A Tale of Two Cities

King of England

The unnamed king on England’s throne in 1775, described as having a large jaw.

Queen of England

The unnamed queen on England’s throne in 1775, described as having a plain face.

King of France

The unnamed king on France’s throne in 1775, described as having a large jaw.

Queen of France

The unnamed queen on France’s throne in 1775, described as having a fair face.

Mrs. Southcott

A woman whose twenty-fifth birthday and prophetic reputation are mentioned.

prophetic private in the Life Guards

An unnamed soldier who heralded Mrs. Southcott’s appearance with a prophecy about London and Westminster.

Cock-lane ghost

An unnamed ghost whose messages were reportedly heard through rapping.

youth sentenced in France

An unnamed young man executed after failing to kneel for a procession of monks.

Woodman, Fate

A personification of fate, imagined as silently marking trees for future use in the Revolution.

Farmer, Death

A personification of death, imagined as setting carts aside to become tumbrils of the Revolution.

Lord Mayor of London

The unnamed Lord Mayor, mentioned as having been robbed by a highwayman at Turnham Green.

highwayman who robbed the Lord Mayor

An unnamed highwayman who robbed the Lord Mayor in sight of his retinue.

City tradesman highwayman

Also known as the Captain

An unnamed tradesman who robs on the highway at night and shoots a fellow tradesman who recognizes him.

fellow tradesman shot by the Captain

An unnamed tradesman whom the Captain shoots after being recognized during a robbery.

Dover mail coachman

Also known as Tom

The coachman driving the Dover mail; he warns the guard when he hears a horse approaching.

Dover mail guard

Also known as Joe

The armed guard on the Dover mail, watchful for highwaymen and suspicious of the passengers.

near leader

Also known as emphatic horse

The lead horse of the Dover mail team, noted for emphatically resisting the climb up Shooter’s Hill.

Mr. Jarvis Lorry

Also known as Mr. Lorry · the passenger · the gentleman from Tellson’s Bank

A senior Tellson’s Bank employee who helps reunite Miss Manette with her father and becomes a trusted friend of the Manette family. During the Revolution, he protects them, helps arrange their escape from Paris, and safeguards Tellson’s papers there.

two other Dover mail passengers

Two unnamed travellers who share the coach with Mr. Lorry and keep their identities concealed.

Jerry

Also known as the messenger · hoarse messenger

Tellson’s messenger, sent to deliver a note to Mr. Lorry and return the answer, “Recalled to life.” He later carries news of Charles Darnay’s acquittal and accompanies Mr. Lorry to Paris.

Jerry’s mare

Also known as old lady

The muddy, exhausted horse Jerry rides to deliver the message; she shies at shadows on the road.

Doctor of Beauvais

Also known as Monsieur Manette · Mr. Manette · the shoemaker · Doctor Manette

A French doctor and Miss Manette’s father, long imprisoned and found alive in Paris, where he has become a shoemaker. After his release, he lives in London with his daughter; during the Revolution, his reputation and medical work help protect Charles Darnay, though reading his prison testimony exposes Darnay’s family history and triggers his relapse.

Miss Manette

Also known as Lucie Manette · Lucie · Ladybird

The orphaned daughter of Doctor Manette, raised in England; she reunites with her father, marries Charles Darnay, and has two children. She is devoted to her family and cared for by Miss Pross.

Doctor Manette’s wife

Also known as Miss Manette’s mother

An Englishwoman who married Doctor Manette, searched for him without success, and raised their daughter to believe her father was dead. She is described as deceased.

strong woman attending Miss Manette

A red-haired, forceful woman who accompanies Miss Manette and tends her when she faints at the news about her father.

head drawer at the Royal George Hotel

An unnamed hotel employee who opens the Dover mail coach on its arrival.

waiter at the Royal George Hotel

Also known as drawer

An unnamed hotel employee who serves Mr. Lorry and announces Miss Manette’s arrival.

Madame Defarge

Also known as Thérèse Defarge

The composed, watchful wife of Monsieur Defarge, who keeps a secret knitted register of people marked for destruction and is a committed revolutionary. She is the surviving sister of the peasant boy Doctor Manette described in his prison paper; she seeks the destruction of Darnay’s family, including Lucie and her child, and dies in a struggle with Miss Pross.

Monsieur Defarge

Also known as Jacques · Defarge · Ernest Defarge · Jacques Four

The owner of a Saint Antoine wine-shop and former servant of Doctor Manette, whose escape to England he helped arrange. A revolutionary leader, he helps storm the Bastille and later brings Charles Darnay to prison; he denounces Darnay but argues against extending the vengeance to Lucie and Doctor Manette.

Gaspard

Also known as tall joker

A tall, poverty-stricken man who jokes by writing “blood” on a wall with spilled wine. He is the father of a small child killed by the Marquis’s carriage and is later executed for killing the Marquis.

Jerry Cruncher

Also known as Mr. Cruncher · Mr. Crunches · odd-job-man · porter · honest tradesman

Tellson’s odd-job man, porter, and messenger, and the father of young Jerry. He attends Charles Darnay’s trial and secretly earns money through grave-robbing, which he calls resurrection work; he exposes Roger Cly’s fake burial.

Mrs. Cruncher

Also known as Aggerawayter

Jerry Cruncher’s orderly, religious wife, whom he accuses of praying against his prosperity and opposes for her objections to his grave-robbing.

young Jerry

Also known as Master Cruncher · Jerry Cruncher’s son

The twelve-year-old son of Jerry and Mrs. Cruncher, who helps his father at Tellson’s and watches his mother at home. He follows his father on a grave-robbing expedition and hopes to become a resurrection man.

ancient clerk at Tellson’s

Also known as old clerk · oldest of clerks

An unnamed senior clerk at Tellson’s who sends Jerry Cruncher to the Old Bailey with a note for Mr. Lorry.

door-keeper at the Old Bailey

An unnamed court door-keeper who admits Jerry Cruncher and passes Mr. Lorry the note.

man in the Old Bailey crowd

An unnamed spectator who tells Jerry Cruncher the sentence expected if the treason defendant is convicted.

Charles Darnay

Also known as Mr. Darnay · Mr. Charles Darnay · Monsieur Charles · Monsieur my nephew · Monsieur heretofore the Marquis St. Evrémonde · Evrémonde

A French-born gentleman and nephew of the Marquis who rejects his family’s oppressive system and inheritance, works as a French tutor and translator in England, and marries Lucie Manette. He returns to Paris to help Gabelle, is imprisoned as an emigrant, acquitted, then denounced and arrested again; Sydney Carton takes his place at the guillotine, enabling Darnay to escape to England with his family.

Judge at Charles Darnay’s trial

Also known as my Lord

The unnamed judge who presides over Darnay’s treason trial and directs Miss Manette to answer the questions put to her.

prisoner’s counsel

Also known as Mr. Stryver

A bold, ambitious barrister who defends Charles Darnay and later relies on Sydney Carton’s legal analysis to prepare his cases. He considers proposing to Lucie Manette, but abandons the idea after Mr. Lorry advises him that she would not accept.

John Barsad

Also known as the patriot · the unimpeachable patriot · the spy · Mr. Barsad

A supposed patriot who testifies against Darnay, spies on the Defarges, and is exposed as Solomon Pross, Miss Pross’s brother. He works as a prison spy and turnkey, has ties to the English government, and helped Roger Cly fake his death; he helps Carton exchange places with Darnay and escapes Paris with the others.

Roger Cly

Also known as the virtuous servant

Darnay’s former servant, who testifies that he found incriminating lists among Darnay’s papers. Reported dead, he actually faked his burial with John Barsad’s help.

Mr. Attorney-General

Also known as Attorney-General

The unnamed Crown prosecutor who argues for Darnay’s conviction and examines witnesses at his trial.

Mr. Solicitor-General

Also known as Solicitor-General

The unnamed Crown lawyer who examines John Barsad at Darnay’s trial.

Mr. Carton

Also known as Carton · Sydney Carton · Sydney

A dishevelled barrister who resembles Darnay and helps secure his acquittal. He loves Lucie and sacrifices his life to save Darnay, Lucie, and their child by taking Darnay’s place at the guillotine.

witness to Darnay’s presence at the garrison-town hotel

An unnamed prosecution witness who claims to have seen Darnay in a hotel coffee-room; Mr. Carton’s resemblance to Darnay undermines his identification.

George Washington

The American leader, mentioned by Darnay as a possible future historical rival in renown to George III.

Miss Pross

Also known as the wild red woman

Lucie Manette’s devoted longtime companion and former caregiver, whom Mr. Lorry first met at Dover. She runs the household, is fiercely protective of Lucie, and is Solomon’s loving sister; she kills Madame Defarge while defending the family and is left deaf by the struggle.

Solomon

Also known as Miss Pross’s brother · John Solomon · Solomon John · John Barsad · Barsad

Miss Pross’s brother, who spent her money and abandoned her. He is actually John Barsad, an Englishman working as a French prison spy and turnkey, and helps the Darnay party escape Paris.

man at the tavern

Also known as tavern man

An unnamed tavern employee whom Carton instructs to wake him at ten.

Monseigneur

Also known as Monsieur the Marquis

A powerful French marquis and one of the great lords at court, surrounded by luxury and contemptuous of the poor. His carriage kills Gaspard’s child; he is Charles Darnay’s uncle and is later found murdered in his bed, with a knife and a message signed “Jacques.” Doctor Manette identifies him as the elder of the two Evrémonde brothers who abused a peasant family.

Farmer-General

A wealthy tax farmer who has married Monseigneur’s sister and attends Monseigneur’s reception.

Monseigneur’s sister

An unnamed woman taken from a convent by Monseigneur and married to a wealthy Farmer-General.

Monseigneur’s wife

An unnamed woman who, like other members of Monseigneur’s family, looks down on the Farmer-General.

valet of the Marquis

Also known as the valet

The Marquis’s unnamed servant, who rides with him and picks up the gold coin thrown after the child is killed. He also attends the Marquis at the chateau.

Marquis’s courier

Also known as the courier

An unnamed courier who rides ahead of the Marquis’s travelling carriage and assists when the Marquis questions a road mender.

postilions of the Marquis

Two unnamed postilions who drive the Marquis’s travelling carriage.

man in a nightcap

Also known as Gaspard’s child’s father

An unnamed tall man in a nightcap whose child is killed by the Marquis’s carriage. He grieves over the child’s body and then leaves with it.

child killed by the Marquis’s carriage

Gaspard’s unnamed young child, killed when the Marquis’s carriage runs over the child at a fountain in Paris.

ragged man at the fountain

An unnamed, submissive man who tells the Marquis that the person struck by the carriage was a child.

Monsieur Gabelle

Also known as Gabelle

The village postmaster and tax official, who assists the Marquis and later faces villagers’ threats over rent and tax collection. Imprisoned in Paris, he appeals to Darnay because he had followed Darnay’s instructions to spare the people.

grizzled road mender

Also known as road mender · Jacques Five · Jacques

An unnamed road mender who reports a pale stranger clinging to the Marquis’s carriage and later recounts the stranger’s arrest and execution. In the Revolution he joins the villagers at the fountain and helps set fire to the chateau.

stranger hanging from the carriage

Also known as pale stranger

An unnamed, dust-covered man who clings to the Marquis’s carriage by its drag chain, then leaps down the hillside. He is later arrested, imprisoned, and hanged; the road mender witnesses his fate.

wife of the dead forester

Also known as woman petitioning the Marquis

An unnamed woman who petitions the Marquis for a marker bearing her dead husband’s name so his grave will not be forgotten.

dead forester

Also known as the woman’s husband

An unnamed forester, the husband of the woman who petitions the Marquis; he has died of want.

Monsieur the Marquis’s nephew

Also known as Monsieur Charles

The Marquis’s nephew, known in England as Charles Darnay, who arrives at the chateau after following him from Paris. He renounces his family’s property and name in France, condemns his family’s oppression, and intends to live by his own work in England.

surgeon consulted by Jerry Cruncher

Also known as medical adviser

An unnamed surgeon whom Jerry Cruncher visits on his way back to Tellson’s after attending Roger Cly’s funeral.

bear-leader

An unnamed popular street character who leads a bear and is pressed into Roger Cly’s funeral procession as an added spectacle.

bear in Roger Cly’s funeral procession

A black, mangy bear led in the disorderly procession to Roger Cly’s burial.

second resurrection man

Also known as second fisherman

An unnamed associate who joins Jerry Cruncher and another man on a nighttime grave-robbing expedition.

third resurrection man

Also known as third fisherman

An unnamed associate who joins Jerry Cruncher and another man on a nighttime grave-robbing expedition.

Jacques One

One of three unnamed revolutionaries who hear the road mender’s account and decide to register the Marquis’s chateau and family for destruction. He later helps lead the attack on the Bastille.

Jacques Two

One of three unnamed revolutionaries who hear the road mender’s account and help decide to mark the Marquis’s family for destruction. He later helps lead revolutionaries during the attack on the Bastille.

Jacques Three

One of three unnamed revolutionaries, restless and hungry for revenge, who hears the road mender’s account and supports the destruction of the Marquis’s family. He joins Defarge in the storming of the Bastille, the attack on Foulon, and serves on the jury that condemns Darnay.

Damiens

A prisoner who attempted to kill Louis Fifteen and was publicly tortured and executed in Paris, an event recalled by the road mender and the revolutionaries.

Louis Fifteen

Also known as Louis XV

The late King of France, mentioned as the target of Damiens’s attempted assassination.

Jacques of the police

An unnamed police officer acquainted with Defarge who tells him that an English spy has been assigned to the Saint Antoine quarter.

The Vengeance

A short, rather plump revolutionary woman, wife of a starved grocer and mother of two. She is Madame Defarge’s lieutenant, helps rouse the women of Saint Antoine, and joins in revolutionary violence.

Alexandre Manette

Also known as A. M.

The name Doctor Manette scratched into the wall of his former cell, One Hundred and Five, North Tower; Defarge identifies the initials while searching the cell during the fall of the Bastille. His account of the Evrémonde brothers’ crimes is read at Darnay’s trial, and he is falsely presented as one of Darnay’s denouncers.

turnkey of the Bastille

An unnamed prison officer who guides Defarge and Jacques Three to Doctor Manette’s former cell during the storming of the Bastille.

governor of the Bastille

Also known as governor

The unnamed governor who defended the Bastille and fired on the people. The revolutionary crowd kills and decapitates him.

old Foulon

Also known as Foulon

An elderly official who told starving people they could eat grass and staged his own death to escape the revolutionaries. The crowd captures and kills him.

son-in-law of Foulon

An unnamed man identified as Foulon’s son-in-law and another enemy of the people; a revolutionary crowd captures and kills him.

sacristan

The unnamed keeper of the church keys in the village near the chateau; Gabelle sends word that the tocsin may need to be rung.

little Lucie

Also known as Lucie Darnay’s daughter

The young daughter of Charles and Lucie Darnay. She is cherished by her family and shares a tender bond with Sydney Carton.

little boy of the Darnays

The unnamed young son of Charles and Lucie Darnay, who dies as a child. Before his death, he asks that Carton be kissed for him.

soldier hanged as a lamp

An unnamed soldier of the Bastille governor’s garrison, whom the crowd hangs from a street lamp after killing the governor.

rider from the chateau

An unnamed messenger who rides to Gabelle and then to the prison officers to seek help as the chateau burns.

Citizen Defarge’s conductor

Also known as conductor of Evrémonde

An unnamed man in authority who brings Charles Darnay to the Paris barrier, identifies him as the emigrant Evrémonde, and consigns him to La Force.

two mounted patriot escorts

Also known as the escort

Two unnamed armed patriots who escort Darnay toward Paris, one of them chronically drunk. They deliver him to the authorities at the city barrier.

timid local functionary

Also known as functionary

An unnamed local official who tells Darnay he will be escorted to Paris and explains the charge and cost.

red-cap patriot

Also known as good patriot

An unnamed armed patriot who rebukes Darnay at the inn and threatens him with the possibility of being hanged from a lamp.

farrier at Beauvais

Also known as smith

An unnamed farrier who calls Darnay a traitor and attempts to attack him with a hammer when he arrives in Beauvais.

postmaster at Beauvais

Also known as postmaster

An unnamed postmaster who protects Darnay from the angry crowd in Beauvais and explains the decrees against emigrants.

resolute man at the Paris barrier

Also known as man in authority · conductor

An unnamed authority at the Paris barrier who inspects Darnay’s papers and conducts him to the guard-room.

officer at the Paris guard-room

Also known as officer of a coarse, dark aspect

An unnamed officer who records Darnay as the emigrant Evrémonde and orders him sent to La Force.

gaoler at La Force

Also known as chief gaoler · chief

The unnamed, bloated-faced gaoler who receives Darnay at La Force and places him in a solitary cell.

gaoler’s wife

The unnamed wife of the La Force gaoler, who counsels patience when he complains that the prison is full.

three turnkeys at La Force

Also known as turnkeys

Three unnamed prison officers who respond to the gaoler’s bell and echo his wife’s call for patience.

courtly gentleman at La Force

Also known as gentleman of courtly appearance

An unnamed prisoner who formally welcomes Darnay to La Force on behalf of the other prisoners.

President of the prison tribunal

Also known as President

An unnamed man presiding over the revolutionary tribunal at La Force during the prison massacres. He orders that Darnay remain in custody but be held safely for Doctor Manette’s sake.

prisoner wounded by a pike

An unnamed prisoner released during the La Force massacres who is wounded by a mistaken attack as he leaves.

man who wounds the released prisoner

Also known as mistaken savage

An unnamed attacker who thrusts a pike at a prisoner being released from La Force.

Samaritans at La Force

Also known as company of Samaritans

A group of unnamed people who help Doctor Manette tend a wounded prisoner during the massacres before returning to the violence.

two men at the grindstone

Also known as ruffians

Two unnamed revolutionaries who furiously turn the grindstone in the courtyard of Monseigneur’s former house while weapons are sharpened during the September massacres.

woman offering wine at the grindstone

One of the unnamed women who gives wine to the men sharpening weapons at the grindstone.

excited orator in Paris

An unnamed speaker who addresses a crowd about the crimes of the king and royal family.

French king executed in the Revolution

Also known as the king

The unnamed French king, imprisoned, tried, and beheaded during the Revolution.

French queen executed in the Revolution

Also known as his fair wife

The unnamed wife of the French king, imprisoned for eight months after his arrest and later beheaded.

wood-sawyer

Also known as Samson of the firewood guillotine · Little Guillotine · Little Sainte Guillotine

A little former road mender who runs a wood-cutting shop near the prison, where Lucie waits in hopes of seeing Darnay. He mocks executions with his saw and joins the Carmagnole; he tells Carton the daily guillotine count and falsely claims Lucie signals to prisoners.

first armed official who arrests Darnay

An unnamed red-capped official who leads the four-man party that arrests Darnay again, saying that Saint Antoine has denounced him.

citizen from Saint Antoine who denounces Darnay

Also known as man from Saint Antoine

An unnamed citizen who tells Doctor Manette that the Defarges and one other person denounced Darnay.

young woman elevated as the Goddess of Liberty

Also known as Goddess of Liberty

An unnamed young woman from the crowd, briefly elevated into the chair used to carry Darnay in triumph.

chemist

Also known as citizen chemist

An unnamed shopkeeper who sells Sydney Carton small packets of chemicals after cautioning him to keep them separate.

mother at the theatre

An unnamed woman with a little girl whom Carton helps across a muddy street in Paris.

little girl at the theatre

An unnamed child whose mother is trying to get her across the muddy street; Carton carries her and asks her for a kiss.

elder Evrémonde brother

Also known as elder brother

The unnamed older of the twin Evrémonde brothers, identified as the Marquis St. Evrémonde and Charles Darnay’s father. Doctor Manette’s testimony describes him as complicit in the abuse of the peasant family and responsible for having Manette imprisoned.

younger Evrémonde brother

Also known as younger brother

The unnamed twin brother of the Marquis and Charles Darnay’s uncle. He rapes a peasant woman and mortally wounds her brother in a sword fight; Doctor Manette’s account condemns him alongside the Marquis.

peasant woman abused by the Evrémondes

Also known as the young woman · the sister

A beautiful young woman, sister of the dying peasant boy and wife of his ailing tenant friend. The younger Evrémonde brother takes her by force; she suffers a prolonged delirium and dies after giving birth to a child who does not survive.

peasant boy killed by the Evrémonde brothers

Also known as handsome peasant boy · the dying boy

A seventeen-year-old peasant who is mortally wounded in a sword fight with the younger Evrémonde brother after trying to stop his sister’s abuse. Before dying, he denounces the brothers and marks them with a cross of blood.

husband of the abused peasant woman

Also known as the tenant · her husband

An unnamed peasant, tenant of the Marquis, who marries the young woman. The Evrémonde brothers force him into exhausting labor until he dies after crying twelve times on his wife’s bosom.

father of the peasant family

Also known as the peasant father

An unnamed father of the peasant boy, his sister, and another daughter. His heart breaks after learning that his daughter has been taken away.

younger peasant sister

Also known as the other sister

The younger sister of the dying peasant boy and the abused woman. Her brother takes her somewhere beyond the Marquis’s reach.

wife of the man at the house

Also known as timid woman in attendance

An unnamed, timid woman who is the wife of the man employed at the isolated house. She attends the abused peasant woman while Doctor Manette treats her.

man at the isolated house

Also known as man down-stairs

An unnamed servant or caretaker at the isolated house where Doctor Manette is summoned. The Evrémonde brothers strike him when he opens the door.

wife of the Marquis St. Evrémonde

Also known as compassionate wife of the Marquis

An unnamed young, compassionate woman married to the elder Evrémonde brother. She visits Doctor Manette seeking the abused woman’s family so she can offer help, and plans to give her own small inheritance to the injured family; she dies before the main action.

young Charles Darnay

Also known as little Charles

The two-to-three-year-old son of the Marquis St. Evrémonde and his compassionate wife, later Charles Darnay. His mother hopes he will make amends to the injured peasant family.

Doctor Manette’s servant

Also known as Ernest Defarge

Monsieur Defarge as a young man, then a servant to Doctor Manette. On the night Manette was abducted, he led the man who summoned the doctor into the house.

man in a black dress

An unnamed man who comes to Doctor Manette’s home on the last night of 1767, claiming to summon him to an urgent case. He helps deliver Manette into the hands of the Evrémonde brothers and his imprisonment.

poor little seamstress

Also known as Citizen Evrémonde’s fellow prisoner

An unnamed young seamstress imprisoned at La Force on false charges of plotting. She asks to hold Carton’s hand as they go to the guillotine, and dies before him.

seamstress’s cousin

Also known as her cousin

The seamstress’s only relative, an orphan five years younger than her who lives in a farmer’s house in the south country. She does not know of the seamstress’s imprisonment or fate.

future son of Lucie and Charles Darnay

Also known as child bearing Sydney Carton’s name

A child Carton imagines Lucie and Charles will have after his death, bearing his name. He foresees the child growing into a distinguished judge and honourable man.