A Tale of Two Cities · Chapter
X: The Substance of the Shadow explained
Doctor Manette's written account, composed in his Bastille cell in 1767, is read aloud at Darnay's trial.
What happens
Doctor Manette's written account, composed in his Bastille cell in 1767, is read aloud at Darnay's trial. It reveals how he was secretly taken to attend a dying peasant woman and her brother, both victims of the Evrémonde brothers. The younger brother had raped the woman and killed her husband; the boy was fatally wounded trying to avenge his sister. After the woman died, Manette wrote a letter to authorities, which the Marquis intercepted. Manette was then abducted and imprisoned for eighteen years without trial. The document ends with his denunciation of the Evrémonde family. The reading inflames the tribunal and crowd, leading to Darnay's unanimous conviction and death sentence within twenty-four hours.
Themes in this chapter
Resurrection and Renewal
Doctor Manette's manuscript, hidden in the Bastille and later unearthed, symbolizes a resurrection of buried truth that destroys Darnay.
Vengeance vs. Justice
The reading of Manette's denunciation transforms a judicial proceeding into a bloodthirsty demand for revenge, overriding any notion of fair trial.
Fate and History
The document from 1767 inexorably shapes the present, showing how past crimes dictate the fate of descendants.
Class and Privilege
The Evrémonde brothers' abuse of power over peasants is exposed, and Darnay is condemned as an aristocrat regardless of his personal character.
Characters to notice
- Doctor Manette
His written narrative from the Bastille is read in court, revealing his abduction and imprisonment by the Evrémonde brothers.
- Charles Darnay
Identified as the nephew of the Marquis Evrémonde and condemned to death based on Manette's denunciation.
- Madame Defarge
Smiles to The Vengeance as the verdict is delivered, satisfied that the doctor's testimony seals Darnay's fate.
- Monsieur Defarge
Implied to have kept the document secret until the opportune moment; present at the trial.
- Lucie Manette
Doctor Manette's daughter; her husband Darnay is condemned, making her a widow and her child an orphan according to the President's words.
- The Vengeance
Addressed by Madame Defarge during the trial, sharing in the crowd's vengeful excitement.
- Monseigneur
The elder Evrémonde brother, referred to as the Marquis in Manette's narrative; his family is denounced.
- Jacques
Implied as part of the revolutionary crowd and tribunal that unanimously convicts Darnay.
Key passages
“I, Alexandre Manette, unfortunate physician, native of Beauvais, and afterwards resident in Paris, write this melancholy paper in my doleful cell in the Bastille, during the last month of the year, 1767.”
Doctor Manette begins his account, written in the Bastille in December 1767.
Establishes the origin and date of the document that condemns Darnay.
“The narrative called up the most revengeful passions of the time, and there was not a head in the nation but must have dropped before it.”
The story ignited the crowd's thirst for vengeance, making any accused person doomed.
Highlights the inflammatory effect of Manette's manuscript on the revolutionary audience.
“Unanimously voted. At heart and by descent an Aristocrat, an enemy of the Republic, a notorious oppressor of the People. Back to the Conciergerie, and Death within four-and-twenty hours!”
The jury unanimously finds Darnay guilty, sentencing him to death within twenty-four hours.
Concludes the chapter with Darnay's condemnation and imminent execution.
