Light and Dark setting the Tone

Charles Dickens uses light and dark to set the tone of hopefulness and a happy future for Lucie and Dr. Manette’s relationship in the A Tale of Two Cities. Firstly, When Lucie first walks in the room, Dickens describes her using the word light, “…on her fair young face that it looked as though she passed like a moving light” (Dickens 32). This foreshadows how important Lucie is going to be to her father. At this point in the book, Dr. Manette didn’t even know if the baby was a boy or a girl or if he/she even lived into adulthood. The usage of the word light when describing Lucie sets the tone of hopefulness because Lucie is going to be there for her dad and help her dad get out of his state of darkness or depression after he was falsely accused of a crime and out into jail for 18 years by the aristocracy. Another time when Dickens used light and darkness is also when they first walked into the room. “…they gradually forced themselves into the room and through the blackness that had fallen on them” (Dickens 32). In this moment it is the first time that Lucie had ever seen her father and she was afraid on the travels to France, that her father wouldn’t be the same person he was before he was in jail. Dickens’s symbolizes Dr. Manette as darkness because he is depressed and on the edge of insanity. At this moment he still doesn’t even know that this is his daughter. The last way Dickens uses this to set the tone is when he is describing her hair. When Dickens is describing her hair he isn’t directly stating that her hair is the light but her hair can be used as a symbol for the light in Dr. Manette’s and Lucie’s relationship. “Her golden hair, which she wore in long curls, had been hurriedly pushed aside…” (Dickens 33). This definitely sets the tone of hopefulness because Dr. Manette finally pieces together the pieces when he recollects his wife’s hair and the distinct similarity to the woman sitting in front of him. After he says this, he takes off a necklaces that has a lock of hair in it, a golden piece almost identical to Lucie’s hair. The word golden can be synonymous to light in some ways and has a significance in Lucie and her father’s relationship because there is so much light between Lucie and his memories of his wife, Lucie’s mother, that you can see a happy future and is hopeful that Lucie can help pull her father out of his depression. Therefore the use of light and dark create a strong tone of hope and happiness in this chapter. There is a light at the end of the tunnel for Dr. Manette and with the help of his daughter the tunnel is a lot shorter and the light is a lot closer.