A Tale of Two Cities: The Meaning Behind the Title

The title of the classic Dicken's novel seems to say it all: it's a tale of two cities. Easy enough. But what we don't get from a quick glance at the title are all of the underlying stories within. A Tale of Two Cities  is not just a story about Paris and London, but a comparative study of two very different socities through the stories of several characters'  struggles and relationships. Dicken's uses the different situations of each character to model the society they belong to, allowing him to explain his take on the light and dark sides of humanity-- as well many of the institutions of human society (i.e. religion and politics)-- through examples and implications.