THE OPENING OF CHARLES DICKENS “A TALE OF TWO CITIES”.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”

These lines from Charles Dickens revolutionary novel “A ‘Tale Two Cities” is one of the most famous beginning lines in English literature. Dickens begins the book with a set of paradoxes which intrigues the reader and keeps them hooked to the book.He employs the concept of duality in these lines which he also uses throughout the book to bring out the dualness in characters(Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton, Madam Defarge and Lucie Manette). The beginning of any novel promises entry into a whole new world and Dickens does so by beginning the novel with a set of contradictions which elicits the readers expectations.The book is set in the backdrop of the period of French Revolution and ends in the Jacobian Reign of Terror. France at that time is on the verge of revolution and England is not much better.The gap between the rich and the poor is at its extreme with the rule of the aristocracy over the peasantry, hence Dickens calls it the best of times and the worst of times. He also very successfully compares the cities of London and Paris and brings out both the similariy and the differences in the two cities. He compares lawless England with lawful France and tells how the system in both places is spreading unhappiness, especially among the poor, hence the times being paradoxically the best and also the worst.He talks of the sense of turmoil in the two countries during that period and sets the tone for the whole novel.
It was the period of “Enlightenment” when the change from superstitious thinking to a more scientific way of thinking emerged. But the world remained partly superstitious even in this period, hence Dickens calls it the season of Light and the season of Darkness.  Here ‘Light’ for Dickens is when the people understand the science in the world and broaden their thinking to get more perspective on the happenings, and ‘Darkness’ is in the mindset of the people when they refuse to believe in scientific and rational explanations and instead opt to believe in superstitious beliefs. Hence it was also the ‘Epoch of belief’ and the ‘Epoch of incredulity’.The time Dickens writes of is the years leading up to the French revolution and then the revolution. At the time the common people who were suffering at the hands of the aristocrats were all hoping for a new world order to establish and  for the abolishment of the aristocratic rule over them, but the people knew that it would be very hard to accomplish. Hence it was the ‘Spring of hope’ and it was the’Winter of despair’.Dickens uses anaphora(repetition of a word at the beginning of consecutive clauses) as the literary device in these lines to bring out the set of contradictions- good times vs bad times , wisdom vs foolishness, light vs darkness, hope vs despair, belief vs disbelief. This tell us that contrasting ideas exist simultaneously in various situations during different periods of time or even during the same period of time. It allows one to determine the circumstances based on one’s perspective of the occurances at that particular point of time. Though we don’t meet any characters in the beginning, it has a foreboding sense about it that attracts the reader and makes them want to know more about the happenings. The paradoxes used are so strikingly different and yet they give a feeling of being similar in their own terms.  Dickens uses paradoxes with a tinge of similarity in them as he talks about the plight of different classes of people (that of aristocracy and that of the common people).

Reading the opening sentence of  ‘A Tale of  Two Cities’ leaves us expecting more.The reader gets transported back to the eighteenth century to the times leading to the French revolution. Back to the time which was both the best and the worst as we know by now. The time when people tried to open their minds to new ideas and beliefs.We are not really able to relate to it, nor do we know anything about the plot from it, and we are not introduced to any of the characters  but even years after reading the book the opening sentence remains in our minds- this is the power of the  opening sentence.