Understanding the Plot Structure of A Tale of Two Cities

Looking around for a simple summary of the story structure of A Tale of Two Cities, I realized that most people misunderstand the basic plot of this Dicken’s classic, in part because he pursued such a clever way of telling a relatively simple story.  For A Tale of Two Cities is, at its core,  a classic revenge plot.  The protagonist—the character whose actions and dilemmas drive the story to its inevitable climax and conclusion—while often misidentified, is none other that Dr. Manette, who is “recalled to life” at the book’s beginning and who, reluctantly, enacts his revenge at the end.  The relatively simple revenge plot is brilliantly disguised however, by Dickens ploy of not revealing what the inciting incident is until moments before the climax.  In fact, the inciting incident is a mystery even, for most of the book, to Dr. Manette, who lapses into a state of near madness when confronted too closely with the memories and events that tie directly to his two decades old quest to get revenge on the aristocratic family that ruined his life and had him imprisoned for attempting to save the victims of the aristocrats’ own debauchery.

In Dickens’ hand the revenge story takes a decidedly ironic turn, expressed both by Dr. Manette’s periodic bouts of madness and, more classically, by arranging affairs so that once Dr. Manette “triumphs” in revenge and sees the heir to his tormentors, Charles Darnay, condemned to the guillotine, Dr. Manette no longer wants the revenge he had sworn to obtain.  For Darnay has become his son-in-law, and exacting his revenge will now ruin his own daughter and granddaughter’s lives and happiness.  The story thus expresses Dickens’ themes that both on a personal and a political level revenge will ultimately destroy those who seek it rather than those who are subject to it.  In the hands of another writer, such as Victor Hugo, the story might have ended here with the tragic image of Darnay being executed. As Darnay himself notes, “Good could never come of such evil, a happier end was not in nature to so unhappy a beginning.”

Yet then it would have been a tale of just one city.  So, Dickens has a trio of English, Mr. Lorry, Carton, and Miss Pross, ultimately stop the cycle of vengeance. Dickens wants to offer up a solution to the dilemma posed by the French Revolution and so he devises a subplot that expresses the doctrine of utilitarianism or the sacrifice of some or one for the greater good of the rest of society.  And thus he has Madame Defarge pick up the revenge plot, based on the same inciting incident, and drive it to its inevitable conclusion, where Darnay’s wife and child are to be executed, so that all the Evremondes will be extinguished. Even Dr. Manette himself is to be condemned for having tried to help Darnay. To counter this sub-plot, Dickens drives the Sydney Carton sub-plot to its own inevitable conclusion, where Carton trades place with Darnay and sacrifices himself for the greater good of Dr. Manette’s family, in a strange way foreshadowing the similarly brave RAF pilots who would defend Britain in the World War II, prompting Churchill’s famous line that “never has so much been owed by so many to so few.”  Miss Pross too, embodies this same idea, as she sacrifices her hearing to defeat Madame Defarge and save Dr. Manette and his family.  Yet, Dickens expresses reservations about utilitarianism, as dramatized by the character of the young woman who is to die with Carton, who expresses these misgivings when she speaks to Carton before their execution and says “I am not unwilling to die, if the Republic which is to do so much good to us poor, will profit by my death; but I do not know how that can be.” Her tragic death actually produces one of the most harrowing scenes of the entire novel in her final exchange with Carton before she is executed, and expresses Dickens’ deep ambivalence over the doctrine he has Carton so cavalierly embrace and embody.

A Tale of Two Cities can therefore be seen to embody the “classic” revenge plot with most of the action taking place twenty years after the inciting incident, with the structure cleverly disguised by withholding the details of the inciting incident until they are revealed when Dr. Manette’s letter is read out loud to the tribunal and used to condemn Darnay/Evremonde moments later, and infused with irony by having Dr. Manette be in a position to no longer desire revenge when he finally achieves it.  To this Dickens adds a decidedly English ending.

In part, the mystery concerning Dr. Manette’s conflict helps mask the fact that the protagonist’s struggle is mostly internal and most of Dr. Manette’s actions are an attempt to avoid achieving his goal of exacting revenge on the Evremondes.  Instead of following him actively pursue a clear goal, we are hooked by a desire to find out what it is that so torments Dr. Manette. The internal nature of the main plot also necessitates that the subplots, particularly Carton’s and Madam Defarge’s, involve most of the action.  Madame Defarge’s subplot also explores the theme of revenge as she pushes Dr. Manette’s vow for retribution against all of the Evremonde heirs to its logical conclusion by seeking the death of Darnay’s wife and daughter—who are of course also Dr. Manette’s own flesh and blood.  Madame Defarge’s relentless pursuit of revenge shows the danger when unbridled desire for vengeance is unchecked by any moral qualms or competing higher level goals.  Indeed, it is precisely this lack of nuance that leads to most of the criticism of Madam Defarge as falling flat on the page.  Few of us can relate to such an non-conflicted character, who has only one goal that she pursues without inhibition or self-doubt.  Carton on the other hand, represents the antithesis of Madam Defarge.  He has mostly wasted his life by pursuing base desires, but has a consuming desire to do something good and be as worthy of the love of Lucie as Darnay is, and ultimately finds a way to do so, at a tremendous, but in his view worthwhile, cost.

In terms of the main plot, it divides into a fairly conventional three-act structure. Act one begins with Manette in s state of near madness, amnesia, and impotence, and it is hard to imagine such a man ever exacting revenge or accomplishing anything.  By the end of Act One however, he is both “recalled” to life and also discovers that the object of his revenge is the lover of his daughter, thus suddenly  raising the now terrifying possibility of actually getting the retribution he vowed to achieve so many years before in the prison, yet also creating the inevitable conflict between his desire for revenge and his desire to live again—symbolized by his love for his daughter.  Once he realizes who Darnay is, something in the nature of the terrible climax at the end of the book becomes inevitable, though Act One closes by offering the false hope that somehow the destruction of Dr. Manette’s shoe-making equipment—a vestige from his two decades in prison—can also destroy the conflict that rages within him.  Act Two climaxes with his love for his daughter triumphing over his desire for revenge, and his madness almost completely disappearing.  He is strong and powerful as he uses his own history as a means to clear Darnay and get him released from prison.  Yet, in Act Three, vengeance again dominates, though this time it is Manette’s past self that drives the action, as his own letter is used to denounce Darnay.  When Darnay is condemned, Dr. Manette hears Darnay tell him that “[w]e know now, the natural antipathy you strove against, and conquered, for her dear sake,” as Dr. Manette wrings his hands with a shriek of “anguish”.  Yet Dickens’ pushes the story further, with the citizens (Carton and Miss Pross) of the “good” city ultimately sacrificing themselves to finally save Dr. Manette from the madness of the revolution that is destroying the “bad” city—again foreshadowing Britain’s role in World War II and expressing Dickens’ hope that philosophically inspired desires can ultimately triumph over some of our more terrifying emotions.

What makes the book resonate so well through the ages is the manner in which the plot functions within the political drama also taking place. The French Revolution was in many ways an orgy of revenge, filled with vengeance far more terrifying than anything described in A Tale of Two Cities.  While it showed, in part, people’s capacity to pursue such noble ideals as Liberty, Justice and Fraternity, it also showed the terrifying capacities inside each of us and what can happen when our basest emotional desires are given free reign.  Even an educated doctor like Dr. Manette, filled with a genuine and pure love for his daughter, cannot escape the consequences of his earlier thirst for revenge.  Except and unless, Dickens hopes, we are able to sacrifice some of our desires, or in Carton’s case, his entire life, for a more benign and morally acceptable goal.  Carton’s execution represents the self-sacrifice that we will all need to make if we are to overcome our own terrifying desires and emotions in pursuit of a civilized, social existence—a very English proposition.