Crossing Borders
In A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens uses many forms of boundaries and barriers to
prevent people from showing their emotions to loved ones. In the novel, these barriers are
crossed during the growth of characters, both literally and figuratively. Crossing borders is first
depicted when Dickens’ reflects upon truly knowing someone, again when foreshadowing future
outcomes, and lastly in the emotional barrier that resides within them all.
Dickens manipulates the idea of physical and emotional barriers throughout the novel,
forcing the reader to question what is truly known by the people around us, especially the ones
we love. This theme is first shown in Chapter 3 (The Night Shadow), as it begins within the
people we love, for “every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery
to every other” (Dickens 15). Dickens analyzes a concept of clustered city life, where thousands
of people reside in houses next to each other and each of those houses has the beating heart of a
specific being that no one else can understand. Dickens’ displays crossing borders by preventing
the people from showing their emotions to loved ones, leading to a sense of never truly knowing
the hearts of the people that surround you. The characters of A Tale of Two Cities cross personal
borders by experiencing the people around them, although there will always be an impenetrable
emotional barrier.
In Chapter 5 (The Wine Shop) Dickens foreshadows the massive amount of blood shed in
the upcoming revolution by showing the starving people sipping wine from the streets, who are
now covered in red. Charles Dickens explains that “the time was to come, when that wine too
would be spilled on the street-stones, and when the stain of it would be red u...
