Analyse how Dickens uses parallelism to state themes that might be developed in A Tale of Two Cities.The opening paragraph of A Tale of Two Cities...

You are right in identifying parallelism as a major
stylistic tool that is employed in this incredible novel. The main conflicts of the
novel are referred to in the famous opening chapter, that draws our attentions to the
strange dichotomy of the times:

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It was the best of times, it was the worst of
times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of
belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season
of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of
despair...

You might want to
think how such opposition is created by the way that characters are matched against each
other and also events repeat themselves. For example, Charles Darnay and Syndey Carter
are doubles of each other, with Charles Darnay representing the goodness that Syndey
Carter seems unable to find within himself until the final pages of the novel. Equally,
both Dr. Manette and Madame Defarge are victims of the French aristocracy. Charles
Darnay suffers two trials in the pages of the novel, one where he is charged as a
traitor of Britain, the other when he is charged as a traitor of France. Lucie is
opposed to Madame Defarge, who, towards the end of the novel, increasingly
psychologically dominates her. And lastly, of course, lest we forget the title, this is
a tale of two cities and how both effect each other. Doubles or matches abound in the
novel, and parallelism is established as a manner of introducing conflict and
highlighting themes.