SYMBOLISM IN A TALE OF TWO CITIES

The word `symboli' is derived from the Greek Verb Symbollein, which means to `put together' and the Greek noun `Symbolon', which means a `sign'. "The term in literary usage refers most specifically to a manner of representation in which what is shown (normally referring to something material) means by virtue of association, something more, or something else (normally referring to something immaterial)."
Anything that signifies something is a symbol. Even a word may be symbol. Symbols are of two types—Public or conventional, and private or personal symbols. The word `Rose' for example, means a lovely flower. In poetry, a Rose becomes a symbol, meaning a lovely lady or the beloved. William Blake uses `Rose' as a private symbol, meaning `joy', `love' and `bed'
Symbolism has become a literary cult (religious group these days. This French poets like Baudelaire, Mallarme, Paul Valery, Rimbaud, and English poets like Blake, W.B. Yeats and T.S. Eliot have employed private or personal symbols that have made their verse relatively abstruse (complex, mysterious) Novelist have also made use of symbols. Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities is replete with symbols. What a simple word or even a long sentence or a paragraph or even a whole poem cannot do what a symbol can. A symbol, thus, connotes (indicate) a huge corpus (quantity) of thought.
Writers down the age all over the world have used symbols. Readers faced no difficulty in appreciating their works. The names of characters of Ben Jonson, playwrights of the Resoration Comedy, and of the anti-sentimental comedies are symbolical.
Let us review some of the major symbols of A Tale of Two Cities. Some of the names of characters in this novel have a symbolical significance. Manette, for example, is the diminutive (miniature) of `man'. A full-blooded `man' is crushed into a Manette. Lucie may mean the luminous one. Evremonde may mean `everyman'.
Sydney Carton is the symbol of self-sacrifice and service. Charles Darnay symbolises composure (calm, mixture). Lucie stands for sweetness and grace. Jarvis Lorry stands for disinterested service. Stryver symbolizes pomposity (arrogance) and selfishness. Madame Defarge stands for cruelty, revenge and hatred. `Monseigneur' represents decayed aristocracy. Marquis d'Evremonde is the symbol of inhumanity and barbarism.
Blood is a major symbol. Gaspard of Saint Antoine Street dips his fingers in the red-blood wine that has spilt on the street, and scrawls (drawss) the word `Blood' on the wall. Blood becomes the symbol of the French Revolution, the leaders of which forget the ideals of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity (union) and plunge Paris into a blood-bath. Tumbrels on the street carrying the heads of the victims to be thrown into the river. Marquis d'Evremonde watches the blood-red glow of the setting sound. He drives rashly on Saint Antoine street and Gaspard's son is run over, lying in a pool of blood. When the magnificent Chateau of the Evremondes is set ablaze,-the entire atmosphere looks as red as blood. The indiscriminate (unsystematic) slaughter and the non-stop use of the guillotine have shed so much human blood.
Water is Dickens' favourite symbol. The water of the river, of the sea, of the fountain, of the reservoir is the elixir of life. At times the water is contaminated and ends the life. Water flows as time flows. In chapter seven of Book Two Dickens comments: "The water of the fountain ran, the swift river ran, the day ran into evening, so much life in the city only ran into death according to rule". Running its own course is the law of nature. The water ran not in the city alone it flows in the village as well.
`Footsteps' is also a recurrent (repeated) image that becomes a symbol. Even in the tranquil atmosphere in Soho Square, London Lucie hears the sound of footsteps, the stampede (charge) of the frenzied (hyperactive) and furious revolutionaries that would not give a moment's rest to the poor Manette, who is destined to suffer.
Right at the beginning of Book one, the Mail Cash bound for Dover is symbolical. The journey is arduous, and has ominous associations. Horses are fighting shy as if they have seen something uncanny. All the passengers wear looks of suspicion and distrust. Even the guard grows suspicious. All things, living and dead, feel that dark days are ahead. And what can be darker than the French Revolution, the activists of which are on the spree (extravaganza) to shed blood.
Dickens uses personal symbols while referring to the woodcutter and the farmer. They are not babblers. They work continuously. They are represented here as not the bringer (spreader) of fuels and the producer of daily food that sustains us. The woodcutter is the symbol of inexorable (unchangeable) destiny, at whose wish a man may live or die. He represents the inevitability of the Revolution that would overcome mankind. The farmer is the sower of the seeds of death—death that would come in the wake of the Revolution.
The Bastille sprawls (spread out) before us as Dante's Inferno (firestorm), at the gate of which it is inscribed (decorated): "Abandon hope, ye all who enter here". Hundreds of innocent men, who have caused the least irritation either to the monarchy or the aristocracy, have been committed to the vast prison with its dark cells to languish (decay) away The human beings are reduced to mere numbers. Dr. Manette has forgotten his name and become Prisoner No. 105, North Tower. Tyranny, cruelty, injustice, exploitation—these are the vices the Bastille stands for. The Fall of the Bastille on 14 July, 1789 heralds (indication) the end of tyranny.
The Grindstone is apparently innocuous (harmless). In reality it is not Dickens looks upon the grindstone not as a machine for grinding wheat into flour that keeps us alive. Most of the inhabitants of Saint Antoine Street area had to work round the clock at the Mill for their bare subsistence. As the wheat was being crushed by the grindstone, they were also crushed and bled white. Hence the grindstone had a dual role to crush the wheat and also the poor labourers. Child labour was there. Children worked at the Mill and lost their childhood--the period of primal joy, bubbling (sparkling) with life. Dickens must be thinking of his factory days. The Mill and the grindstone have more or less similar functions. Both crush wheat and the laboures, children included.
The grindstone during the frenzied (hyperactive) days of the Revolution had another role to play. Men, women and children had to use the grindstone for sharpening not only swords and daggers (blade), but all metallic instruments to be used as improvised (unplanned) weapons to kill the enemies of the people.
La Guillotine becomes the symbol of quick extermination (killing) after summary trial. In the common parlance (idiom, manner of speaking), the guillotine was `the national Razor to behead the aristocrats with. The King and the aristocrats- had their conventional, but lethal weapons for the liquidation (collapse) of the poor and the oppressed. Since the table was turned, the revolutionaries devised a new weapon, namely, the guillotine.
Resurrection is a major symbol. A devout (pious) Christian, Dickens believes in Resurrection. What Sydney Carton heard from the priest, while quite a child, at the funeral of his father—"I am the Resurrection. I am the life," had little meaning for him then. But with the passage of time, particularly when he chooses to be Charles Darnay, he is inspired by the words of Christ, "I am the Resurrection, I am the Life". From the temporary earthly life he is stepping into life eternal. It is Sydney Carton who resurrected Charles at Old Bailey. Dr. Manette is resurrected on his release from the Bastille, and gets a new lease' of life in the company of Lucie. Sydney Carton, who was suffering death-in-life, is resurrected by the profound sympathy and compassion of Lucie. He finds a new meaning in life, a purpose, a mission, to live for, and also to die for. And towards the end Sydney Carton's death and resurrection inspire all even amidst blood and vengeance.
Carmagnole, the frenzied dance of a section of the revolutionaries strikes terror in the delicate heart of the delicate Lucie. Flaunting (showy) their red caps, they gnash (grind) their teeth and sing in prrison to give vent (expel) to their excessive joy over their well-organized and yet chaotic victory. What was a symbol of joy to the masses was a symbol of horror to Lucie.
So many symbols are there only to heighten the horrors of the Revolution and the supremacy of Resurrection in the long run.
There is another symbol, not public or conventional, but a personal one. It is the symbol of the lion and the jackal. Stryver is a symbol of pomposity and conceit. A barrister-at-law, he has an extensive practice. He, therefore, calls himself a lion, and patronizingly (arrogantly) ls Sydney Carton a `jackal'. A lion is the king of animals. Stryver, therefore, prides himself upon describing himself as the king of the beasts. The lion always takes the lion's share and the leavings are shared by the lioness, the cubs, and when practically nothing is left in the carcass (skeleton)he timid jackal steps in. Carton is far more talented and intelligent than Stryver. It is he who, with his quick perception and critical acumen (intelligence) easily solves the intriguing problems of the clients. Stryver owes his success to Carton. Stryver, in the fitness of things, takes more than the lion's share, and Carton, who has absolutely no material ambition, is thoroughly satisfied with wine that Stryver provides. Stryver does not understand that he is "stout fond bluff'. An egocentric person, he does not understand that his assistant, `the jackal' is the source of his professional success. He with his usual self-complacency claims to be the lion, the patron of Carton. And Carton, the protege, accepts the appellation `jackal'. He has no vanity, no inflated ego. That is why he dances attendance upon Stryver, as a jackal does upon the lion. We, however, feel that the position should have been reversed. But the jackal becomes the Christ-like figure and serves not one master, but the whole humanity with love and inspires them to avoid all cruelty and hatred, and make the world a better place to live in.