A triumphant opening

A world of magic may be associated with tremendous excess of joy, inexplicable to the core. Surprises keep coming your way left right and centre and every single trick causes an epiphanic gasp. A tale of two cities, if not more, appears not less to be the work of an enchanter. Every single word is a stroke of the divine, expressing a metaphor, personification, pun, paradox or a simple yet utterly complex reality. The opening lines are the utmost evidence of Charles Dickens masterly strokes. The various themes and concerns that one should expect to be dealt with in the course of the novel have in fact been pointed out in the opening line.

Best of times and worst of times signal towards how the novel will be revolving around extreme scenarios as polarized in their characteristics as the class structure of that era. Age of wisdom and foolishness also echoes the intellectual and rational progression and corrosion of the time again very relevant to the class structure (in fact a by-product of the hauntingly strict binary between the classes). With the words belief and incredulity, Light and Darkness Dickens takes on a metaphysical journey delving into spiritual inquires. Much of the content of the novel in fact lays on moral judgments, evoking the right-wrong or good-evil question with the contrasts in France and England. The mention of going to heaven and going direct the other way confirms that Dickens will be investigating into matters extraordinary and encompassing every dimension of a citizen of that space and time.

The spring of hope, the winter of despair also is strategically positioned to highlight a nuance. From wisdom and foolishness to offer a comparison of hope and despair with the aid of seasons hints towards the role of nature and some sort of divine planning for the two nations. Like glory that was inevitable and a consequential downfall that too would be unprecedented. A more alternate understanding of  the ‘noisiest authorities’ could be a reference to the cussing around with the printing money, the fresh industrialization and the general madness with growing consumerism.

Just as any literary work has an opening worth deeper studying, so does this one. But the air of paradox present shows the wailing of the lower class that finds itself unable to express their gloom by means of ordinary and implicit expression and have to find means of being omnipresent in winter and spring, noise and silence.