LECTURE NOTES ON CHARLES DICKENS' A TALE OF TWO CITIES
Dear students,
Today, we are going to acquaint ourselves with Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities, prescribed for paper no XIV. It is Dickens' only novel based on historical theme, a historical romance. In writing A Tale.. Dickens admitted at least two sources: Thomas Carlyle's French Revolution and a play by Dickens' friend, Wilkie Collins' Frozen Deep, inspired by Dickens himself, in which Dickens acted in lead role and Ellen Turnan as heroine who later on became Dickens' mistress. The novel narrated the story of love, sacrifice and revenge. Let us enlist various features of the novel:
- A HISTORICAL ROMANCE
- INSPIRED BY CARLYLE'S ACCOUNT OF FRENCH REVOLUTION
- SETTING: LONDON AND PARIS
- THEME: LOVE, SACRIFICE, DOPPELGANGER, RESURRECTION, CLASS CONFLICT ETC,
- IMAGERY: IMAGES OF EYES AND BLOOD.
