The Tale of Two Cities Book the Third - Essay Example

A Tale of Two Cities Doubles in A Tale of Two Cities is probably the most important motif Dickens uses in this book. The third and final section, “Book the Third,” is full of doubles. One of the strongest use of doubles in this novel is Dickens’ characters, something he continues and expands upon in this section. The final line of the novel (“It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known”) is constructed as a double.

This makes the reader remember the beginning of the novel, which also is a double. Dickens brings both his beginning and ending together in this way, making the entire novel itself a double. Carlton, who himself is a double with Darnay, recognizes that his sacrifice is far, far better than the selfish life he has led, and that it provides him with a chance at resurrection, another theme of the novel. Darnay is what Carlton has failed to become, but by the end of the novel, Carlton’s goodness has surpassed Darnay’s.

Dickens continues this particular double with the prophecy that Darnay and Lucie will have another child—a son, whom they will name after Carlton and whom will become the kind of person Carlton did not become in his lifetime. Their daughter, “Little Lucie,” is also a double, of her mother. Darnay is arrested not once, but twice, before Carlton is executed in his place. Other characters in this novel are also doubles: the loving and nurturing Lucie as opposed to the hateful and murderous Madame Defarge, for example, which underscores his themes.

It can be said, with good evidence, that doubles is Dickens’ main motif he uses in this novel. The entire novel is constructed as one big double, making the emotional impact even more powerful. Dickens is a genius, both in the way he constructs this novel, and in the way he presents his characters and themes, throughout the entire novel and especially in the third and final part.