Book Report
“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”, This is the most classic and weighty statement in the book in my opinion.
The famous English writer Dickens tells us a touching love story against the background of such complex times.
The twin cities in the title of the book refer to the cities of London and Paris. The main content of the book is: poor Dr. Manette after being imprisoned in the Bastille for nineteen years by the aristocrats for "unjustifiable" charges, his daughter brought her to live in England. In the courtroom, father and daughter meet the French aristocrat Darney and the scribbling master Marton. Later, Lucy married Darley and lived a happy life for ten years.
A Tale of Two Cities is undoubtedly a masterpiece. It begins with the liberation of an old man imprisoned in darkness for eighteen years and ends with the generous death of a man. With bitter irony and fervent passion on the background of the blood and fire of the French Cultural Revolution, it celebrates the hopes and disappointments of a group of people and criticizes the rise and fall of a crazy era.
When I first read "A Tale of Two Cities", I could not calm down for a long time: the cruel oppression of the ruling class made a kind and innocent doctor lose his memory and reason, while the frenzied revolutionary people, with their crazy hands, crushed his family and destroyed the happy, peaceful life he should have had. It is difficult to tell which of the two extreme classes is more cruel and more evil. The revolutionaries can dance beside the bodies of the people they killed, they consecrate the guillotine as a "saint", and in a legal trial where life and death are at stake, the emotions of the masses are the scales of evil... I can't help thinking: Is this the revolution? Is revolution the posting of propaganda slogans everywhere? Is revolution the execution of innocent people at will?
Goodness will be rewarded in the end, and evil will never triumph. Those who abandon human life, dignity and disregard will not end up well. Revolution is change and inclusion, and it is pointless to directly erase all the past.
Dr. Manette in A Tale of Two Cities was framed by the Marquis and imprisoned in the Bastille for 17 years. During these 17 years, his wife died of depression and his young daughter was sent to London by his best friend. Even after his release from prison, he continued to live in a dimly lit attic. When his daughter first met Manet, Manet knew only that he was a convict in 105 North Block of the Bastille.
A shattered family and soul, all thanks to the Marquis. But Manette's daughter fell in love with the Marquis' son and was to be married for life. Although the Margrave has long since died, although the Margrave's son is a decent and good man, but the offspring of the enemy is close at hand, Manette can not be indifferent.
For Manette, the choice of forgiveness or revenge will lead him to a very different path. For the sake of his daughter's happiness, he chose to give up the past, because in front of the father's love, suffering is really not worth mentioning.
However, not everyone is Manette. Mrs. Defarge's family feud is not avenged until the moment the Marquis's son is sentenced to death, and her hatred flares up in a rising flame. She wanted to kill the Marquis' son's family so that she could reduce the hatred in her heart. But in the end, the hatred pushes Mrs. Defarge into the dark abyss.
Through the ending of A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens wants to tell us that love can overcome hatred and forgiveness is the right choice.
However, in the face of forgiveness and revenge, what should be done?
Some people say that forgiveness is the only way to resolve the hatred between people, which is the high level of being human.
Some people say that a painful life is to be quick to avenge, and there is no need to stick to the so-called human morality.
In the face of forgiveness and revenge, forgiveness can always let your heart bathe in sweet rain. Sometimes revenge can make the so-called "bad guys" get what they deserve, but personal reasoning should not be clouded by revenge. Otherwise, vengeance becomes a hideous beast that devours us and brings endless tragedies.
Carton has no attachment to himself, or to life, no love for life, and no sense of self-love. When he fell in love with Lucy, as if he was floating in the vast ocean, grabbing a straw in his hand to save his life. But when this straw is in jeopardy, Carton will stand up to protect it. Because for him, the fallen life does not have any attachment, only the love of Lucy is their own hope to persist in living. Even for the sake of Lucy, or for the sake of Lucy's loved ones, Carton can always give his life.
Carton is showing the spirit of self-sacrifice, willing to die for the sake of the people he loves. In fact, this is where the tragedy of the fall lies.
Remember what Romero said: There is only one kind of heroism in the world, that is, to see the truth of life and still love life.
When you think about it, there are so many heroes in life, and there is a lack of so-called heroism. However, the love of life can make us full of infinite expectations inside, at least do not have to degrade themselves
Carton instead of others to the guillotine, he not only saved the lives of others, but also in saving his own life. Love made his life to the end, in fact, is also back to the origin, after all, everyone's life is like a child with a branch on the ground to draw a circle, when the starting point and the end connected, life is considered a success.
In the feudal era, people's lives were like grass, and the nobles and emperors were above everything. But the people will not always be killed, as evidenced by the French Revolution. But the destruction is easy to build difficult, it seems to overthrow the emperor and the nobility, but the country has not become better, but more and more innocent people died, it is difficult not to let people lament. A reasonable system is the cornerstone of national stability; without a reasonable system, even if everything is overturned, it is just a new cycle. After the French Revolution, there were 10 regimes in France, with frequent changes of empires, republics and dynasties, and the domestic situation was turbulent and unstable, and the people were suffering. This shows how important it is to have the right ideas for a rational system. Without the right ideas, the Revolution would only end up repeating the same mistakes.
"A Tale of Two Cities" is the story of London and Paris. The "two" here, in addition to referring to these two completely different cities, I think it can also be interpreted as the two opposites of human nature, vicious and beautiful. When hatred in the inner knot, whether to choose revenge to release the inner demons, or choose forgiveness to obtain the baptism of the soul? Perhaps, Dickens wants to tell us the latter.
The new order arose from the overthrow of the old order, and the new world was built from the corpse of the old. That age, that age of confusion. It seemed that the sunlight was about to break through the darkness, yet when the day came, it was like the face of a dead corpse in the air. Then the night, the moon and the stars turned gray and died. For a while, there was only death in the great world. Human nature is extremely distorted and perverted under those conditions, and everything seems to be crazy out of control. Everyone is living paradoxically, desperately. Like floating weeds, like dust, like the starry sky. At dawn in Paris, the sun did not come from the sky, but emerged from the ground. The morning sun, the sunset, and the sunset dyed Paris red. Anger, despair, and cries echoed. Have people gone mad? I wonder how many more guillotines are needed? How many more high gallows are needed?
Shortly before his death, Carton seemed, it seems, to think he had found it. He recited, and kept reciting, until he died: The resurrection is in me, and the life is in me, and whoever believes in me, though he die, will rise again; and whoever lives and believes in me will live forever.
To overthrow a regime by revolutionary means cannot be considered an absolute victory. For the innocent people involved, it may be a disaster, an unwarranted disaster, and there is no telling when it will land on them. In such a situation, even the most ordinary life can change. Gentlemen and educated people of good character were brought to court and tried by the riotous, coarse, revolutionary fervor-drowned citizens of the lower classes, and all those who opposed them, all those they did not approve of, were thrown into prison. A group of exploited sufferers rose up to overthrow their oppressors, and on the ruins of their destruction and demise rose up to become new oppressors. The struggle never stops, and the blood of the people (from generation to generation) becomes worthless. What is described in the book is only a silhouette of reality, perhaps not a tenth as terrible as the turbulent society at that time, but I was still shocked by the barbarism, brutality, that society can turn a good person into such a hard-hearted and even ruthless. We always complain that this is not the best of times, we are not born at the right time, in fact, in this stable and orderly society, is the greatest fortune, this is indeed the best of times, is our time.
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