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Theme Of Imprisonment In A Tale Of Two Cities

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Imprisonment of the Mind As Thornton Wilter says, “Imprisonment of the body is bitter; imprisonment of the mind is worse.” The French Revolution was a period of social and political conflict where corruption and debt within Europe caused oppression and poverty among the people. During that time period, imprisonment and execution was an excessively common punishment for being a counterrevolutionary. In the novel, A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens conveys the recurring theme of imprisonment through the actions of different characters and how it has a detrimental psychological effect. After being imprisoned for eighteen years in the Bastille, Dr. Alexandre Manette experiences the post-traumatic effects from being in solitary confinement which shapes his character and influences the people around him.. When Dr. Manette is sent to prison for having knowledge of the actions of the Evremonde brothers, he develops a habit of shoemaking in order to keep his mind occupied. When Mr. Lorry asks him questions, Dr. Manette does not have any recollection of anything except for his prison cell number, 105 North Tower: “No human intelligence could have read the mysteries of his mind, in the scared blank wonder of his face...They tried speaking to him; but, he was so confused...they took fright in his bewilderment” (Dickens 51). Being in prison for that many years practically makes the doctor lose his mind. It takes Dr. Manette 5 years to …show more content…
In A Tale of Two Cities, the theme of imprisonment is depicted in the characters of Dr. Manette, Charles Darnay, and Sydney Carton. They each have to endure the struggles of those punishments, which has a significant impact on each of the characters’ lives. Although each experienced a relatively different type of imprisonment, they all faced the oppression and the cruelty of the French

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