Humanism In A Tale Of Two Cities

As one of the greatest critical realists in the Victorian period, Charles Dickens shows his solicitude for and deeply commiserates with the poor populace. His works, which include A Tale of Two Cities, mainly attempt to expose and criticize the poverty, injustice, hypocrisy and degeneration in the Nineteenth-Century British society. Regarding A Tale of Two Cities, this thesis intends to probe into Dickens’ existentialist humanist thought in the aforementioned historical novel, by employing Sartre’s existentialist philosophy.The principal belief of Sartre’s existentialism is that existence precedes essence, with its key concepts containing absurdity and pain of life, freedom of choice, responsibility, subjectivity and transcendence, as well as his existentialist humanism. In Sartre’s opinion, in face of absurdity and agony in life, people are nevertheless capable of bringing their subjective initiative into full play, courageously making their freedom of choices, taking actions and bearing the resultant responsibilities. Through their own actions in life, people, with no predetermined human nature at birth, constantly transcend themselves and fulfill their own dreams, thus defining their own essence. Thus, Sartre proclaims that his existentialism is also of humanism.Accordingly, this thesis will adopt Sartre’s existentialist philosophy, elaborating upon the absurdity and agony, freedom of choice, responsibility, subjectivity and transcendence. In all, this thesis consists of five parts. To begin with, Introduction includes a brief introduction of Dickens, literature review pertinent to A Tale of Two Cities, and a synopsis of Sartre’s existentialist philosophy.The main body of this thesis is comprised of three chapters:Chapter One centers on the absurdity and painful life of people both in the fictional British and French societies.Chapter Two focuses on the freedom of choices and the relevant responsibilities of the main characters, who are Charles Darney, Dr. Manette, Sydney Carton and Madame Defarge.Chapter Three explores the subjectivity and transcendence of the afore-mentioned characters.The last part of this thesis points out that Sartre’s existentialist philosophy provides a new perspective on the study of A Tale of Two Cities, and concludes that this thesis finally achieves to unveil Charles Dickens’ existentialist humanism in A Tale of Two Cities by studying the absurdity and agony of life, freedom of choice, subjectivity and transcendence. Besides, this thesis adds that Dickens humanist thought unveiled in A Tale of Two Cities sets a good example for the contemporary world, in which tragedy still lingers. It is hoped that people would brave their freedom of choices and take actions beneficial to the whole society. With the guidance of humanist thought, this world would become more harmonious, where people would live a more blissful life.