illustration of a guillotine

A Tale of Two Cities

by Charles Dickens

Start Free Trial

Discussion Topic

Dr. Manette's Dehumanizing French Prison Experience in A Tale of Two Cities

Summary:

Dr. Manette's captivity in A Tale of Two Cities profoundly dehumanizes him, leaving lasting physical and psychological scars. Imprisoned unjustly for exposing the crimes of the aristocratic Evrémonde family, Manette spends 18 years in the harsh conditions of the Bastille, losing his sense of identity and humanity. His mind becomes fragmented, and he frequently reverts to shoemaking, a habit formed to preserve sanity. His voice is faint and his demeanor mechanical, reflecting his detachment from reality and the enduring impact of his imprisonment.

Expert Answers

An illustration of the letter 'A' in a speech bubbles

What details show the dehumanizing effects of Dr. Manette’s captivity?

As a result of his fourteen years in captivity, Dr. Manette has, indeed, aged. In addition, he has also developed a certain disorientation with time and circumstance.  For instance, when Mr. Lorry and Lucie Manette arrive, he does not comprehend that he "has a visitor." He looks up momentarily, then resumes his habitual action of shoemaking. Dickens writes,

The task of recalling him from the vacancy into which he always sank when he had spoken, was like recalling some very weak person from a swoon, or endeavouring, in the hope of some disclosure, to stay the spirit of a fast-dying man.

When Manette does commit some action, in the "midst of the action he went astray."  His mind wanders into the vacancy in which it has been kept so long.  After he is brought back to London and lives with his loving daughter, Charles Darnay wishes to ask permission to marry Lucie.  In an...

Unlock
This Answer Now

Start your 48-hour free trial and get ahead in class. Boost your grades with access to expert answers and top-tier study guides. Thousands of students are already mastering their assignments—don't miss out. Cancel anytime.

Get 48 Hours Free Access

attempt to be forthright Darnay begins to reveal his true identity, but Manette stays him, telling Darnay to reveal his secret on the wedding day.  When Darnay does so, poor Dr. Manette pulls out the shoemaking tools and recommences his habitual task.  As he does so, he again becomes disorientated, losing a sense of time:

He had laid aside his coat and wastcoat; his shirt was open at the throat...and even the old haggard, faded surface of face had come back to him.

When Mr. Lorry tries to pull him back to reality, asking him to look at him, Manette does so, but

in the old mechanically submissive manner, without pausing in his work. 

Manette continues working on the shoe that, he says, "ought to have been finished long ago."  Even later in the narrative, when Manette gets better and bravely travels to London to plea on behalf of his son-in-law, Charles Evremonde, he does not grasp the true nature of the situation in Paris.  Truly, Dr. Manette's experience of being imprisoned for fourteen years has left its mark upon him in A Tale of Two Cities.

Approved by eNotes Editorial
An illustration of the letter 'A' in a speech bubbles

How was Dr. Manette's experience in French prison in A Tale of Two Cities?

Dr. Alexandre Manette’s life in French prison is miserable and unjust. A casualty of class warfare, he is imprisoned in the infamous Bastille for daring to expose the truth about the wickedness of rich and powerful aristocrats. The irredeemably vile Evrémonde Brothers seize Dr. Manette’s letter to the Minister of State that would have revealed their sins, and they lock him away for eighteen painful years.

While under confinement, the doctor is restricted to dark, damp quarters where human waste and infectious diseases run amok. He often suffers from hunger and exhaustion and loneliness, constantly battling for his sanity and humanity. He refuses to become a zombie, one of the “living dead.”

Dr. Manette is a man of strong will and conviction, but even the toughest men can break down in the face of such physical, emotional, and psychological torture. The doctor’s saving graces during this arduous ordeal are the love and loyalty of his daughter Lucie, his adopting the craft of shoemaking, and his ability to forgive, not holding the sins of the father and uncle against Charles Darnay.

The difficulties experienced by Charles Dickens’s own father while incarcerated in debtor’s prison when Dickens was a child greatly influenced his depictions of Dr. Manette’s prison sentence.

References

Approved by eNotes Editorial
An illustration of the letter 'A' in a speech bubbles

What details in "A Tale of Two Cities" suggest the dehumanizing effects of Dr. Manette's captivity?

Of the many personal qualities that detail the dehumaninizing effects of captivity on Dr. Manette, the first that stands out is the faintness of his voice. This reflects the hopelessness about being "heard" by anyone. His eyes are "haggard" and look up with a "dull mechanical perception." He has a "vacant air" devoid of life and joy and love of life. His clothes are "tattered" and he is seemingly unaware of his ability to exist for a purpose other than working on shoes. His manner of speech is fragmented and interrupted by long pauses which illustrate his disconnectedness from human contact and dignified expression. The overall tone of Chapter Six is saturated with the barren details of what captivity does to the human will and soul.

Approved by eNotes Editorial
An illustration of the letter 'A' in a speech bubbles

In the chapter entitled "The Shoemaker", there are several indications that Dr. Manette's captivity has been dehumanizing.  The most significant is revealed when he is asked his name and responds with "One Hundred and Five, North Tower". His captivity has robbed him of his identity and left him with his location as his only claim.  Another indication of his lost humanity is his inability to answer questions.  When asked if he will finish the shoe he is working on, he does not know.  When asked what kind of shoe he is making, he forgets the questions before he can answer it.  When asked if he can bare more light, he resignedly responds that he must if more light is let in. In all cases, he reveals an inability to hold basic conversation, display intelligence, or share his personal opinion. Those who care for him as he leaves prison, specifically his daughter, must initially treat him as a child because his ability to deal with anything more is gone. The author tells us that he acted "in the submissive way of one long accustomed to obey under coercion". His imprisonment had, for a time, taken his intelligence, opinions, physical strength, and most importantly, his will.

Approved by eNotes Editorial
An illustration of the letter 'A' in a speech bubbles

What details show Dr. Manette's changes due to captivity in A Tale of Two Cities?

It is clear from Chapter Six of Book the First that the long years of captivity have had an incredibly negative impact on the life of Dr. Manette, as this chapter shows that he has lost all sense of his former identity, and indeed of having any identity at all apart from being known as "One Hundred and Five, North Tower," and mending shoes. Note the first description we are given of him as Monsieur Defarge leads Mr. Lorry and Lucie Manette into his room:

The faintness of the voice was pitiable and dreadful. It was not the faintness of physical weakness, though confinement and hard fare no doubt had their part in in it. Its deplorable peculiarity was, that it was the faintness of solitude and disuse. It was like the last feeble echo of a sound made long and long ago. So entirely had it lost the life and resonance of the human voice, that it affected the senses like a once beautiful colour faded away into a poor weak stain. So sunken and suppressed it was, that it was like a voice underground. So expressive it was, of a hopeless and lost creature, that a famished traveller, wearied out by lonely wandering in a wilderness, would have remembered home and friends in such a tone before lying down to die.

Note how this barrage of description presents Dr. Manette as being literally a shadow of his former self. He has not used his voice much at all, and his voice is compared to being a once vibrant colour that is now nothing more than a pale "weak stain." His voice is reminiscent of death and abandonment. The way in which he has no memory of being anything else than a prisoner and a mender of shoes clearly shows the way that his captivity has impacted him mentally as well as physically, reducing him to nothing more than a pair of "haggard eyes" and a weak, frail, old man. It is only the love and care of his daughter that manages to resurrect him, bringing him metaphorically back to life, as Mr. Lorry's cryptic message explains.

Approved by eNotes Editorial