A Tale of Two Cities
IRP by Chris Capezzuto
Similarities and differences between the movie and book: Themes, Conflicts, Settings, and more
In the beginning of the movie, it begins with a scene where Marquis St. Evremonde chucks a coin at Caspard, a peasant, as compensation for accidently killing his baby with his carriage; the then famous opening words are spoken "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times". In the book, this scene does not appear until "Book 2"; however, the director (Ralph Thomas) may have chosen to start with this scene as a visual example of how hard it was during the era of the French Revolution using characters that would later become essential to the development of the plot. In this same scene in the book, a coin that is tossed on the ground by Marquis St. Evremonde is thrown back at his carriage as he rides away by an unknown hand (possibly Madame Defarge). However, in the movie, it is clearly portrayed that Monsieur Defarge is the one who throws the coin at the carriage. The director may have changed this because of the ambiguity of the coin thrower in the book.
Similarities and differences between the movie and book: Themes, Conflicts, Settings, and more
When Gaspard is finally caught for killing Marquis St. Evremonde, he is hung infront of a crowd by a fountain. In both the movie and the book, the essence of the main themes of the book are shown here, namely those of water, time, and the ferocious nature of the mob. Gaspard is killed over a fountain, as his son was; this will inspire the revolutionaries to create their own sea and reach out for fountains of blood. Water is used in both the movie and book as a symbol for the growing rage of the peasant crowd. Although in the movie Gaspard is not hanged over a fountain, in the book he is, being described as being hanged there "forty feet high—and is left hanging, poisoning the water". The poisoning of the water of the fountain represents the bitter impact of Gaspard's execution on the collective feeling of the peasant crowd, who is getting increasingly unhappy with the times. By this removal of the true impact of Gaspard's death in the movie (choosing not to include a fountain in the scene for water), it affects the overall meaning of the play because such a vital representation of increasing hostilities of the peasants is not as accurately displayed in the movie as the book, so the development of the plot is hindered.