A Tale of Two Cities By Charles Dickens Plot Summary:

                       A  Tale of Two Cities

                                   By Charles Dickens

Plot Summary:

It is the year 1775, and England and France are undergoing a period of social violent disturbance and turmoil. Lucie Manette is a young woman who has been raised as an orphan and a ward of Tellson's bank. She learns that her father is alive and has recently been released from prison after eighteen years of unjust imprisonment. She travels to the French suburb of Saint Antoine with Mr. Jarvis Lorry. Mr. Lorry is a longtime Tellson's employee and had managed her father's affairs before his imprisonment. They find her father at the home of Ernest Defarge, who has housed the doctor since his release. Though her father is on the brink of insanity, she solemnly vows that she will recover him. The family returns to London. After time, the doctor begins to recover and resumes his practice. Though, he occasionally returns back to his trance-like state, he slowly returns to himself. Throughout the process, he and Lucie become extremely close.

After a period of five years, Lucie and her father are called to testify in the trial of Charles Darnay. Charles Darnay is a French citizen and London resident and has been accused of treason against England. Lucie reluctantly gives circumstantial evidence against Darnay. However, Darnay is ultimately saved when a witness cannot positively identify Darnay because of his striking resemblance with Sydney Carton, a lawyer in the court. Darnay is ultimately freed, and this circumstance draws everyone involved closer together. Darnay, along with Mr. Lorry, becomes a friend of the family, and Sydney Carton becomes a regular visitor. Sydney is not welcome one--he is frequently drunk, often ill humour and vulgar in his manner. Though the others complain of Carton's manner, one evening he told Lucie that she has awakened feelings in him. She asks if she can help him, and he says no, but that he wants her to know that he cares for her deeply. Lucie eventually marries Darnay.

A year passes. Darnay returns to France to attend to the business. He pays a visit to his uncle. His uncle is a corrupt aristocrat and is so cruel that when his carriage driver recklessly ran over and killed a peasant's child, he blamed the peasants for being in the way. Dannay’s uncle is murdered at his chateau when he was there.

Darnay returns to England, and several more years pass. He and Lucie have a daughter. One day, Mr. Lorry tells to Darnay that he has received a letter addressed to a Marquis St. Everyone in care of Tellson's. Darnay says that he knows the man and will deliver the letter. In truth, Darnay is the Marquis St. Evrémonde, a descendant of the corrupt rulers of France. The letter is from an old friend who has been put in prison unjustly and who fears that he will soon be executed. Darnay realizes that he must go.

He leaves for France without telling his wife. He quickly realizes that the situation is worse than he could have imagined. A Revolution has taken place; the peasants have overthrown the government and are murdering anyone who they feel represents the old guard. Darnay is immediately taken into custody, though he tries desperately to explain that unlike his uncle and father, he is on the peasants' side and wants to help them. They disregard his testimony, and none other than Ernest Defarge, who has since become a Revolutionary, sends Darnay to prison. By this time, Lucie and her father have learned that Darnay has returned to France, aware that Darnay is probably in grave danger; they reached France to help him. Mr. Lorry is also present takings care of Tellson’s French office. The Revolutionaries treat Dr. Manette as a hero.

When Darnay is tried for his life in front of a corrupt tribunal Dr. Manette's testimony saves him. He is freed, but before even one day passes, he is re-arrested because of Madam Defarge (Ernest's cruel and vengeful wife),a leading Revolutionist, who wants to finish whole Evremonde family. On the following day Darnay is tried, convicted and sentenced to death by the tribunal. Dr. Manette knows that the situation is hopeless and shattered by the trial, reverts to his old abnormal state.

 By this time, Sydney Carton has arrived in Paris. He learns about Darnay’s new trial and impeding execution. He also overhears a plot against the lives of Lucie, her father and her daughter. Acting quickly, he tells Mr. Lorry to have a carriage prepared an hour before the execution. He reaches to the prison on the day of Charles' execution with the help of a spy and an informer. But once he gets inside, he uses his physical resemblance to Darnay. He enters Dannay’s cell and drugs him. He then exchanges clothing with him, and the spy smuggles Darnay out of the prison and into a waiting carriage that also includes Dr. Manette, Lucie, and Mr. Lorry. He tells no one of his plan, and not even the Manette’s know it. They are waiting in their carriage for Carton, fully expecting that he will join them and that they will leave France in a hurry. The rest of the family is in danger because of Madame Defarge, who wants to denounce all of them. The peasant that the Evrémonde brothers murdered was her brother, and she wants revenge against Darnay and his entire family. The spy smuggles Charles to the waiting carriage, and the family escapes France. Carton, however, goes to the guillotine and dies for Lucie, fulfilling his promise to her that he would die "to keep a life you love beside you." Just before he dies, he thinks to himself that his final act is far better than anything else he has ever done.

 Just before he is beheaded, Sydney Carton prophesied for a better society emerging from the holocaust and of his own survival in the memories of the Darnay family, and he faces death in serenity and triumph.