The Age, Epoch and Season

In Chapter 1, The Period, Dickens sets the historical context for the story, but he does it in a very general way. He succeeds in conveying the sense that this is an age of extremes. "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...so begins the novel. Dickens continues the periodization by introducing the respective monarchs of England and France; the kings are both described as having a large jaw and Charlotte Sophia is descibed as the queen with the "plain face", Marie-Antoinette the queen with the "fair face". The year, we are told, is 1775, eighty-four years before the ToTC is published. Dickens makes mention of the Cock Lane Ghost, popular with writers of the Victorian era, including Herman Melville and featured in engravings by Hogarth. In describing the situation in France Dickens makes use of the word tumbrils (also spelled tumbrels), two-wheeled dungcarts used to carry prisoners to the guillotine during the French Revolution. The situation Dickens paints of England is only marginally better than that of pre-revolutionary France. He attacks the state of order and protection, echoing the "seasons" of light and dark in the opening sentences of the book, declaring "the highwayman in the dark was a City tradesman in the light". The extent of the problem is manifested in "that magnificent potentate", the Lord Mayor of London, who "was made to stand and deliver on Turnham Green" (originally a village on the main road between London and the West). In the backdrop of this portrait, stand the Woodman and the Farmer, allegorical representations of Fate and Death respectively.