the unrest
of the lower orders of society.
 Dickens vividly paints the aristocratic
maltreatment of the lower classes.
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11.  Such as when MONSEIGNEUR only
briefly stops to toss a coin towards the
father of a child whom he has just run
over.
 Dickens portrays the plight of the
working class in England as rather
difficult, which also emphasize social
injustice.
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12.  This novel also presents the theme of
love and hate and their inteaction.
 MADAM DEFARGE represents
hatred on account of her past
sufferings.
 Carton and Darnay, on the other hand,
exhibit love which they shower on
LUCIE while CARTON sacrifices his
life for love.
 Lucie’s love for her father brings him
back to life from his prolonged
incarceration. So, love and hatred go
hand in hand in this novel.
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