Book Report: "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens

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Book Evaluation

Setting: "A Tale of Two Cities" is written by Charles Dickens and it takes place in France and England beginning in 1775. It's told in third person until the end when Sydney Carton overtakes the narrator and talks in first person for the last few paragraphs of the novel.

Protagonist: Charles Darnay is a young French aristocrat by birth but he chooses to live in England because he hates the French social system. He is virtuous in his rejection of the cruel values of his family and refuses to be a part of it. This is why he chooses the name Darnay instead of his real name Evremonde which is his family's name. He is motivated by love from Lucie Manette.

Antagonist: Ernest Defarge, and his wife, Madame Defarge, are key leaders and officials of the revolution. Madame Defarge is the major antagonist with an unforgiving eye who seeks revenge on the Evremonde family for killing her family.

She is stubborn and vengeful in her scheme to kill all heirs of the Evremonde family, including Charles, and the Manettes. Her hatred for the aristocrats and their treatment of the poor people of France turns her into a blood thirsty tigress. She constantly knits names into shrouds that will be the victims of the revolution.

3 important characters: Sydney Carton is an alcoholic attorney. He has no real goals and regards himself as useless. His only love is Lucie. His love eventually transforms his identity into a man of profound merit. He looks very similar to Charles Darnay which helps him complete his transformation.

Doctor Manette is Lucie's father and a master physician who was imprisoned for eighteen years in Bastille. As he overcomes his past as a prisoner, he shows himself to be a loyal, loving father who...