views on the two cities Paris and London are portrayed in Black and white with very little in-between.France itself is portrayed as an evil mislead country with a slowly decaying society full of hate and tyranny.“ The streets along which the sixties rolled to a death which became so common and material, that no sorrowful story of a haunting spirit ever arose among the people out of all the working of the guillotine” is one of the best examples of the feeling of revulsion that is associated with Paris and it’s people throughout the novel. While England is portrayed as a safe refuge and place of peace and rejuvenation. This is displayed in such quotes as “go to England to be at peace and at rest”-Charles Darnay.Also Dickens has an extreme inability to criticize an English or English living character, or to find a modicum of respectability or kindness in any French character. With two exceptions: one being the young woman who is beheaded the moment before Sydney Carton. She is an enemy of the enemy, she is to be killed and in doing so allows Dickens once again to express hi moral values, this time Using Sydney Carton. After speaking with Carton, even though she is facing death she becomes happy to die for her countrymen, while unscrambling submitting to her death. In doing so depriving the common enemy, that is, the blood crazed peasants, a small victory? With the modern views on racism, Dickens’s blatant criticism of France and it’s people would probably not be so widely accepted if written today. Jerry Cruncher, the body snatcher is about the most sinful of the English Characters, but even he is given the chance to reform and mend his ways, thereby repenting for all his sins. This too counts as another moral for Dickens. In Charles Dickens’ time racism was not regarded as it is today and so if he wished to send a message to the French population it was his right. However many may believe ...
