The topics of resurrection and rebirth are key themes in A Tale of Two Cities. During the novel, metaphoric and literal takes on the revival of life are applied. The revivals occur in multiple characters and even the setting itself. During the late 1700s, France was undergoing a significant alteration, the French Revolution. When the working class began to rise against their tyrants, a renewal of France was prompted. While this significant transformation happened behind the scenes, resurrection was also undoubtedly present in the introduction of Dr. Manette. To his daughter and friends, he had been dead for eighteen years, only just reintroduced  as a living man. This was a great, significant rebirth, as he was only now being discovered as alive. Finally, Sydney Carton also underwent a momentous restoration of nature in the transformation that his character sustained. The character development from the drunken good-for-nothing man in the beginning, to the hero who sacrificed his own life for the lives of others, is crucial and demonstrates the revival of his person. Resurrection is an incredibly important theme in the novel and sets the tone for the entirety of the book. 

During Book The First, Dr. Manette is found alive in a French prison after eighteen years of presumed death. Mr. Lorry, a family friend of the Manettes, was tasked with relaying this information to his daughter, Lucie Manette, who still believed her father died eighteen years prior. While on the journey to Madame Manette, Lorry muses over the new information that he had just been handed, picturing the prisoner’s face over and over again. According to the text, “A hundred times the dozing passenger inquired of this spectre: ‘Buried how long?’ The answer was always the same. ‘Almost eighteen years.’ ‘You had abandoned all hope of being dug out?’ ‘Long ago.’ You know that you are recalled to life?’ ‘They tell me so.’ ‘I hope you care to live?’ ‘I can’t say.’... Though the earth was cold and wet, the sky was clear, and the sun rose bright, placid, and beautiful. ‘Eighteen years!’ said the passenger, looking at the sun. ‘Gracious Creator of day! To be buried alive for eighteen years!’”(Dickens, pages 10-11). The fact that Dickens introduces this novel with this significant resurrection signifies the importance of the theme throughout the novel. In this excerpt from the text, Mr. Lorry is plagued by nightmares of his old friend Dr. Manette, someone that had once been assumed dead, and now has been revived to life. He mentions the metaphor “buried alive” repeatedly, along with the action of digging. These metaphors signify Dr. Manette recalled to the living world. After nearly two decades in prison, it was nearly as though he was a corpse in the earth, finally dug up and given the chance to breathe. 

Revival is not only found in Dr. Manette, but also in an extremely significant character of Book the Third, Sydney Carton. Carton is originally introduced in the novel as a character who, although similar to Charles Darnay in looks, could not be more different. He was a lazy drunk who wasted his time and didn’t see much point in trying at all. Despite that, through the course of the novel, he changed and resurrected as a hero who risked his life for others. The novel ends with Carton overlooking his future, the guillotine. However, in spite of this grim sight that would ordinarily make any other man panic, a calm feeling overcame him. According to the last page of the novel, “They said of him, about the city that night, that it was the peacefullest man’s face ever beheld there. Many added that he looked sublime and prophetic… ‘It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.’”(Dickens, pages 292-293). This quote shows just how greatly he differed from the passionless soul in the initiation of the novel. Knowing that it would save Lucie, the love of his life, and her family, he knew that his future was not in vain. It could also be argued that Carton is literally “revived” through the life of Lucie and Darnay’s son, also named Sydney Carton. While facing the guillotine, Carton had a vision. In this vision, he witnesses the new Sydney Carton becoming everything that he never had the chance to become. In this vision, he finally found peace. According to the novel, “I see that child who lay upon her bosom and who bore my name, a man winning his way up in that path of life which once was mine. I see him winning it so well, that my name is made illustrious there by the light of his.”(Dickens, page 293). Dickens introduces the audience to the new Sydney Carton in the last page of the novel to place a flicker of hope in a place where there wasn’t previously. With this vision, Carton gains the strength to continue on his path to the execution. He understood that with the new Sydney Carton, his wrongs could be undone, washed away by the brightness of his successor. 

Nevertheless, resurrection was discovered not only in characters of the novel, but also as a pivotal theme in the setting. In the background of A Tale of Two cities, the French Revolutionary War rages on. The war represents another type of rebirth, the rebirth of the country itself. The revolutionaries wanted a new life and took it through force. However, the war was not peaceful, and in most instances, violent. Dickens states, “The hour had come, when Saint Antoine was to execute his horrible idea of hoisting up men for lamps to show what he could be and do. Saint Antoine’s blood was up, and the blood of the tyranny and domination by the iron hand was down- down the steps of the Hotel de Ville where the governor’s body lay-”(Dickens, page 169). During this moment, Madame Defarge decapitated the Governor, ending the reign of tyranny. Dickens adds this excerpt into the novel to demonstrate a major turning point of the war and the lengths that the revolutionaries would go to in order to make this happen. However, although the “Old France” ceased to exist and a “New France” was reborn, the age of terror and violence that succeeded this period was far worse than previous. The revolutionaries are described as bloodthirsty, not much better than the aristocrats themselves. Shortly after this, Darnay travels to France to save Gabelle, a friend of his, from a prison there. However, in France, he is apprehended by the revolutionaries and taken to prison. Darnay hadn’t realized just how much had changed during the revolution and wasn’t equipped to deal with the new regulations. According to the novel, “‘Without doubt. You are consigned, Evremonde, to the prison of La Force.’ ‘Just Heaven!’ exclaimed Darnay. ‘Under what law, and for what offence?’ The officer looked up from his slip of paper for a moment. ‘We have new laws, Evremonde, and new offences, since you were here.’ He said it with a hard smile, and went on writing.”(Dickens, page 194). This quote was added to the novel to indicate the instances in which the revolution gave way to a new day, filled with new laws and life. Because of the war, many things in France changed, including their prison system. Because of how unprepared he was to travel there during this time, Darnay found himself arrested. With the Revolutionary War, France underwent a significant transformation, symbolic to the changes going through the characters symbiotically. 

It is evident that resurrection is a common theme throughout A Tale of Two Cities. This is proved time and time again during the reintroduction of Dr. Manette, the French Revolutionary War, and the significant character development of Sydney Carton. Through these examples, rebirth and the idea of coming back from the dead is created.