The Knitting
This is the best of times. This is the worst of times. The time of this book witnessed the rise and diminish of countless people. Their stories dotted the time with their humanity and sacrifice. Life can be so tricky at that time. One may once be a doctor, then a prisoner like Doctor Manette. One may once be a lord, then a black sheep killed by the revolution. At the end of the story, Charles Darney made a narrow escape from death fuelled by Madame Defarge who was shot to death accidentally by Miss Pross. Is this a happy ending? Did Madame Defarge deserve to die? Were Charles purely innocent?
Madame Defarge was at distress all the time, and she carried alone the blood and hatred of her family. She was a serious woman who never stop knitting and revenge till the last second of her life. I sympathized her most among all the characters. At first I hated her extreme character and considered her crazy about the revolution because she tried to kill Charles and Lucie and her daughter just because they ran the blood of Monseigneur. However, I understand her after knowing her past and her wish. She was a strong woman that she knew the sympathy towards the enemies was the cruelty to herself. Doctor Manette broke his promise before for his hate fated away after being detained for years and his heart was softened by Lucie's love. But nor did Madame Defarge. One can not totally understand others unless he or she stood on their shoes. Madame Defarge had the right to revenge for her sister. On the other hand, Charles was innocent and never hurt or slaved a man. He came back to France to rescue his past servant. The only wrong thing he made maybe born a niece of Monseigneur. His life was based on those wretch. His good manner, kind character, and even his language teaching skill was relied on his past good living condition. He left his uncle after enjoying for so long. He was not innocent. I can understand if Madame Defarge wanted to kill Charles, but she shouldn't tried to kill Lucie and her daughter. The revenge will never end in her way.
Compared with Madame Defarge, Doctor Manette made a different choice. The Doctor chose to forgive and keep it his own secret. No one would know the truth behind his detainment if his letter hadn't been found. The letter revealed his hate at that time, but love can conquer hate. Lucie and Lorry rescued him, and kept his company. But his wife could never saw him again. He stopped hating because Lucie married the man whose family he once cursed. He let Charles to tell him the truth before the day they married because he wanted Lucie to be happy. None of them was wrong. They were born in that time of chaos when killing was not guilty. That' why there must be a revolution.
Lucie was the icon of kindness and innocence. She was loved by her father, Lorry, Charles, Carton, and Miss Pross. Her father gave up hate for her, and Carton even gave up his life for Lucie. When reading this book, I kept wondering about her thought. She hated no one in her life. She brought out the best of people like an angel. But I think she was too weak. She buried her life loving her father and her husband. Charles came to talk with her father first before marrying her as if she was owned by her father. She was waiting and crying all the time, and fainted away sometimes. However, she was determined as well. She helped her father to get used to normal life. She stood on the street no matter rain or snow to let her husband saw her through the window. She was strong in her own kind way.
The biggest conflict in this book is between the people and the lord. The lord could enjoy everything, and they treated the life of people as the life of animals. As the book said, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. This describes the features of the times. It was not only a tale of love, but also a real record of the time. It shows us how hard it is to tell the difference between kind and evil. The boundary between justice and evil can be so vague sometimes. The crowd became the judge in the court, pointing fingers at people’s death as they like. The whole society turned to chaos. Those related to the lord were sentenced to prison and death. Innocent people were forced to death in the storm of the revolution. The life of a person weighs nothing to the time, but a lifelong trauma to their families. A country or a government can’t survive if there’s no order or justice.
Because of the oppression of the French aristocracy, Manette, an English doctor, was put in the French Bastille prison. 17 years later, luckily, his daughter Lucie and servant Lorry rescured him out of France to England. When the doctor took a turn for the better, Lucie got married happily with Darney, a French nobility, who gave up his family right of inheritance. However, good times do not last long, suddenly a letter from the French Revolution broke up the calm life. Darney was incriminated because he was aristocracy and was caught in the French prison twice. At the same time, a message in the Bastille prison, written by doctor Manette 17 years ago, was revealed: It was Darney’s father and uncle that framed Manette so that he was in prison. Under provocation by angry Madam Defarge, all of whose family was killed by the aristocracy, the berserk and indignant French citizens decided to sentence Darney to death without questioning which side was right. When the doctor and Lucie came to France immersed in despair, Carton who fell deeply in love with Lucie caught an opportunity to replace Darney with himself. As soon as Darney came back to the Manettes safely, all of them understood the intention that Carton sacrificed his own life for Darney. While Carton was on the road to a guillotine, the Manettes escaped from France to England with great sadness. The novel ends.
This is also the time of heroes. Countless people devoted themselves to this revolution, and their efforts paid off in the end. Their courage lighted the times and inspired other revolutions in the world. What impressed me most among those courage was that of Carton who chose to death for his love, Lucie. He loved Lucie deeply, and never disturbed her. He saved Charles, and he never ask a thing in return. A noble soul was taken in this time of darkness.
A Tale of Two Cities embodies a subversive idea that is opposite to what we have learned from history lessons. Two hundred years ago, the French people, revolted under the oppression of the aristocracy, attacked the French Bastille. It was a great epic. That victory, however, was full of revenge, slaughter, blood and even evil just like the other violent revolution. Through the top half of the novel, the writer gave animated narratives that the French Revolution was inevitable with the feeling of sympathy to French and anger to nobility. Then, the story took a dramatic change. When the power of the unfair court returned to the common people, the law was not better, but rather grew worse, then, the crushing noble tyranny led to a new tyranny. The author Charles faced the dilemma between love and revenge with humanism. Finally, he took up love, tolerance and sacrifice against the dark human qualities and chose to escape from the French Revolution, the violent fight and the hell of life.
“I see Barsad,and Cly, Defarge, The Vengeance, the Juryman, the Judge, long rank of the new oppressors who have risen on the destruction of the old, perishing by this retributive, instrument, before it shall cease out of it present use. I see a beautiful city and a brilliant people vising from the abyss and, in their struggles to be truly free, in their triumphs and defeats, through 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.”
Those last words of Carton showed his belief of a promising future. The change of the ranks makes the oppressed become new oppressors. But after rebuilding the system, there will be a beautiful city and a brilliant people.
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