"It was the best, it was the worst, the wise, the ignorant, the believing, the skeptical, the Enlightenment, the light." Darkness, it's the spring of hope, it's the winter of despair, we're all ahead of us, we're all empty in front of us, we're all going to Heaven, we're all going the other way - in a nutshell, the day has arrived. It was so similar to today that some of the most vocal authorities insist on attributing it only to the highest level of comparison, good or bad."
That's how Charles Dickens, one of the most well-known writers of nineteenth-century English literature, began his novel "A Tale of Two Cities." This is a story set before and during the first French Bourgeois Revolution (beginning with the breaking of the Bastille in 1789), and it is regarded as one of the works that best reflects the inner nature of the French Revolution. The Revolution marked an important turning point in the history of France and Europe. Above all, "Two Citadels" is a story about love, sacrifice, humanity, and humanity amid a period that, as Dickens put it, is both Enlightenment and Darkness, a time of turmoil marked by so much bloodshed, so much hysteria, so much death, and terror.
London and Paris are two citadels. Beginning with Dr. Manette's release from captivity in France, the story takes the reader through their years in London, where love blossomed between Lucie Manette - the beautiful daughter of an old doctor - and Charles Darnay - a boy of French aristocratic origin who was willing to give up all that glory to establish himself in England because he could not accept the status of aristocrats oppressing and eating on the poor. Along with Charles Darnay's reciprocated love, Sydney Carton - a drunken law assistant - has a deep and beautiful unrequited love for Lucie Manette, a love that will eventually lead him to one last noble act for the woman he loved and her family.
"I would do anything for you and anyone you care about." I will give my life without hesitation if there is any chance or possibility in my life to sacrifice for her and her loved ones. Please remember me in times of peace and accept my heartfelt words. […] Oh, little Manette, when the happy figure of a father is a boy looking up at her, when her lovely face doubles for the little girl growing up beside her, remember every now and then that there is who is willing to trade his life for the sake of another life she loves!"
Across the strait, the flames of the Revolution were and still are smoldering, simmering beneath the Saint Antoine rooftops, in the meetings between tavern owner Defarge and his sister-in-law - Therèse Defarge - along with a series of future revolutionaries all bearing the alias Jacques. And when that fire erupted into an unstoppable movement, human nature was revealed in the most authentic, painful, and terrifying way.
The people of France, and especially the people of Paris, have every reason to revolt, to make a revolution, to overthrow the absolute monarchy of King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette, who are in fact only children. Young teen on the throne, unsure how to rule the country; to punish and reclaim justice from the aristocracy who drained their labor, bread, and even dignity due to greed, moral corruption, and endless satisfaction. But, gradually, under the leadership of the Jacobin Party, during what historians refer to as the "Jacobin Reign of Terror," the well-intended Revolution brought a turning point, a change. The change that affected not only Europe's political situation but also many other countries later became a bloody battlefield of those who wanted nothing more than revenge, devastating revenge. fierce.
Charles Dickens exposed the dark side of the French Bourgeois Revolution, the dark side of human humanity, when the old ruling class was overthrown and a new ruling class was also thirsty, with his deft pen. It appeared bloody and inhumane. Dozens of innocent people were imprisoned, unfairly tried, and guillotined simply because they were related to the aristocracy or mourned for persecuted loved ones. decide. The informants sprouted up like mushrooms, were exposed, and resulted in the deaths of countless people. All to serve the bloodthirsty mob, blindly worshiping an ideal of their own vengeance without pausing to think. Human lives are reduced to numbers: the number of heads that have fallen from Madame La Guillotine's guillotine in a single day (similar to counting KPIs at work... Chills). Those lives, the puddles of death row inmates' blood flowing on the execution ground, became sacrifices; prison trials and executions became boisterous festivals to satisfy the self-proclaimed Revolutionaries' lust for vengeance and destruction. The most evocative image of such people is Defarge's sister-in-law, a woman who can put the name of anyone she wants to die on the list to be executed with every stitch of her knitting...
The ending made me cry - out of obsession, pity, and admiration for an unforgivably noble act. Those interested in learning more about the terrible brutality and darkness of the French Bourgeois Revolution in 1789 can read Jennifer Donnelly's "Royal Heart" (original title "Revolution", translated and published by Literary Publishing House, 2011 edition) to see how French people treated Queen Marie Antoinette and King Louis XVI - two people who were, above all, two parents. Just want your child to be safe; two people who committed the heinous crime of being too young to take the throne, of lacking the qualifications and leadership ability to improve the people's living conditions in the midst of the aristocracy taking turns exploiting the people. poor.
