A Tale of Two Cities - Suspense and Mystery

A detailed Summary of A Tale of Two Cities - Suspense and Mystery


Throughout the novel A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens creates suspense and mystery to try to keep his readers interested. This technique might have worked for 19th century people with nothing better to read, but it doesn't stack up nowadays. You can paint this anyway you want but what it all comes down to is that no 20th century person with any kind of attention span wants to read a 400 page book with one dimensional characters and an unbelievable storyline. But, Dickens's original audience couldn't get enough of the novel's intricate plot filled with suspense and mystery. To get the novel this suspense and mystery, Dickens's divides his story into episodes, allows his characters to be general, and uses the theme of doubles.

The most obviously way that Dickens's creates suspense is through his use of cliffhanger-like episodes. I can't exactly call it clever, but Dickens's ends a chapter with unanswered quest


wasn't beautiful in fiction. Charles is a rich aristocrat, and we're supposed to believe that he's good and really noble because he didn't want to kill people and he married the other "good" character. Please. Do you think that Charles would have given Lucie a chance is she looked like the rest of us even though she was so good-hearted? Of course not, but that's what we are supposed to believe. Lucie and Charles are so stereotyped and boring that Dickens's should have named them "Snore" and "Snooze." Dickens's under developed characters lets readers wonder about what they are really like and what they'll do next.

resemblance comes in handy is when Carton decides that dying will make his only love happy, when in reality Lucie would be just as upset over his death as if Darnay had died.

Dickens tries to create mystery by having his characters as broad as possible so that readers can make up their own opinions and

Some common words found in the essay are:
Charles Dickens, Lucie Carton, Charles Lucie, Snooze Dickens's, Lucie Charles, Darnay Carton, suspense mystery, theme doubles, , lucie charles, 20th century, creates suspense, charles lucie, throughout novel, supposed believe,

Approximate Word count = 624
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

join now Save Paper

Related Essays

  • Tale of Two cities ... character of Sydney Carton in ampquotA Tale of Two Citiesampquot A Tale of Two Cities has long ... let his readeramp39s minds wonder, thus creating some kind of suspense and/or ... 842 words
  • Tale of Two Cities 2 ... Tale of Two Cities is a very long and ... It is my opinion that the major strength of this book was the suspense and drama involved to keep the reader hooked. ... 1413 words
  • tale of two cities ... Tale of Two Cities is a very long and ... It is my opinion that the major strength of this book was the suspense and drama involved to keep the reader hooked. ... 1348 words


Saved Paper

Save your papers so you can locate them quickly!

Newest Essays

Testimonials

  • "Thank You So Much!!! You have saved me once again!!!"
    Jack M.
  • "With so many papers to chose from, I was able to get ideas to help me with all of my classes. Thank You!"
    Brian P.
  • "I've used this site for the last 3 years to help me come up with ideas for my papers."
    Sara J.
  • "I use this site every week to help me write my own papers!"
    Rachel W.
  • "I love this site!!!"
    Marie N.
Home Join Now Support
Acceptable Use Policy About us FAQ
All papers are for research and reference purposes only!
© 2002-2009 DirectEssays.com. All Rights Reserved.