TALE OF TWO CITIES

Setting (Time) 1775–1793

Setting (Place) London and its outskirts; Paris and its outskirts
Symbols The wine that spills out of the cask in Book the First, Chapter 5, symbolizes the
peasants’ hunger and the blood that will be let when the revolution comes into full swing;
Madame Defarge’s knitting symbolizes the vengefulness of the common people; the Marquis is a
symbol of pure evil—the Gorgon’s head symbolizes his absolute coldness toward the suffering
of the poor.
Foreshadowing The wine cask breaking outside Defarge’s wine shop; the echoing footsteps in
the Manettes’ sitting room; the resemblance between Carton and Darnay; Carton’s indication of
this resemblance in a London court, which results in Darnay’s acquittal; Doctor Manette’s
reaction after learning Darnay’s true identity.

 A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens, deals with the major themes of duality,
revolution, and resurrection. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times in London
and Paris, as economic and political unrest lead to the American and French Revolutions.
The main characters in Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities — Doctor Alexandre Manette,
Charles Darnay, and Sydney Carton — are all recalled to life, or resurrected, in different
ways as turmoil erupts.

The three most important aspects of A Tale of Two Cities:

 A Tale of Two Cities is told from the omniscient, or all-knowing, point of view. The
narrator, or storyteller, who is never identified, has access to the thoughts and feelings of
all the characters.
 A Tale of Two Cities, which is one of two historical novels written by Charles Dickens, is
set in London and in Paris and the French countryside at the time of the French
Revolution. The book is sympathetic to the overthrow of the French aristocracy but
highly critical of the reign of terror that followed.
 Dickens characterizes the men and women who populate A Tale of Two Cities less by
what the book's narrator or the characters themselves say, and more by what they do. As a
result, the novel seems somewhat modern, despite being set in the 18th century and
written in the 19th century.
Genre
A Tale of Two Cities is a historical novel. While Dickens published the novel in 1859, the action
of the plot begins in 1775. The novel’s opening purposefully evokes the past, giving a reader a
sense of what this moment in time was like: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…
we had everything before us, we had nothing before us.” This retrospective voice indicates the
story to come will encompass a time period, and will be directly concerned with the events of
that period. Historical novels use plots set during a time period prior to the time when the novel
was written, and make reference to documented historical events or characters. However, authors
most often use the genre in order to help the reader think more critically about the present
moment. Dickens writes about the French Revolution as a way of showing how injustice and
abuse of power led to violence and chaos, and warning readers that these same problems
continue to exist in Victorian England.
Full Book Analysis
A Tale of Two Cities is structured around a central conflict between Charles Darnay’s desire to
break free of his family legacy, and Madame Defarge’s desire to hold him accountable for the
violent actions of his father and uncle. This conflict embodies conflicting aspects of the French
Revolution in general: on one hand, the Revolution led to the deaths of many people who hadn’t
done anything wrong, and were likely good people on a personal level. On the other hand, the
Revolution was a response to generations of well-documented injustices. Like Darnay, many
French aristocrats could be considered guilty by association, or as a result of profiting from
systems of exploitation. The plot is set in motion years before the action of the novel begins,
when the Evremonde brothers participate in a series of violent and cruel actions toward members
of Madame Defarge’s family, and then unjustly imprison young Dr. Manette in order to conceal
their crimes.
Readers don’t find out about these incidents until late in the novel, but the fact that they have
been propelling the plot mirrors how history unfolds. The violence of the Revolution doesn’t just
come out of nowhere: it breaks out because of the accumulation of decades of unjust treatment
and abuses of power. Similarly, crimes committed generations earlier continue to haunt and
threaten Darnay, Lucie, and Dr. Manette. Key events like Darnay building a career for himself in
England, getting married, and starting his own family seem to be taking him closer to his desire
of living a good and honest life without exploiting or hurting anyone. However, as Darnay
eventually realizes, he hasn’t actually resolved the conflict because he has never taken
responsibility for the suffering his family has caused: he has only run away from it. As Darnay
admits, “He knew very well that in his love for Lucie, his renunciation of his social place… had
been hurried and incomplete.” In order to fully obtain his desire and break all bonds with a
system he despises, Darnay returns to France.
Darnay’s return moves the action quickly toward its climax. When Darnay gets arrested, freed,
and then arrested a second time, the conflict intensifies between Darnay’s freedom, and Madame
Defarge’s desire to see him and all of his family punished. The novel resolves this conflict with
twin climaxes: Sidney Carton smuggles Darnay out of prison and takes his place on the
execution block, while Madame Dafarge becomes a victim of her own desire for violence after
she is killed while struggling with Miss Pross. These climaxes allow Darnay to achieve his goal
of being fully liberated from his family burden: after another man dies for his sins, he goes on to
live a happy and peaceful life. The falling action is largely revealed in Carton’s hypothetical final
vision, showing the Manette-Darnay family living happily together, and faithfully remembering
the man who gave up his life for them.
Themes
Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.
The Ever-Present Possibility of Resurrection
With A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens asserts his belief in the possibility of resurrection and
transformation, both on a personal level and on a societal level. The narrative suggests that
Sydney Carton’s death secures a new, peaceful life for Lucie Manette, Charles Darnay, and even
Carton himself. By delivering himself to the guillotine, Carton ascends to the plane of heroism,
becoming a Christ-like figure whose death serves to save the lives of others. His own life thus
gains meaning and value. Moreover, the final pages of the novel suggest that, like Christ, Carton
will be resurrected—Carton is reborn in the hearts of those he has died to save. Similarly, the
text implies that the death of the old regime in France prepares the way for the beautiful and
renewed Paris that Carton supposedly envisions from the guillotine. Although Carton spends
most of the novel in a life of indolence and apathy, the supreme selflessness of his final act
speaks to a human capacity for change. Although the novel dedicates much time to describing
the atrocities committed both by the aristocracy and by the outraged peasants, it ultimately
expresses the belief that this violence will give way to a new and better society. Dickens
elaborates his theme with the character of Doctor Manette. Early on in the novel, Lorry holds an
imaginary conversation with him in which he says that Manette has been “recalled to life.” As
this statement implies, the doctor’s eighteen-year imprisonment has constituted a death of sorts.
Lucie’s love enables Manette’s spiritual renewal, and her maternal cradling of him on her breast
reinforces this notion of rebirth.
The Necessity of Sacrifice
Connected to the theme of the possibility of resurrection is the notion that sacrifice is necessary
to achieve happiness. Dickens examines this second theme, again, on both a national and
personal level. For example, the revolutionaries prove that a new, egalitarian French republic can
come about only with a heavy and terrible cost—personal loves and loyalties must be sacrificed
for the good of the nation. Also, when Darnay is arrested for the second time, in Book the Third,
Chapter 7, the guard who seizes him reminds Manette of the primacy of state interests over
personal loyalties. Moreover, Madame Defarge gives her husband a similar lesson when she
chastises him for his devotion to Manette—an emotion that, in her opinion, only clouds his
obligation to the revolutionary cause. Most important, Carton’s transformation into a man of
moral worth depends upon his sacrificing of his former self. In choosing to die for his friends,
Carton not only enables their happiness but also ensures his spiritual rebirth.
The Tendency Toward Violence and Oppression in Revolutionaries
Throughout the novel, Dickens approaches his historical subject with some ambivalence. While
he supports the revolutionary cause, he often points to the evil of the revolutionaries themselves.
Dickens deeply sympathizes with the plight of the French peasantry and emphasizes their need
for liberation. The several chapters that deal with the Marquis Evrémonde successfully paint a
picture of a vicious aristocracy that shamelessly exploits and oppresses the nation’s poor.
Although Dickens condemns this oppression, however, he also condemns the peasants’ strategies
in overcoming it. For in fighting cruelty with cruelty, the peasants effect no true revolution;
rather, they only perpetuate the violence that they themselves have suffered. Dickens makes his
stance clear in his suspicious and cautionary depictions of the mobs. The scenes in which the
people sharpen their weapons at the grindstone and dance the grisly Carmagnole come across as
deeply macabre. Dickens’s most concise and relevant view of revolution comes in the final
chapter, in which he notes the slippery slope down from the oppressed to the oppressor: “Sow
the same seed of rapacious license and oppression over again, and it will surely yield the same
fruit according to its kind.” Though Dickens sees the French Revolution as a great symbol of
transformation and resurrection, he emphasizes that its violent means were ultimately antithetical
to its end.
Sacrifice
The theme of sacrifice is most strongly apparent in Sydney Carton’s decision to take Charles
Darnay’s place, even though doing so means being executed. When the seamstress asks Carton if
he is dying for the sake of Darnay, Carton agrees, and adds “And his wife and child”. Carton’s
love for Lucie and her daughter encourages him to sacrifice himself because her happiness is
more important than anything else. As a man who does not have a family of his own, he places
more value on Darnay’s life than on his own. Carton is also aware that he has lived an
unproductive and dissolute life, and that he has not offered much to the world. Carton believes
that his act of sacrifice will redeem everything that has come before, and make his life
meaningful. As he reflects to himself, “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done
before”.
Class
Social inequality and class conflict are sources of violent disruption and revolution in France.
For generations, aristocrats like Monseigneur have thought of nothing else except their own
pleasure and luxury. The narrator sarcastically parodies the pretentions of the upper-classes by
describing how four servants are involved in serving an aristocrat his morning cup of chocolate,
and noting that “Deep would have been the blot upon his escutcheon if his chocolate had been
ignobly waited on by only three men”. Not only are the French aristocrats presented as spoiled
and lazy, but they are also shown to be heartless and lacking in any regard for the lives of the
lower-classes. Monseigneur cruelly tells the working class Parisians that “I would ride over any
of you very willingly, and exterminate you from the earth”. The theme of class adds an important
element of moral complexity to the novel because Dickens presents both the cruelty of the upper-
classes and the brute violence of the lower-classes in equally damning terms.
Justice
Justice appears in the novel both in terms of the institutions that are supposed to serve it (courts
and so on) as well as something that individuals struggle to achieve outside of those institutions.
Justice is represented literally by the series of trials and imprisonments interwoven through the
plot, including Doctor Manette’s lengthy imprisonment, Darney’s trial in London, and then his
additional imprisonment and trial in France. While these plot episodes feature legal structures
that are designed to bring individuals to justice, the courts and prisons largely subject innocent
people to suffering. Perhaps because legal forms of justice so often prove incompetent,
characters are also very invested in taking justice into their own hands. After Gaspard’s son is
killed by the Marquis’s carriage, he knows he will never receive legal justice against a powerful
man so he kills the Marquis himself. Likewise, Madame Defarge has been plotting revenge
against the Evremonde family for decades because their wealth and status allowed them to
commit terrible crimes against her family and evade legal repercussions.

Motifs
Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that can help to develop and
inform the text’s major themes.
Doubles
The novel’s opening words (“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. . . .”)
immediately establish the centrality of doubles to the narrative. The story’s action divides itself
between two locales, the two cities of the title. Dickens positions various characters as doubles as
well, thus heightening the various themes within the novel. The two most important females in
the text function as diametrically opposed doubles: Lucie is as loving and nurturing as Madame
Defarge is hateful and bloodthirsty. Dickens then uses this opposition to make judgments and
thematic assertions. Thus, for example, while Lucie’s love initiates her father’s spiritual
transformation and renewal, proving the possibility of resurrection, Madame Defarge’s
vengefulness only propagates an infinite cycle of oppression, showing violence to be self-
perpetuating.
Dickens’s doubling technique functions not only to draw oppositions, but to reveal hidden
parallels. Carton, for example, initially seems a foil to Darnay; Darnay as a figure reminds him
of what he could have been but has failed to become. By the end of the novel, however, Carton
transforms himself from a good-for-nothing to a hero whose goodness equals or even surpasses
that of the honorable Darnay. While the two men’s physical resemblance initially serves only to
underscore Carton’s moral inferiority to Darnay, it ultimately enables Carton’s supremely self-
elevating deed, allowing him to disguise himself as the condemned Darnay and die in his place.
As Carton goes to the guillotine in his double’s stead, he raises himself up to, or above, Darnay’s
virtuous status.
Shadows and Darkness
Shadows dominate the novel, creating a mood of thick obscurity and grave foreboding. An aura
of gloom and apprehension surrounds the first images of the actual story—the mail coach’s
journey in the dark and Jerry Cruncher’s emergence from the mist. The introduction of Lucie
Manette to Jarvis Lorry furthers this motif, as Lucie stands in a room so darkened and awash
with shadows that the candlelight seems buried in the dark panels of the walls. This atmosphere
contributes to the mystery surrounding Lorry’s mission to Paris and Manette’s imprisonment. It
also manifests Dickens’s observations about the shadowy depths of the human heart. As
illustrated in the chapter with the appropriate subheading “The Night Shadows,” every living
person carries profound secrets and mysteries that will never see the light of day. Shadows
continue to fall across the entire novel. The vengeful Madame Defarge casts a shadow on Lucie
and all of her hopes, as emphasized in Book the Third, Chapter 5. As Lucie stands in the pure,
fresh snow, Madame Defarge passes by “like a shadow over the white road.” In addition, the
letter that Defarge uses to condemn Darnay to death throws a crippling shadow over the entire
family; fittingly, the chapter that reveals the letter’s contents bears the subheading “The
Substance of the Shadow.”
Imprisonment
Almost all of the characters in A Tale of Two Cities fight against some form of imprisonment.
For Darnay and Manette, this struggle is quite literal. Both serve significant sentences in French
jails. Still, as the novel demonstrates, the memories of what one has experienced prove no less
confining than the walls of prison. Manette, for example, finds himself trapped, at times, by the
recollection of life in the Bastille and can do nothing but revert, trembling, to his pathetic
shoemaking compulsion. Similarly, Carton spends much of the novel struggling against the
confines of his own personality, dissatisfied with a life that he regards as worthless.

Setting
As the title indicates, the novel’s action is split between two geographic settings, London and
Paris. The novel’s main action begins in 1775 with Dr. Manette’s return to England and ends
around 1793, with Carton’s execution. Key plot events occur even earlier, in 1757, when
Manette is first arrested. The presence of two main settings allows for Dickens to incorporate
multiple storylines unfolding simultaneously in both places, which then come together in the
novel’s final section when all of the English characters find themselves in Paris. The split setting
also gives Dickens the chance to contrast both cities. The novel is critical of both cities in
different ways: London (and England more generally) is presented as somewhat old-fashioned,
conservative, and out of step with the times. Dickens dryly notes that England “did very often
disinherit its sons for suggesting improvements in laws and customs.”
In contrast to this stodgy depiction of England, Paris (and other regions of France) is shown to be
a place of high tensions, perpetually simmering on the edge of violence. For example, the first
description of the Saint Antoine neighborhood highlights “a narrow winding street, full of
offence and stench… in the hunted air of the people, there was yet some wild beast thought of
turning at bay.” As the violence of the Revolution finds its full expression, the Parisian setting
becomes a wild and dangerous place dominated by “cannon, muskets, fire and smoke”, as well as
bloodthirsty mobs who behave with animalistic brutality. The novel evokes the setting of a
particular time and place for two reasons. First, because the novel is historical fiction, the reader
should feel immersed in the past. Second, because the shocking violence of the Revolution
serves as a warning to the consequences arising from social injustice, readers should be able to
imagine what it would have been like to live through these circumstances.
Style
A Tale of Two Cities is written in a grandiose style. The omniscient narrator can see both into the
past and the future, and uses this perspective to make sweeping pronouncements about human
nature and what lies ahead. For example, after the Marquis heartlessly kills a young boy, the
narrator describes how “The water of the fountain ran, the swift river ran, the day ran into
evening, so much life in the city ran into death according to rule, time and tide waited for no
man.” Imagery of water, and the repetition of the word “ran” creates the sense of looming
disaster, and turns one specific event into a part of larger pattern. This style contributes to the
effect of recounting history, because singular events are shown to cause major shifts in society.
This same style is also evident at the novel’s conclusion when the narrator describes Carton’s
prophetic vision of the future. He is able to look beyond the violence of the Revolution and
predict: “I see the evil of this time … gradually making expiation for itself and wearing out.”
Protagonist
Charles Darnay is the protagonist of the novel. He incites several of the major plotlines after his
first trial where he is accused of treason against England. His trial brings him into contact with
Lucie, Dr. Manette, and Sydney Carton, triggering all of the further plot action to come. More
importantly, Darney incites major conflict through his decision to return to Paris to help Gabelle;
this decision leads to danger for Lucie, little Lucie, and Dr. Manette. Darnay’s return to Paris
also influences Carton’s decision to sacrifice himself. Darnay informs the actions of other
characters because he acts nobly, but somewhat shortsightedly. His major goal is to distance
himself from his hereditary association with the French nobility: as he explains at his trial in
Paris, “he had voluntarily relinquished a title that was distasteful to him … to live by his own
industry in England, rather than on the overladen industry of the people of France.” However,
Darnay’s hope of accomplishing this goal is obstructed by Madame Defarge’s insatiable desire
for revenge. Darnay is relatively unchanged over the course of the novel, since he remains an
earnest and well-meaning character throughout.
Antagonist
Madame Defarge is the antagonist of the novel. She is motivated by her desire to get revenge
against any remaining members of the Evremonde family, including Darnay, Lucie, and their
young daughter. She has been “imbued from her childhood with a brooding sense of wrong, and
inveterate hatred of a class, opportunity had developed her into a tigress.” As a result, she works
to thwart Darnay and his family by reporting him to the authorities after he has been released,
and she also plans to kill Lucie and her daughter. While Madame Defarge is helped by other
French revolutionaries and her husband, she often acts independently because her hatred and
desire for vengeance exceeds the hatred of others. While other revolutionaries hate aristocrats on
principle, Madame Defarge’s quest is personal: as she explains, “those dead are my dead.” While
Madame Defarge acts in cruel and bloodthirsty ways, her motivation is rooted in genuine trauma
and injustice. She remains consistent over the novel, but her motivations become more clear, and
perhaps even relatable, when her family connection to the Evremondes is revealed.

FRENCH REVOLUTION

Dickens' social ideas in this novel are straightforward: the French Revolution was inevitable
because the aristocracy exploited and plundered the poor, driving them to revolt. Therefore,
oppression on a large scale results in anarchy, and anarchy produces a police state. One of
Dickens' strongest convictions was that the English people might erupt at any moment into a
mass of bloody revolutionists. It is clear today that he was mistaken, but the idea was firmly
planted in his mind, as well as in the minds of his contemporaries. A Tale of Two Cities was
partly an attempt to show his readers the dangers of a possible revolution. This idea was not the
first time a simple — and incorrect — conviction became the occasion for a serious and powerful
work of art.
Violent revolutionary activity caught up almost all of Europe during the first half of the
nineteenth century, and middle-class Englishmen naturally feared that widespread rebellion
might take place at home. Dickens knew what poverty was like and how common it was. He
realized the inadequacy of philanthropic institutions when confronted by the enormous misery of
the slums. That Dickens turned to the French Revolution to dramatize the possibility of class
uprisings is not surprising; few events in history offer such a concentration of terrors. If the
terrors of the French Revolution take a political form, the hope that Dickens holds out in this
novel has distinct religious qualities. On a basic level, A Tale of Two Cities is a fable about
resurrection, depicting the main characters, Doctor Manette, Charles Darnay, and Sydney Carton,
as all being "recalled to life"in different ways.
 Wuthering Heights
Emily Jane Brontë  was an English novelist and poet who is best known for her only
novel, Wuthering Heights, now considered a classic of English literature. She also published a
book of poetry with her sisters Charlotte and Anne titled Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton
Bell with her own poems finding regard as poetic genius. Emily was the second-youngest of the
four surviving Brontë siblings, between the youngest Anne and her brother Branwell. She
published under the pen name Ellis Bell.

Gothic Elements in Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights, written by Emily Bronte deals with the elements of gothicism. She has
presented these elements in the settings, characterization and through supernatural elements.
These elements creates the gloomy atmosphere in the novel. Firstly, the settings add to the
creation of gloomy decorum throughout the novel. Bronte has depicted the stormy and abhorrent
weather in the area where the mansion of Wuthering Heights is located. The weather contributes
to the gothic atmosphere in the novel and gives and imbue the trait in the characters. However,
the representation of the mansion of Wuthering Heights to be of more than a hundred years also
add to the elements of gothicism. The gothic atmosphere becomes intriguing due to the
representation of the mansion to be antique.
In addition to this, the behavior of the characters in the novel contrast with the setting of the
novel. The characters behave abhorrent and unwelcoming to the guests. Mr. Lockwood felt like
he was unwelcome in the mansion of Wuthering Heights. He states that he seems to be more
social than Heathcliff. The other characters behaves like a wild stormy weather in the novel
shouting, screaming and stamping their foot. This essence of behavior is a reflection of the
weather condition in the house of Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff’s character becomes important
because his actions gives a gloomy atmosphere. Heathcliff loved Catherine deeply and his love is
unexpressed in the novel. Bronte showed their love through correlating to the natural lapse of
moors. Moors becomes mysterious and is attached to the relationship between them. They were
able to find peace and love only in the lapse of moors. They will run away from the mansion and
play in the moors. Mr. Lockwood complained that the moors were unwelcoming when he was
heading to the mansion. This essence is contrasted with heathcliff’s character who is as
unwelcoming as the moors.
Moreover, the supernatural elements is the main ingredient of the gothic novels. The
supernatural elements in the novel is depicted when Mr. Lockwood sees the ghost of Catherine
coming out from the moors. The ghost of Catherine states that she wants to come in to the
mansion. The another significant supernatural encounter is the calling out for Catherine’s ghost.
Heathcliff became more mysterious and he could not express his love for Catherine and he calls
her spirit to become one with her. The other significant supernatural element is the opening of
the graveyard of Catherine. Heathcliff opens her graveyard and sleeps with her decaying body in
the grave. This depictions adds to the gothic atmosphere in the novel.
 THEMES, SYMBOLS, LITERRARY DEVICES
While love seems to be the prevailing theme of Wuthering Heights, the novel is much more than
a romantic love story. Intertwined with the (non-consummated) passion of Heathcliff and Cathy
are hatred, revenge, and social class, the ever-prevailing issue in Victorian literature.
Love
A meditation on the nature of love permeates the entirety of Wuthering Heights. Of course, the
most important relationship is the one between Cathy and Heathcliff, which is all-consuming and
brings Cathy to fully identify with Heathcliff, to the point that she says “I am Heathcliff.” Their
love is everything but simple, though. They betray one another and themselves in order to marry
a person for whom they feel a tamer—but convenient—kind of love. Interestingly, despite its
intensity, the love between Cathy and Heathcliff is never consummated. Even when Heathcliff
and Cathy are reunited in their afterlife, they do not rest peacefully. Instead, they haunt the
moorland as ghosts.
The love that develops between young Catherine and Hindley’s son, Hareton, is a paler and
gentler version of the love between Cathy and Heathcliff, and it’s poised for a happy ending.
Hate and Revenge
Heathcliff hates as fiercely as he used to love Cathy, and most of his actions are motivated by a
desire of vengeance. Throughout the novel, he resorts to exact some form of retribution from all
those who, in his mind, had wronged him: Hindley (and his progeny) for mistreating him, and
the Lintons (Edgar and Isabella) for taking Cathy away from him.
Oddly, despite his all-consuming love for Cathy, he is not particularly nice towards her daughter,
Catherine. Instead, while assuming the role of the stereotypical villain, he kidnaps her, forces her
to marry his sickly son, and generally mistreats her. 
Social Class
Wuthering Heights  is fully immersed in the class-related issues of the Victorian era, which were
not just a matter of affluence. The characters show that birth, the source of income, and family
connections played a relevant role in determining someone’s place in society, and people usually
accepted that place.
Wuthering Heights portrays a class-structured society. The Lintons were part of the professional
middle class, and the Earnshaws were a little below the Lintons. Nelly Dean was lower-middle
class, as she worked non-manual labor (servants were superior to manual laborers). Heathcliff,
an orphan, used to occupy the lowest rung in society in the Wuthering Heights universe, but
when Mr. Earnshaw openly favored him, he went against societal norms.
Class is also why Cathy decides to marry Edgar and not Heathcliff. When Heathcliff returns to
the heath a well-dressed, moneyed, and educated man, he still remains an outcast from society.
Class also explains Heathcliff’s attitude towards Hindley’s son, Hareton. He debases Hareton the
way Hindley had debased him, thereby enacting a reverse class-motivated revenge. 
Literary Device: Multiple Narrators Within a Frame Story
Wuthering Heights is mainly told by two narrators, Lockwood and his own narrator, Nelly, who
tells him about the events that took place in Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange.
However, other narrators are interspersed throughout the novel. For example, when Lockwood
finds Cathy’s diary, we are able to read important details about her childhood spent with
Heathcliff in the moors. In addition, Isabella’s letter to Nelly shows us firsthand the abuse she
suffered at the hands of Heathcliff. All of the voices in the novel create a choral narrative by
offering multiple points of view of the lives of the inhabitants of Thrushcross Grange and
Wuthering Heights.
It's worth noting that no storyteller is fully objective. Although Lockwood might appear
removed, once he meets the masters of Wuthering Heights, he becomes involved with them and
loses his objectivity. Likewise, Nelly Dean, while at first appearing to be an outsider, is actually
a flawed narrator, at least morally. She often picks sides between characters and changes
allegiances—sometimes she works with Cathy, other times she betrays her. 
Literary Device: Doubles and Opposites
Brontë arranges several elements of her novel into pairs that both differ and have similarities
with one another. For example, Catherine and Heathcliff perceive themselves as being identical.
Cathy and her daughter, Catherine, look much alike, but their personalities differ. When it comes
to love, Cathy is split between her socially appropriate marriage to Edgar and her bond with
Heathcliff.
Similarly, the estates Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange represent opposing forces and
values, yet the two houses are bonded through marriage and tragedy in both generations. Even
Nelly and Lockwood, the two narrators, embody this dualism. Background-wise, they could not
be more different, yet, with Nelly being too involved in the events and Lockwood being too far
removed, they are both unreliable narrators. 
Literary Device: Using Nature to Describe a Character
Nature plays an important role in Wuthering Heights as both an empathetic participant in the
setting of the novel—a moorland is prone to winds and storms—, and as a way to describe the
characters’ personalities. Cathy and Heathcliff are usually associated with images of wilderness,
while the Lintons are associated with pictures of cultivated land. Cathy likens Heathcliff’s soul
to the arid wilderness of the moors, while Nelly describes the Lintons as honeysuckles, cultivated
and fragile. When Heathcliff speaks about Edgar’s love for Cathy, he says, “He might as well
plant an oak in a flower-pot and expect it to thrive, as imagine he can restore her to vigor in the
soil of his shallow cares!” 
Symbols: The Ragged Wuthering Heights vs. the Pristine Thrushcross Grange
As an estate, Wuthering Heights is a farmhouse in the moorlands ruled by the cruel and ruthless
Hindley. It symbolizes the wildness of both Cathy and Heathcliff. By contrast, Thrushcross
Grange, all adorned in crimson, represents cultural and societal norms. When Cathy is bitten by
the guard dogs of Thrushcross Grange and she’s brought into the Lintons’ orbit, the two realities
begin to clash. The “chaos” of Wuthering Heights wreaks havoc in the Lintons’ peaceful and
seemingly idyllic existence, as Cathy’s marriage to Edgar precipitates Heathcliff’s vengeful
actions. 

TESS OF THE d’Urbervilles

Thomas Hardy was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George
Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the
poetry of William Wordsworth. He was highly critical of much in Victorian society, especially
on the declining status of rural people in Britain, such as those from his native South West
England.
While Hardy wrote poetry throughout his life and regarded himself primarily as a poet, his first
collection was not published until 1898. Initially, he gained fame as the author of novels such
as Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), Tess of the
d'Urbervilles (1891), and Jude the Obscure (1895). 
Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented is a novel by Thomas
Hardy. It initially appeared in a censored and serialised version, published by the British
illustrated newspaper The Graphic in 1891, then in book form in three volumes in 1891, and as a
single volume in 1892. Although now considered a major novel of the 19th century, Tess of the
d'Urbervilles received mixed reviews when it first appeared, in part because it challenged
the sexual morals of late Victorian England. Tess was portrayed as a fighter for her rights and for
the rights of others. The novel is set in an impoverished rural England, Thomas Hardy's fictional
Wessex.

Significance of subtitle
To be pure means, in my opinion, to be emotionally clean,to have an honest character, and
always choose the right side, no matter if this choice does not make you happy, shortly, to be
love. Being a pure person means to stay away from sin as much as possible, because in a way,
this is the life of each of us, the evil has always existed and the good as well, but it depends on us
what we choose. Tess choose to be pure in her mind, despite her actions which sometimes shows
her impurity, her thoughts and intentions were pure…………..Even if her actions put her in an
immoral and hard to support position, for a woman belonging to the Victorian period, the way in
which she defeated her fear and admit that she was wrong because she should have talk to him
earlier, make her a pure woman. She could never have talked about this past mistake, as her
mother advised her, but she choose the right way. The act of killing somebody is completely
unreligious, impure and out of everything that can be normal, so Tess doesn’t have any excuses
for what she have done, but in the same way, all she wanted to do was to save her love.
Furthermore, Tess’s power of love is incredible, because she is ready to do anything to be with
the person she loves. Her actions are judged from many perspectives, from the woman statute in
Victorian period, which did not accept Tess’s decisions and considered her impure, to the author
perspective, that everything she did, was with pure intentions. Thomas Hardy sees her as a pure
woman, from the point of view in which she never want to hurt someone, he understands what
she thinks, her feelings and how a countryside, a simple girl can through all of this pains of life.
In conclusion, love is the only feeling that can be considerate pure and honest, Tess d’Urbervilles
was pure in everything she was, she did not die like a sinner, she died like a pure woman.

An Analysis of Tragedy of Tess of the D’ Urbervilles

Tess of D’Urbervilles is regarded as Hardy’s tragic masterpiece. It is a story of a country girl
who is first presented as an innocent girl but turns into a tragic heroine. From Hardy’s point of
view, Tess is not responsible for what she has done. She is a victim of a series of misfortunes
which slowly destroy her personality. The novel is written in seven chapters; each chapter
representing a phase of Tess’s life after which Tess becomes more mature. With the life as series
of tragedies, Tess refuses to remain a victim and struggles through life.
Tess of D’Urbervilles is a tragic novel of a young country girl named Tess who goes
through many struggles in her life but ends up “violated by one man and forsaken by another”
(Heap). She is a poor country girl, Tess’s father discovers that he is the descendant of the
Norman noble family of the d’Urbervilles. As they very poor, Tess is sent to the new found
relatives by her parents, hoping to marry a nobleman. Unfortunately for Tess, the new “relatives”
have taken the name because it sounded good. There, she meets Alec, the man who seduces and
rapes her. Tess returns to her parents’ home where she gives birth to a boy who soon died. Tess
leaves home again to work as a milkmaid on a farm where she meets Angel Clare and they fall in
love with each other. Scared of losing him, Tess does not tell him about her past. However, Tess
confesses about her past to her husband in their wedding night, after Angel confesses his
previous affair with a woman. Angel can not bare the thought that Tess is not pure as he believes,
and therefore leaves Tess for Brazil. Tess struggles through poverty but in the end accepts the
help of Alec. Angel finally returns to find Tess live with Alec. Tess still loves Angel, so she
murders Alec and runs away with Angel; however, the police find them at Stonehenge and Tess
is hanged.
Tess of the D’Urbervilles is both a tragedy of love and a tragedy of life. The process of tragedy is
the process of various contradictions between the characters and the social environment.
Although Hardy interprets the heroine’s misfortune as a joke of fate, Tess’s misfortune is due to
her social, economic, political environment and class status. Tess was born in a peasant family,
lives in a new and old age, and is bound to be influenced by some old moral and fatalistic ideas.
The novel belongs to Hardy’s novels called “Character and Environment”. The image of Tess is
a modern woman suffering from the old moral persecution, a new farm worker. Tess, as a figure,
has a typical significance in exposing and accusing the whole system at that time. Tess came
from a peasant family, and some old moral and fatalistic ideas left her with a weak side in her
resistance to traditional morality. When she was persecuted by public opinion and traditional
morality, she regarded herself as guilty. The later tragedy resulted from the deeply rooted feudal
concept of society and her lover’s virginity complex. She regarded herself as an incarnation of
sin, and always felt that people all over the world are paying attention to her situation. She
couldn’t forget her shame more than anyone else. It was with a net of her own morality that Tess
bound herself up. In fact, her consciousness of self-binding had a profound historical basis and is
the concrete expression of the whole social consciousness. Tess, as an individual in a certain
historical period, inevitably formed the social consciousness and moral concept in a specific
historical period, and her thoughts and actions were inevitably restricted by the times and social
ideas.
Above all we can say that Tess is not responsible for her tragedy. It is her social and
economic position, nature and fate combine to bring her downfall. However all through the
novel, there is a feeling that she more sinned against than sinning. Her tragedy arouses pity and
fear in the mind of reader.
Wessex novel
Thomas Hardy is well-known as a Wessex novelist as he made the region the setting of his
novels. He described the area more extensively than any other English writers, and his
description of valleys, villages, woods, meadow, etc. of the region is regarded the most realistic.
Thus, this article is an attempt to show the readers how Thomas Hardy gives and describes a
vivid account of the Wessex landscape, occupations, rural superstitions, markets and fairs in his
novel entitled Tess of The D’Urbervilles. His elaborate descriptions of the physical features, life,
customs and manners in the novel will give the readers a clear picture and a better understanding
why this novel is called a Wessex Novel.

Themes
The Injustice of Existence
Unfairness dominates the lives of Tess and her family to such an extent that it begins to seem
like a general aspect of human existence in Tess of the d’Urbervilles. Tess does not mean to kill
Prince, but she is punished anyway, just as she is unfairly punished for her own rape by Alec.
Nor is there justice waiting in heaven. Christianity teaches that there is compensation in the
afterlife for unhappiness suffered in this life, but the only devout Christian encountered in the
novel may be the reverend, Mr. Clare, who seems more or less content in his life anyway. For
others in their misery, Christianity offers little solace of heavenly justice. Mrs. Durbeyfield never
mentions otherworldly rewards. The converted Alec preaches heavenly justice for earthly
sinners, but his faith seems shallow and insincere. Generally, the moral atmosphere of the novel
is not Christian justice at all, but pagan injustice. The forces that rule human life are absolutely
unpredictable and not necessarily well-disposed to us. The pre-Christian rituals practiced by the
farm workers at the opening of the novel, and Tess’s final rest at Stonehenge at the end, remind
us of a world where the gods are not just and fair, but whimsical and uncaring. When the narrator
concludes the novel with the statement that “‘Justice’ was done, and the President of the
Immortals (in the Aeschylean phrase) had ended his sport with Tess,” we are reminded that
justice must be put in ironic quotation marks, since it is not really just at all. What passes for
“Justice” is in fact one of the pagan gods enjoying a bit of “sport,” or a frivolous game.
Changing Ideas of Social Class in Victorian England
Tess of the d’Urbervilles presents complex pictures of both the importance of social class in
nineteenth-century England and the difficulty of defining class in any simple way. Certainly the
Durbeyfields are a powerful emblem of the way in which class is no longer evaluated in
Victorian times as it would have been in the Middle Ages—that is, by blood alone, with no
attention paid to fortune or worldly success. Indubitably the Durbeyfields have purity of blood,
yet for the parson and nearly everyone else in the novel, this fact amounts to nothing more than a
piece of genealogical trivia. In the Victorian context, cash matters more than lineage, which
explains how Simon Stokes, Alec’s father, was smoothly able to use his large fortune to purchase
a lustrous family name and transform his clan into the Stoke-d’Urbervilles. The d’Urbervilles
pass for what the Durbeyfields truly are—authentic nobility—simply because definitions of class
have changed. The issue of class confusion even affects the Clare clan, whose most promising
son, Angel, is intent on becoming a farmer and marrying a milkmaid, thus bypassing the
traditional privileges of a Cambridge education and a parsonage. His willingness to work side by
side with the farm laborers helps endear him to Tess, and their acquaintance would not have been
possible if he were a more traditional and elitist aristocrat. Thus, the three main characters in the
Angel-Tess-Alec triangle are all strongly marked by confusion regarding their respective social
classes, an issue that is one of the main concerns of the novel.
Men Dominating Women
One of the recurrent themes of the novel is the way in which men can dominate women, exerting
a power over them linked primarily to their maleness. Sometimes this command is purposeful, in
the man’s full knowledge of his exploitation, as when Alec acknowledges how bad he is for
seducing Tess for his own momentary pleasure. Alec’s act of abuse, the most life-altering event
that Tess experiences in the novel, is clearly the most serious instance of male domination over a
female. But there are other, less blatant examples of women’s passivity toward dominant men.
When, after Angel reveals that he prefers Tess, Tess’s friend Retty attempts suicide and her
friend Marian becomes an alcoholic, which makes their earlier schoolgirl-type crushes on Angel
seem disturbing. This devotion is not merely fanciful love, but unhealthy obsession. These girls
appear utterly dominated by a desire for a man who, we are told explicitly, does not even realize
that they are interested in him. This sort of unconscious male domination of women is perhaps
even more unsettling than Alec’s outward and self-conscious cruelty.
Even Angel’s love for Tess, as pure and gentle as it seems, dominates her in an unhealthy way.
Angel substitutes an idealized picture of Tess’s country purity for the real-life woman that he
continually refuses to get to know. When Angel calls Tess names like “Daughter of Nature” and
“Artemis,” we feel that he may be denying her true self in favor of a mental image that he
prefers. Thus, her identity and experiences are suppressed, albeit unknowingly. This pattern of
male domination is finally reversed with Tess’s murder of Alec, in which, for the first time in the
novel, a woman takes active steps against a man. Of course, this act only leads to even greater
suppression of a woman by men, when the crowd of male police officers arrest Tess at
Stonehenge. Nevertheless, for just a moment, the accepted pattern of submissive women bowing
to dominant men is interrupted, and Tess’s act seems heroic.

JANE EYRE
One of the most famous Victorian women writers, and a prolific poet, Charlotte Brontë is best
known for her novels. Like her contemporary Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Brontë experimented
with the poetic forms that became the characteristic modes of the Victorian period—the long
narrative poem and the dramatic monologue—but unlike Browning, Brontë gave up writing
poetry after the success of Jane Eyre.
Jane Eyre is a Gothic romance novel written by British author Charlotte Bronte and first
published under the pseudonym Currer Bell in 1847. The novel is about Jane Eyre, the main
character, and her life in 1840s England as a child cared for by relatives. The novel also
explores her life as a child at school, as a governess, and then as a wife. The novel is a hybrid of
three genres: the Gothic novel (utilizes the mysterious, the supernatural, the horrific, the
romantic); the romance novel (emphasizes love and passion, represents the notion of lovers
destined for each other); and the Bildungsroman (narrates the story of a character’s internal
development as he or she undergoes a succession of encounters with the external world)
Themes
Love Versus Autonomy
Jane Eyre is very much the story of a quest to be loved. Jane searches, not just for romantic love,
but also for a sense of being valued, of belonging. Thus Jane says to Helen Burns: “to gain some
real affection from you, or Miss Temple, or any other whom I truly love, I would willingly
submit to have the bone of my arm broken, or to let a bull toss me, or to stand behind a kicking
horse, and let it dash its hoof at my chest” (Chapter 8). Yet, over the course of the book, Jane
must learn how to gain love without sacrificing and harming herself in the process.
Her fear of losing her autonomy motivates her refusal of Rochester’s marriage proposal. Jane
believes that “marrying” Rochester while he remains legally tied to Bertha would mean
rendering herself a mistress and sacrificing her own integrity for the sake of emotional
gratification. On the other hand, her life at Moor House tests her in the opposite manner. There,
she enjoys economic independence and engages in worthwhile and useful work, teaching the
poor; yet she lacks emotional sustenance. Although St. John proposes marriage, offering her a
partnership built around a common purpose, Jane knows their marriage would remain loveless.
Religion
Throughout the novel, Jane struggles to find the right balance between moral duty and earthly
pleasure, between obligation to her spirit and attention to her body. She encounters three main
religious figures: Mr. Brocklehurst, Helen Burns, and St. John Rivers. Each represents a model
of religion that Jane ultimately rejects as she forms her own ideas about faith and principle, and
their practical consequences.
Although Jane ends up rejecting all three models of religion, she does not abandon morality,
spiritualism, or a belief in a Christian God. When her wedding is interrupted, she prays to God
for solace (Chapter 26). As she wanders the heath, poor and starving, she puts her survival in the
hands of God (Chapter 28). She strongly objects to Rochester’s lustful immorality, and she
refuses to consider living with him while church and state still deem him married to another
woman.
Jane ultimately finds a comfortable middle ground. Her spiritual understanding is not hateful and
oppressive like Brocklehurst’s, nor does it require retreat from the everyday world as Helen’s
and St. John’s religions do. For Jane, religion helps curb immoderate passions, and it spurs one
on to worldly efforts and achievements. These achievements include full self-knowledge and
complete faith in God.
Social Class
Jane Eyre is critical of Victorian England’s strict social hierarchy. Brontë’s exploration of the
complicated social position of governesses is perhaps the novel’s most important treatment of
this theme. Like Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights, Jane is a figure of ambiguous class standing
and, consequently, a source of extreme tension for the characters around her. Jane’s manners,
sophistication, and education are those of an aristocrat, because Victorian governesses, who
tutored children in etiquette as well as academics, were expected to possess the “culture” of the
aristocracy. Yet, as paid employees, they were more or less treated as servants; thus, Jane
remains penniless and powerless while at Thornfield. Jane’s understanding of the double
standard crystallizes when she becomes aware of her feelings for Rochester; she is his
intellectual, but not his social, equal. Even before the crisis surrounding Bertha Mason, Jane is
hesitant to marry Rochester because she senses that she would feel indebted to him for
“condescending” to marry her. Jane’s distress, which appears most strongly in Chapter 17, seems
to be Brontë’s critique of Victorian class attitudes.
Gender Relations
Jane struggles continually to achieve equality and to overcome oppression. In addition to class
hierarchy, she must fight against patriarchal domination—against those who believe women to
be inferior to men and try to treat them as such. Three central male figures threaten her desire for
equality and dignity: Mr. Brocklehurst, Edward Rochester, and St. John Rivers. All three are
misogynistic on some level. Each tries to keep Jane in a submissive position, where she is unable
to express her own thoughts and feelings. In her quest for independence and self-knowledge,
Jane must escape Brocklehurst, reject St. John, and come to Rochester only after ensuring that
they may marry as equals. This last condition is met once Jane proves herself able to function,
through the time she spends at Moor House, in a community and in a family. She will not depend
solely on Rochester for love and she can be financially independent. Furthermore, Rochester is
blind at the novel’s end and thus dependent upon Jane to be his “prop and guide.”

Home and Belonging

Throughout the novel, Jane defines her idea of home as a place where she both belongs and can
be useful.
Without the person she loves most, Jane’s usefulness is no longer enough to constitute Lowood
as home. Later, at Thornfield, Jane shares such a deep emotional connection with Rochester that
she declares him to be her “only home,” but she leaves Rochester because living with him would
contribute to his sin and damage his soul. After learning about Bertha Mason, she feels morally
useless around him. By novel’s end, when Jane finally returns to Rochester, she can at last be
useful him, in part because he now must depend on Jane for his eyesight. Jane’s desire to belong
is connected to her desire to be valuable to another person, and these desires drive her decisions
throughout the entire novel.
Anxiety and Uncertainty
Brontë draws on frightening Gothic imagery to highlight anxiety and uncertainty surrounding
Jane’s place in the world, especially by describing the supernatural. The reader’s first encounter
with the Gothic and supernatural is the terrifying red-room. Uncle Reed may not literally haunt
the room, but his connection to the room haunts Jane as a reminder of the unfulfilled promise
that she would have a home at Gateshead and the reality that Uncle Reed cannot ensure that she
will be loved. Later, the storm that splits the chestnut tree where Rochester and Jane kiss creates
a portentous atmosphere, as if nature itself objects to their marriage. This occurrence serves to
warn Jane that despite appearances, her happiness with Rochester is not truly secure. Further,
many scholars have identified Bertha as a Gothic double of Jane, or a physical manifestation of
the violent passions and anger that Jane possessed in her younger years. This connection between
Bertha and Jane highlights anxieties around Jane becoming Rochester’s bride. Even without
knowledge of Bertha, Jane worries Rochester will tire of her, and their marriage would upend
rigid Victorian social class structure by having a governess marry her master. In this way,
Bertha’s looming presence expresses Jane’s fear about their impending marriage and the
ambiguity of Jane’s social position.
Edward Rochester
Despite his stern manner and not particularly handsome appearance, Edward Rochester wins
Jane’s heart, because she feels they are kindred spirits, and because he is the first person in the
novel to offer Jane lasting love and a real home. Although Rochester is Jane’s social and
economic superior, and although men were widely considered to be naturally superior to women
in the Victorian period, Jane is Rochester’s intellectual equal. Moreover, after their marriage is
interrupted by the disclosure that Rochester is already married to Bertha Mason, Jane is proven
to be Rochester’s moral superior.
Rochester regrets his former libertinism and lustfulness; nevertheless, he has proven himself to
be weaker in many ways than Jane. Jane feels that living with Rochester as his mistress would
mean the loss of her dignity. Ultimately, she would become degraded and dependent upon
Rochester for love, while unprotected by any true marriage bond. Jane will only enter into
marriage with Rochester after she has gained a fortune and a family, and after she has been on
the verge of abandoning passion altogether. She waits until she is not unduly influenced by her
own poverty, loneliness, psychological vulnerability, or passion. Additionally, because Rochester
has been blinded by the fire and has lost his manor house at the end of the novel, he has become
weaker while Jane has grown in strength—Jane claims that they are equals, but the marriage
dynamic has actually tipped in her favor.