A Summer Within A Tale of Two Cities

Charles Dickens's notorious novel was the source of my excitement and despair this summer. It was not my first trial with the book, as I read a child edition when I was younger, but my first competent analysis of it. My past experience with the story was a significant reason why I decided to retrace those steps through the summer assignment. Moreover, I wanted to know the story better as the end was the only element I could recall and the love story was one I felt I ought to read, or re-read, at some point in my life.
                    A Tale of Two Cities being my first Dickens experience I have a narrow-minded opinion of his storytelling abilities. These opinions are mostly positive. The intricacy with which Dickens wove his characters was unexpected; the novel began with a seemingly distant set of characters that resultantly came together to affect each other in unanticipated ways. Dickens progression of each of these characters was so detail oriented he must have known the direction each would take and thus, intertwined these character strands to apply each character's actions to the others. An example being Madame Defarge, whose original nonchalance grew into dangerous and powerful deeds that would punish those her husband had once helped. Dickens also used the characters to carry the story from various perspectives, regardless of who or where they were, the story continued on the same timeline guided by his different characters in different situations.
                   His excellence in storytelling continues with his unexpected, satisfying conclusion. In the midst of perilous Paris the story's center characters, Lucy and Doctor Manette, came away safe and content, but only after the sacrifice of a near stranger. Carton's decision to impersonate Lucy's husband and die for their happiness remained a vague plan until the book's end. Carton's own emotions towards Lucy and his dire devotion only shown threw as the reader put the pieces of Carton's plan together. This happy-with-a-price ending is original to Dickens and an unanticipated result that although may leave the reader in tears, grants them satisfaction which every good story possesses.
                  Dickens's ideas behind the text are another element of the novel that flatter his storytelling abilities. The tale pushes the reader to think, specifically the conclusion. The reality that a friend could do as much as die for your happiness and love you more than their own comfort, unbeknownst to you, shakes the minds of all that put Dickens down. He has made me realize that their is no way to measure love or know it to be true through words or evident deeds, only actions--the secret and private ones--can measure what love is. Although love is a major topic within the story, Dickens offers other ideas behind his text, ideas such as human barbarianism, cruelty, and animal instinct. The novel comes to be Dickens's own statement on humanity: how the French Revolution, as an example, destroyed the human facade of civility to reveal the dark truth of beastliness that lies mere years of hardship under our surface. These ideas to ponder are provided throughout the novel and manifest Dickens's exemplary storytelling abilities.
                Dickens's Tale is an exemplary work of excellent storytelling due to his incorporation of detailed characters and plot, unanticipated and satisfactory conclusion, and the philosophical ideas that lay behind the text.