People find light in the darkest times and in the darkest environments surrounding them. In the darkest situation, light is found through a person or a thing. Doctor Manette, Lucie’s father, is released from the prison in Bastille and comes out as an insane person. Charles Darnay is the husband of Lucie and denounces his name because of the crime his uncle and father have done as members of the aristocrats. Sydney Carton is a rich man who resurrects himself to save Charles Darnay from the guillotine. In Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities, the light is found even in a cell-like compartment in the wine shop, in a courtroom full of injustice during Darnay’s first trial, in the darkest part of people’s lives, and in the mind of Sydney Carton as he dies.

Doctor Manette comes out of the prison in Bastille as a dark, insane person, but the light in Lucie makes him life for a purpose. To keep him from going insane, the Defarges keep him in a locked room with little light. He lives in the cell-like room with the thought of his living his life lonely because he thinks his wife and his daughter are both dead. When he sees Lucie for the first time in the jail-like cell in the Defarge’s wine shop, he is amazed at the resemblance of Lucie to her mother. His seeing the golden locks of hair on her head makes Doctor Manette thinks that Lucie is her mother. The soothing voice of Lucie makes “[Doctor Manette have] some pleasure in the mere sound” of it (36). Lucie’s voice calms her father down. She is seen as a light, which is lighting up the darkness of the past of her father’s life. The memories of the dark prison in Bastille haunt Doctor Manette, but he has his daughter to care for him in his insane condition. The voice of Lucie keeps him from remembering the suffering he has gone through during his imprisonment. Even through the memories of dark times in the prison in Bastille haunt him, Doctor Manette has a light, Lucie, to help make the present happier.

Charles Darnay has loved Lucie from the first time he is saved from the death sentence by her. About a year after the trial of Darnay for treason, he travels to the house of the Manettes to apologize the fact that Lucie does not marry him even though he loves her. He knows that “he [has] loved Lucie Manette from the hour of his danger” and wants to marry her (99). The courtroom he is tried in is filled with darkness because of the injustice in the court system. The darkness seems to overshadow the light inside of him, but he finds Lucie Manette as the light and the only completely pure person in the courtroom. During the dark trial, Darnay falls in love with Lucie. This becomes the light of Darnay’s dark trial because his love for her in the time of his danger leads to his temporary forgetting of the amount of darkness surrounding him. The light of Lucie’s pureness overcomes Darnay’s fear of the death sentence.

The golden thread is the only thing the Manettes and Charles Darnay look for to keep their lives going. Lucie Manette weaves lives together through the delicate golden thread, and she weaves the lives of Doctor Manette, Charles Darnay, and herself together to form strong ties between each individual’s lives. The golden thread “that [binds] them all together, weaving the service of her happy influence through the tissue of all their lives, and making it predominate nowhere…” makes the lives of Lucie, Doctor Manette, and Charles Darnay brighter (162). The revolution worsens the lives that are bound together through the golden thread, but the having of each other’s company and support create a light for each member to enjoy. The darkness of the revolution is caused by the peasants’ wanting revenge on the aristocrats for the oppression they have placed on the peasants before. The revolution is a dark time, but the light of the golden thread gives off some hope for the members Lucie weaves together.

Sydney Carton saves Darnay’s life by pretending to be Darnay in the prison and resurrecting himself. This is the darkest part of Carton’s life because of the darkness of the evil inside Madame Defarge and Vengeance. The light of this dark time is his seeing Lucie’s child, “who bore [his] name, [as] a man winning his way up in [the] path of life which once was [Carton’s]” (292). Carton sees Lucie’s son living the life Carton wanted to live. This gives him light thoughts about the good he is doing for Charles Darnay and Lucie Manette. He sees the light in the vision by seeing the happiness and the success of Lucie’s son in the life he wants to live before the revolution. He also “[hears Lucie’s son] tell [Lucie’s grandson Carton’s] story with a tender and faltering voice” (292). Carton knows that the story of his resurrection for Darnay is resurrected through the retelling of the story. Carton feels he is useful in letting Darnay live and resurrecting himself. He feels it is the right choice because he knows he will be resurrected through the retelling of the story of his deed through the Manette family’s later generations. The light and the happiness of the actions of Lucie’s son in the vision light up to dark situation.

No matter how dark the darkest times of people’s lives are, a light in a person or thing is found. Doctor Manette sees a light in Lucie as he comes out of the prison in Bastille as an insane person. Lucie lets him see hope in living in England with his daughter supporting him. Darnay sees light in his love towards Lucie. He loves her as she is defending him against the death sentence. The light from the love makes Darnay see the happiness and the pureness inside of Lucie. The darkness inside the courtroom is lit up by Lucie. The golden thread the Lucie weaves lives together with keeps the members of her family close together through the darkest times of the revolution. The vision Sydney Carton sees during his execution at the guillotine lights up the darkness surrounding him. The darkness is the peasants’ want of revenge for the oppression the aristocrats have given them before the French Revolution. Carton’s vision gives Carton bright thoughts that overcome the darkness situated in the peasants’ minds. People find light in the darkest times even though the darkness surrounding them is overwhelming.