The Storm Called Life

It was really hard for me to get into A Tale of Two Cities when I first started reading it.  Most modern books tend to grab your interest and attention within the first chapter, if not in the first sentence.  This book, on the other hand, didn't have me drawn in until I was well past half-way through it.

As I began to immerse myself in it, though, I discovered something that I really love about Dickens' writing.  He likes to give you these great little insights into human nature and morality that are really just side-notes to the story at hand.  He gives them in just a few sentences, a paragraph at most.  They are powerful insights, because they are true.  For me, each one was either an, "Oh, I had never thought of that before," moment, or a, "Yeah, I've just learned that recently.  That's a really great way of expressing it," moment.

As I've read A Tale of Two Cities, I've marked each of these ideas that have stood out to me.  Over the next day or two I will post about them.  Here is the first:

Manette has just been reunited with his daughter.  He is beginning to be "recalled to life," drawn out of his insanity, by her presence, and he is weeping in her arms.

"When the quiet of the garret had been long undisturbed, and his heaving breast and shaken form had long yielded to the calm that must follow all storms--emblem to humanity, of the rest and silence into which the storm called Life must hush at last--they came forward to raise the father and daughter from the ground."  (A Tale of Two Cities, Book 1, Chapter VI)

Isn't that beautiful?  I interpret this as Dickens testifying to the fact that there is always a calm after a storm and pointing out that this is type or shadow of the calm and rest that will surely come after this life.  It also attests to the fact that this life is a storm, a trial, contains hardships and struggles.

When you juxtapose this paragraph with the coming resolution to the book, it is inspiring.  Carton's life has certainly been one of the stormiest.  He is to be pitied.  But his choice to sacrifice himself for another is a happy one, where he will finally be entering into his rest, both physically and spiritually.  His conscience can finally rest, knowing that he has done something worthwhile with his life.

(Much more to be said on that, but it will have to wait!)

Image: Jennifer Ellison / FreeDigitalPhotos.net