The Use Of Round Characters In A Tale Of Two Cities

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” (Dickens, 4). A Tale of Two Cities takes place to the time during the French Revolution, in the mid-to-late 18th century. Charles Dickens shows us the life in England and France. The book begins with Jarvis Lorry having a mission to go from London to Paris to retrieve Lucie Manette’s father who’s been jailed for nearly 18 years. The life of the characters represent the hardships, complications, and struggle of what they go through and also what the characters go through. While critics state that the characters in the novel are “flat” and not “round”, the author uses more of “round” characters because the French Revolution was a very traumatic for both England and France.
First of all, A Tale of Two Cities provides many multidimensional characters. For instance, Charles Dickens mentions, “The bench was turned towards the light, as it had been the shoemaker at his work before, and his head was bent down, and he was very busy.” (Chapter 18, Book 2). The part where the author mentions the word …show more content…
One example of a “flat” character is Jarvis Lorry. In the beginning of the book, he helps Lucie reunite with her father after 18 years, Dr. Manette, was jailed in France. Throughout the book so far, he helps the Manette family with problems by giving them opinions and advice. Dickens mentions in the book, “Mr. Lorry resolved to watch him attentively, with as little appearance as possible of doing so. He therefore made arrangements to absent himself from Tellson’s for the first time in his life, and took his post by the window in the same room.” (Chapter 18, Book 2). This character represents a “flat” personality where he only has one trait because throughout the book so far, he has been with the Manettes, caring for them since Dr. Manette was retrieved from jail. Clearly, Charles Dickens did not create characters who were