After testifying successfully on behalf of Charles Darnay
and effecting his son-in-law's freedom, Dr. Manette is in danger of fainting because the
crowd that rushes toward him with fraternal embraces could just as easily have rushed at
him "to rend him to pieces and strew him over the streets." Nevertheless, he is put
into a great chair and carried above the crowd. As his daughter lays her head upon his
chest, the doctor is glad that he has been able to return her a great favor just as she
has rescued him:
Her father, cheering her, showed a compassionate
superiority to this woman's weakness, which was wonderful to see. No garret, no
shoemaking, no One Hundred and Five, North Tower, now! He had accomplished the task he
had set himself, his promise was redeemed, he had saved Charles. Let them all lean upon
him.
With the recurring theme
of resurrection in A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens here
portrays a man who has had his manhood and moral strength renewed. Manette feels, too,
that his years of imprisonment have served some good in saving his son-in-law from the
guillotine.
In Chapter 7 of Book the Third, when there is
a knock on their door and Lucie is frightened, the doctor chides
her,
...command yourself....The least
thing--nothing--startles you. You, your father's daughter....What
weakness is this, my dear! Let me go to the
door.
When the
revolutionaries summon again Charles Darnay, Dr. Manette takes one by the front of his
woolen shirt and bravely asks him, "Do you know me?" He demands to know who has
denounced Darnay and is able to obtain the information that the Defarges do, but the man
will not reveal "the other."
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