A Tale of Two Cities

I am reading A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens and I believe that the first several pages are very interesting, and relate to Charles Dickens’s life. After today’s lecture in class about the life of Dickens, I came to better understand his motives and tone behind this novel. It begins by explaining the similarities and differences between France and England, and how it was a state of confusion, and where the strong were practicing injustice. Confusion is shown by the famous opening lines of “It was the best of times, and it was the worst of times.” Then is later supported by many examples, including the example of a man who plays a robber at night, but a businessman by day. He even explains how two criminals of wildly different crimes are sentenced to the same fate. The murderer is beheaded on the guillotine, and so is the man who stole pennies to keep himself from starving to death. This is obviously unfair, and as I learned from today’s lecture, Charles Dickens believes in equality and a level playing field because he grew up disenfranchised.