Student Essay:
Resurrection in
A Tale of Two Cities

“He that believeth in me, although he were dead, yet shall he live.” This scripture reference in A Tale of Two Cities profoundly represents the spiritual death of several characters that brings them to the power of resurrection. In the story, several men are beaten into moral and physical submission by a corrupt society; this repression of their right to happiness causes the decay of hope in their lives. However, the deterioration of their humanity eventually leads them to their respective redemptions: Dr. Manette, Mr. Cruncher, and Sydney Carton all find new life in the ruins of their past. 

Dr. Manette, the father of the lovely Lucie, suffered greatly at the hands of the French government. Because of his compassion and fervor for justice, he was cruelly locked up for eighteen long years. In those years, although he was physically weak, his autonomy and intellect were rendered even more feeble, suppressed by the looming prison walls. Even when he was set free bodily, his mind and spirit were left in captivity. He was weak, but “it was not the faintness of physical weakness … it was the faintness of solitude.” It was only through his daughter that he was finally able to reclaim control of his life and expel the darkness that had been thrown, shroud-like, over his mind. She was the “golden thread that united him to a Past beyond his misery, and to a Present beyond his misery: and the sound of her voice, the light of her face, the touch of her hand, had a strong beneficial influence with him almost always.” Slowly but surely, Dr. Manette regained his hope and vivacity as Lucie replaced the years he had spent as a dead man with tranquility and promise. Dr. Manette’s glorious resurrection was complete when “for the first time the Doctor felt … that his suffering was strength and power.” Thus, the same suffering that had condemned Dr. Manette to a life of uncertainty and fear lifted him out of those same troubles, to his and his family’s redemption.

By contrast, Mr. Cruncher’s spiritual decay was of his own doing. In the beginning of the novel, Cruncher was a terror to his family, treating his wife without mercy. He “led the unfortunate woman a hard life by dwelling on any complaints he could bring against her.” He had no regard for her well-being; instead, he incessantly raged at her for “flopping” (i.e., praying). He lived with a complete lack of regard for right and wrong, treating those in his life who deserved the most respect with utter indecency. He willfully deceived his family so that he could rob people’s graves for profit; he even lacked any concern for his son. But the close prospect of death at the hands of the blood-thirsty French mob made him rethink his ways. It was then that he saw the flaws of his actions, and he understood the negative ways in which he was affecting not only his family, but himself as well. He was empty, suffering under a self-inflicted burden, filling his life with deception and anger. Fortunately, this did not drive him to despair: Cruncher had the fortitude to confront his previous lifestyle and transcend it, resolving to become a better man. He renounced his grave-robbing, vowing to “never do it no more,” as well as sorrowfully promising to not “interfere with Mrs. Cruncher’s flopping.” Cruncher’s genuine change of heart uplifted his soul and led it towards the good despite his unethical past.