5/11/20
 

I read this for school so I got to do some good analysis of this book. I haven’t read many books based during the French Revolution so it was very fun to read. I thought the characters were pretty surface level but it was still good.

[contains spoilers]

The first two chapters are very confusing because no names are used, but it makes sense as you read on. I really liked this though because of how mysterious it was.

I really liked the development of Dr. Manette’s character. He was one of the few that really had deep stuff. The way that he dealt with being imprisoned and how he would relapse afterwards was very well written. You could feel how empty he was.

Unpopular opinion: I didn’t really like Lucie. She was annoying and way too perfect. Her character was very surface level and I never felt very connected to her. It was weird to me how quickly she became close with her dad. You’d think that after years of being apart it would take time to connect again.

I thought Darnay was pretty chill. He always did his best to protect his family and love lucie. I liked his backstory with his uncle and leaving his family. When he went to rescue Gabelle you could see how selfless he was. Although there is some debate on whether he did this for Gabelle or to smooth his own guilty conscience.

Madame Defarge is an iconic character. I do not agree with her level of extreme but I still think that the power she holds is very admirable. She thinks about things very practically which is why she is so successful. It was very impressive when she decapitated that man. I liked when she explained to her husband that having patience makes you even more powerful. That was probably one of my favorite moments of the book.

Carton giving his life to spare Lucie’s heartbreak was so heartbreaking and I love it. Even though it is Darney’s life he is saving, he did it for Lucie. This is another instance where the ethics of a situation can be questioned. Did he do it because he already wanted to die? Was it because he couldn’t bare to see Lucie heartbroken? Or was it simply because he had grown to care for Darney and didn’t want him to die.

“He had never thought of Carton,” (270). This line right made me bawl my eyes out. Carton is giving up his life for him, but Darney never really thought himself close to him.

At the end when Carton is about to be executed and he and the women hold hands, that, in my opinion, was the most powerful moment in the book. Two strangers who are both being killed for something that does not need to be punished by death, and in their last moments alive they find peace in each other. I cried so hard at this.

[end of spoilers]

I ended up liking this book and was surprised at how emotional it made me at the end. I definitely would recommend it because there are a lot of lessons to be learned in its pages.