0.2 Book report on 'a tale of two cities'  (Page 2/5)

In these eighteen years the World had considerably changed. The political map of France was rapidly changing. In this period the personal life of Dr. Mannette had also considerably changed.

During the Medieval period of Feudalism the development of commodity production and the subsequent development of commerce and their needs had led to renaissance movement in Europe. In the Fifteenth Century, the invention of printing press by German Mechanic Gutenberg had acted as the main motive force for renaissance movement. Mercantile Commerce and the Colonial expansion of Spain , Portugal, Holland , France , and England had put a great premium on Science and Technology . All these changes and developments had given birth to Mercantile Capitalism and petty-bourgeoisie class. For unfettered growth of commerce and trade, petty bourgeoisie had established the Third Estate and Urban Republic in pockets of their influence and authority.

The invention of steam engine by James Watt laid the foundations of Large Scale Production and Industrial Capitalism. In Germany Junker Princes, in Japan Meiji Oligarchs , in USA Democratic Party under the leadership of George Washington and in France the Jacobin Party under the enlightened petty bourgeoisie class led the old Democratic Revolution in their respective countries.

Some historians are of the opinion that had the Moorish Tribesmen succeeded in uniting whole of Europe under the Islamic banner then the Industrial Revolution and the old Democratic Revolution would have been prepond by thousand years .

The rallying call of the old democratic revolution was :Equality, Liberty and Fraternity.

We come back to the French scene. In France the royalists whose political representative was Girondists were progressively being isolated among the broad masses of people. King Louis XVI and the queen Marie Antoinette were leading an ostentatious and extravagant life completely isolated from the reality. The isolation was so complete that when the queen was told about the deprivation and starvation of the people she used to make the following unhistorical and unholy utterance.

“If the starving masses donot have bread to eat then let them have cakes and biscuits”.

Based on the disaffection of the people, the petty bourgeoisie Jacobin party was constantly expanding its mass base.

Defarge family which had given shelter to Dr. Mannette was an active political group working with full heart and mind for the Jacobins. The brother of Madame Defarge had already eliminated the rapist of his sister who had died earlier under the treatment of Dr. Mannette. Meanwhile Madame Defarge had taken the ominous vow of eliminating the royal family related to the rapist.

At the time Dr. Manatee had been put in jail 18 years earlier he had left behind a wife and a suckling daughter named Lucie Mannette. The agony of separation and injustice had brought early demise of Mrs. Mannette . As a consequence the responsibility of nurture and grooming of the suckling child fell on her governess and the family lawyer ,Mr. Larry.