A Study Of The Narrative Voices In A Tale Of Two Cities

Charles Dickens(1812-1870) is one of the most prominent novelists in British literature history, and he is quite famous for his humorous language and vivid portrayal of the characters. A Tale of Two Cities, created in his late period of his literature life, however, is not so Dickensian style like his other works, but it still enjoys great popularity throughout the world because of its excellent narrative skills and exquisite arrangement of the plots.Through the related theories of Narratology, especially the theories of Gérard Genette and Wayne C. Booth, this thesis tries to analyze the narrative voices in A Tale of Two Cities. The narrative voice in this novel includes two aspects, the voice of the omniscient narrator and the voices of the characters. The dominant omniscient narrator distributed his narrative voice to four aspects, the voice in providing background information, which involves two parts, voices in describing social environment and voice in describing characters' condition; voice in setting up the all-around mysterious suspense; voice in revealing the characters' psychological activities and the overt commentary voice. In the characters' voices, Mr. Lorry was a confidant to this family, his voice on the one hand guaranteed the processing of the narration when the omniscient narrator withdrew his voice, on the other hand it also showed his impartial personality. As a key character, Sydney Carton's changing of his voice from “self-flung away” to self-redemption involved the changing of his attitude towards life. Madame Defarge's voice was filled with hatred, her voice represented the voices of many low-class people who were being oppressed. As the author's second self, the implied author expressed his value norm through the narrative voices,the value norms of the omniscient narrator and the implied author are basically identical, therefore, the narrator can be seen as a reliable narrator. Besides, the implied author's irony towards the revolution is also expressed through the narrative voices.Although the interpretation of A Tale of Two Cities with various theories has never stopped, the application of related narrative theories on the narrative voices has not been done, it is expected that this paper is a beneficial attempt and would provide readers a new angle in reading this novel to further draw forth more comprehensive interpretations of this novel from various perspectives.