A Tale of Chances and Connections

In 1859, Charles Dickens wrote the timeless masterpiece, A Tale of Two Cities. In this novel, Dickens draws people to his excellent novel with brilliant uses of irony he makes by using coincidences and connections between the characters whose lives are being thrown into turmoil during the dark and violent times of the French Revolution. Dickens reveals these links throughout the story, some the reader understands immediately, while others are slowly revealed as the reader becomes closer to the characters in the novel. As each page is turned, the reader discovers more relationships, each one filled with irony that gives an addictive quality to the book that pulls the reader deeper into the book which gives the reader a stronger emotional connection to each character. Throughout the novel, many links and chances occur that create irony in the story, examples of this exciting irony are shown through Jarvis Lorry’s connection to Dr. Manette, Madame Defarge’s connection to the Marquis, and Sydney Carton’s uncanny resemblance to Charles Darnay.

One major connection is revealed at the beginning of the novel, Jarvis Lorry’s connection to Dr. Manette. When Lucie discovered this connection, she went to Mr. Lorry to try to find out about her father’s whereabouts. Lorry’s connection to Dr. Manette is revealed when Lorry says, “I had the honour of knowing him there. Our relations were business relations, but confidential”, this relationship sets the whole book in motion, because Lucie probably would still be looking for her father if Lorry had not led her to Dr. Manette (Dickens 16). When Lucie first asks Lorry about her father, Lorry is conflicted whether or not to tell the little girl where her dad is, or to be loyal to Dr. Manette and ke...

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... and Sydney Carton’s mysterious similarity to Charles Darnay. In a Tale of Two Cities, Dickens twists the plot line of the story to connect everything together, which creates a sense of irony that a reader picks up on throughout the novel, but really only fully understands once they have turned the last page. Although a lot of the irony is understood once the reader looks back on the book, it only makes the book linger longer in the reader’s mind, making the novel all the more memorable. Although all the relationships and chances in the story do in fact appeal to readers, by looking at the evidence, it becomes clear that Charles Dickens means for these relationships and coincidences to mean something more than to be there for just purely entertainment.

Works Cited

Dickens, Charles. A Tale of Two Cities. Ed. Julie Nord and Paul Negri. Mineola: Dover, 1999. Print.