Re: symbols in A Tale

Charles Dickens (cdickens@RMPLC.CO.UK)
Mon, 23 Mar 1998 14:53:49 -0100 

My dear Mr Che,

  The blue-flies at the Old Bailey are introduced only as part of a simile.
"A buzz arose in the court," I wrote, "as if a cloud of great blue-flies
were swarming about the prisoner, in anticipation of what he was soon to
become."  It is a buzz of excited conversation, of course, but in the
previous chapter I had written of public executions at Tyburn, decreed at
the Old Bailey.  I brought before my reader's inner eye the very spectacle
of execution.  And Darnay's case is a capital one.  Carrion flies seem
fairly to represent the brutality of the justice dispensed by the Old Bailey
in the eighteenth century, and for much of my own day.
  The whiteness of the figure beneath the carriage allies him with spectres,
with the stone heads of the chateau, and with the lifeless figure of Marquis
himself.  That is to say, the figure's appearance evokes the world of the
restless and tormented dead, and lifelessness itself.
  You yourself explain the significance of the coming storm.
  It is not possible for me to say what occurred first in my imagination.
Certainly a story detachable from the French Revolution shaped itself in my
mind, though it was the story of Sydney Carton's love and self-sacrifice
rather than that of the love of Lucie and Charles Darnay.  I also felt the
need to write of the Revolution, as a warning to readers of how such an
upheaval could happen in England, were the needs of the dispossessed not
heeded.  These two impulses blended imperceptibly in my mind.  You are right
in supposing that I found Mr Carlyle's book of great assistance.

Faithfully yours,


Charles Dickens

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____

>Dear Mr. Dickens,
>     I have been reading A tale of Two Cities and I am still confused by
>various graphic symbols throughout the novel: the blue flies searching
>for carrion in the Old Bailey (courthouse), the spectre-white dust
>covering the figure hidden under the coach, the statues (gargoyles) at
>the Chateau of the Marquis and the dark storm gathering over Dr.
>Mannette's house which was to burst over Paris (this last one I see as
>the inevitable onslaught from the third estate). Please explain to me
>what these symbols mean. Also, when you wrote A Tale of Two Cities, I
>understand you studied the French Revolution beforehand (and referred to
>your friend Thomas Carlyle's Book?). Did you intend to follow the true
>occurrences of the French Revolution exactly, or did you plan a
>"love-story" first and then decide to follow the general pattern of the
>French Revolution as a background? Thank You very much.
>                               Sincerely,
>                                    E.Che.
>
>______________________________________________________
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======================
Charles Dickens
charles_dickens@rmplc.co.uk
Author