Geoffrey Chaucer once wrote: “Trouthe is the hyest thing a man can keep” (The Canterbury Tales “The Knight's Tale”). Long before the ancient Greeks, humanity strived to discern and define truth, a noble if somewhat arduous task. Even modern society, despite the loss of so many old "prudish" morals of previous generations, still considers truth to be one of the greatest virtues and finding the truth in life, one of the greatest achievements. Authors such as Charles Dickens reflect this great desire to seek and find the truth, using many different mediums to express their opinions or discoveries. From the first lines of the book, Dickens uses the method of thematic opposition to illustrate pure truth and bad lies. In A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens systematically contrasts characters, settings, and even his theme of revolution, presenting juxtaposed viewpoints and actions that demonstrate deeper truths about life. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essayTwo characters that Dickens contrasts are Madame Defarge and Lucie Manette. Although Lucie Manette was orphaned after the death of her mother and her father languished anonymously in a cell in the Bastille prison, even though she suffered irreparable harm, Lucie Manette still finds within herself the ability to forgive wrongs and to love others. She seeks the best in every human heart and inspires those around her to love and achieve ambitious, almost impossible goals. Lucie Manette always appears in the form of light, often receiving the term "angel". She brings a calming disposition to those who suffer, listening patiently to sorrows and misdeeds while forgiving and encouraging the disbeliever to better ways. Even though she cannot reform Sidney Carton, he realizes that she, of all people, would have that power; however, he feels he is already too far down the wrong path to turn back and start again. He realizes, “You would have had me back if anything could have.” You will not be the cause of my aggravation… The greatest good of which I am now capable, Miss Manette, I have come here to achieve”” (Dickens 139). Without knowing it, Miss Manette's simple nature inspires such generous love and aspirations that ultimately this great inspired love saves her life and that of those dearest to her. Coming from a bitter and desperate childhood, Miss Manette reaches great heights by following the path of love and forgiveness when she could become bitter. Madame Defarge, on the other hand, is the root of all evil, leaving destruction in her wake wherever she is found. she leaves. She draws her justification for the misdeeds she commits from the wrongs she and her family suffered while she was still a child. Since the noble family of Evrémondes raped her sister and killed her brother while he defended his honor, Madame Defarge has sworn revenge as long as she lives on the perpetrators of the crime as well as her descendants. Instead of showing restraint and feminine pity, she violently attacks everyone who has done her any wrongdoing, real or imagined. Madame Defarge knows neither how to forgive nor forget, and she only loves those who have done her no wrong. In the midst of the revolution, Madame Defarge remains a central figure because of her determination, her lack of pity and her cruelty. “She remained… so close to him when he fell dead beneath, that, suddenly animated, she placed her foot on his neck and, with her cruel knife – long ready – cut his neck.head” (Dickens 203). Even if Madame Defarge, like Lucie Manette, has every chance of avenging her unjust childhood through love and forgiveness, she chooses the path of revenge. However, while forgiveness fulfills the desire for closure, revenge only increases the bloodlust, triggering a vicious cycle of death and destruction in place of kindness and the creation of new life. The story of Madame Defarge is common in France, although English culture offers a different way of dealing with injustice. The contexts of London and Paris provide two other examples of opposition. London, although full of sordid neighborhoods, remains much more prosperous and clean than Paris. Even the poor and working classes in England have enough to eat and a place to sleep, enough to buy plates, cutlery and tablecloths. Mr. Cruncher, although a simple messenger of Tellson's Bank by day and grave robber by night, still has sufficient means to live and support a wife and child. Mr. Cruncher is by no means wealthy or even close to prosperity, otherwise he would not attempt to rob tombs to supplement his income, but he has the means to do without his nocturnal occupation. "Mr. Cruncher's quarters were not in a pleasant neighborhood... but they were very well kept... The room... was already thoroughly cleaned... the cups and saucers set out for breakfast, and... very clean white linen... own was extensive” (Dickens 48). Mr. Cruncher is at the bottom of the English social hierarchy, but his modest position allows him to lead a life far beyond the means of any honorable merchant or farmer in France. France far surpasses the worst areas of London in terms of squalor, despair and poverty. While Mr. Cruncher prepares his breakfast every morning, the Parisian working classes struggle to find one or two meals a day to share meagerly between the offspring and the parents. Beggars on the streets of London probably earn better incomes than the harsh sawyers of pre-revolutionary Paris. Parisians walk around the city with lack and depravity written on the premature lines on their faces. Many have no roof over their heads or wood to heat their drafty homes. The nobility takes everything the people receive, leaving nothing for the citizens, not even enough to survive. “The woman... left the little pot of burning ashes on the doorstep, in which she tried to ease the pain of her own hungry fingers and toes... men with bare arms, matted hair, and cadaverous faces, who had emerged in the winter. light of cellars” (Dickens 25). However, peasants are superfluous to the nobility because when a man dies, another is always available to replace him. The fundamental differences between London and Paris, a society based on self-improvement rather than survival, also create an environment conducive to opposing approaches to societal change. While Londoners tackle all changes one man at a time, Parisians move toward revolution with a mindset of preparation to destroy the world entirely before putting it back together again. The English are constantly looking for ways to improve themselves instead of overthrowing the society they live in, whether corrupt or perfect. Sidney Carton is the perfect example of a man who seeks to change himself and, in doing so, change the world. Carton's biggest change is from despair to assurance that there is hope in the other world, even if he ruined his chances in this one. So although Carton dies because of his transformation, he changes his society because he acts selflessly and fearlessly,qualities that British society admires, inspiring others to improve, to change, to remember the good in others, the importance of love and caring. the possibility that there is always a diamond in the roughest exterior. “It’s a much better thing I’m doing than I ever did; it is a far better rest to which I go than I ever knew” (Dickens 352). Carton creates an individual revolution through his simple faith in God and his loving, selfless revocation of his life to save a family. Carton does not attempt to avenge all the wrongs done against him, the errors in judgment of his character, the subtle slights he suffered, but instead forgives with a higher goal in mind. He does not condemn the French revolution which led him to this sacrifice because he realizes that, due to the nature of the French people, it would not be possible for him to stop the flow of hatred and blood which flows through them. interior of the country. He focuses instead on the small circle of love he can find, that of Lucie Manette's family, and concentrates all his efforts on preserving this example of love and kindness. Conversely, the French do not seek to change themselves but prefer to change everyone else because this seems to be the easiest and most correct path to follow. So the Parisians take all the nobility into custody, accusing them of crimes against the lower classes, including women and children who have not seen enough years to even understand the events around them. The peasants do not wish to teach the nobility a fairer way of living, they do not want to show them how their high culture ways were unfair and tortuous for the lower classes to endure. Instead, they choose to hate, to scream, to create a revolution that no one can control once started, attempting to exterminate an entire class of people in a horrible case of genocide that they call justice because they see that they are doing it. with all the evil that the nobility has created. In doing so, however, the peasants do not learn to be just, wise and honorable, but soon become as despotic as the nobility when they find power within their reach. Madame Defarge is a perfect example of this inflammable hatred which pushes her to merciless murder because she cannot change herself; it cannot see the equality, fraternity, liberty or justice for which the revolution began. "For other crimes as tyrants and oppressors, I have long had this race on my docket, doomed to destruction and extermination...So tell Wind and Fire where to stop...but don't tell me say not”” (Dickens 318). The French people, like Madame Defarge, do not understand that as long as they cannot evolve, cannot forgive wrongs, they will not be able to build a society of better morals and virtues because the country will function in corruption, hatred and distrust of one's neighbors, a distrust that would lead to the immediate death of the revolution in fear. Dickens uses the thematic opposition of love and hate, justice and injustice, hope and despair to reveal universal truths about human nature, the capacity to change, and the importance of love. . When he contrasts Lucie Manette with Madame Defarge, he highlights Lucie's best qualities: the love and forgiveness on which society grows and flourishes. By contrasting Madame Defarge with these qualities, cutting off the heads of former nobles, Dickens also shows the destructive nature of long-standing hatred and grudges. Due to her hatred of the noble class as a whole, Madame Defarge destroys society: she refuses to learn from the knowledge of high society, refuses.