Although he was born into the wealth French society, he chooses to leave and live in England as an adult. We Are Not Defined by Our LineageĬharles Darnay is the protagonist of A Tale of Two Cities. Even if the events of pre-revolutionary France in A Tale of Two Cities might sound extreme, it’s not much of a stretch to say that proponents of hateful acts today are led by similar motivations. Regardless of your opinions on modern day social justice issues, it’s impossible to deny that we’re still living in a world of upheaval and prejudice. Therefore, his actions result in a nasty revenge quest, which no amount of spilled blood is able to satisfy. His opinion of who they are is entirely built on the bias of his lifestyle. The catalyst develops from an evil deed dealt by a squandrously wealthy (and equally uncaring) man towards lower-class citizens. Without any spoilers, one of the central conflicts of A Tale of Two Cities – and its bittersweet end – is the result of injustice. The classic – yet timelessly relevant – story of what happens when people are oppressed by those who perceive themselves to be superior. The privileged pushing the underprivileged. One of the major themes in A Tale of Two Cities is what I’ll call the clashing of the classes. Figure out who you are and write your own story. In a way, Carton’s story serves as a warning: don’t become trapped in envy. But in the end, it’s untrue and unhealthy. Not to mention everything you’ve ever wanted. It’s so easy to look at the lives of others from the outside, assuming that they have everything together.

I see a lot of that type of crippling comparison today. Lonely, but resigned to merely be a friend of the woman he loves, he feels that his life is meaningless. While Darnay builds a life and a family, Carton remains on the fringes. Both fall for the same woman, but (obviously) only one wins her. They bare a striking resemblance (so much so that Darnay avoided a prison sentencing because of the high possibility that the guilty party could have been mistaken for him), and in many ways represent two different paths that the same person could take. Two key central characters in A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton, are portrayed almost as shadows of one another. But the common thread that seems inescapable in modern American culture is that of comparison.

It’s pretty obvious that Social Media has drastically changed the way we perceive ourselves and others.

A tale of two cities book 2