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Through his archetype of the unhealable wound Dr. Manette contributes to the novel by symbolizing the unjust treatment of common people during the French Revolution, and by saving Charles Darnay through his past suffering.
The archetype of Dr Manette is the unhealable wound. The unhealable wound archetype is described as a physical or psychological wound that cannot be fully healed. Dr. Manettes unhealable wound is his memories of his time as a Bastille prisoner. Throughout the novel Dr Manette has "relapses" when he behaves how he did after he was released from the Bastille. Whenever these happen, he begins to make shoes, which is what he did to pass time in the Bastille. Through these relapses he is re-living his time in the Bastille, and has a difficult time coming back to reality.
Dr. Manette's archetype of the unhelable wound enhances the novel through his representation of the unjust treatment of the common people and through his efforts to save Charles Darnay. When Dr. Manette was put in the Bastille it was via a lettre de cachet, which is a letter signed by the king that states the person accused has to go to jail even if they have done nothing wrong. Dr. Manette represents the common people of France and England because he went through the same unjust treatment that so many others were going through as well. Because of his mistreatment, he was respected by the French revolutionaries who helped him in his efforts to save his son in-law. If it weren't for his unhealable wound Charles Darnay might have not escaped prison, and eventually died by the guillotine.
Dr. Manette was imprisoned for 18 years and eventually forgot his own name and what it was like to live a normal life “They heard him mutter, “One Hundred and Five North Tower”, and when he looked about him, it evidently was for the strong fortress-walls which had long encompassed him.” (Page 56) The extremities of Dr. Manettes pain help contribute to his representation of the french and english common people by emphasizing all that they went through.
When Dr. Manette has relapses he reverts back to his behavior while in the Bastille “She heard a low hammering sound in his bedroom. Passing lightly across the intermediate room, she looked in at his door and came running back frightened, crying to herself with her blood all chilled, “What shall I do!” (Page 141) While imprisioned, Dr. Manette made shoes to pass the time, and when he had a relapse he began making shoes again.
When Charles Darnay and Lucie got married Mr. Lorry “(O)bserved a great change to have come over the Doctor; as if the golden arm uplifted there had struck him a poisoned blow.” (Page 194) Dr. Manette is having another relapse, because of his loss of Lucie. Every time Dr. Manette relapses it is because something reminds him of his imprisonment. In this specific example his loss of Lucie reminds him of his time in the Bastille because while he was there he was also without Lucie.
When Dr. Manette is in France trying to save Charles he is highly respected by the revolutionaries because he represents what they are fighting for “There is no patriot in Paris—in Paris? In France—who, knowing me to have been a prisoner in the Bastille, would touch me, except to overwhelm me with embraces, or carry me in triumph.(Page 259) Because of the respect and help he is given by the people of France he is able to find Charles and find a way for him to be able to see Lucie.
Dr. Manette can be characterized as a dynamic character, because throughout the novel his point of view on his imprisionment changes drastically. In the beginning of the novel when Dr. Manette is newly released from then Bastille he still has a few relapses when things go wrong in his life. Towards the end of the novel when he and Lucie are in France trying to save Charles his point of view changes because he is now respected by the revolutionaries for being a Bastille survivor.
While Dr. Manette is talking to Mr. Lorry about one of his relapses he says “You have no idea how such an apprehension weighs on the sufferer’s mind, and how difficult—almost impossible—it is, for him to force himself to utter a word upon the topic that oppresses him.”(Page 201) When Dr. Manette says this he means that when he first came out of the Bastille he didn't want to talk about his experiences because it would only bring back the pain. Throughout the novel Dr. Manette transforms from a shell of a man to a strong person who wants to help others despite his own pain.
Later on in the novel Dr. Manette returns to France to save his son in law from imprisionment. Instead of taking Charles imprisionment in a bad way Dr. Manette says “I have a charmed life in this city. I have been a Bastille prisoner” (Page 259) In saying this he means that he once was a Bastille prisioner and he knows that he will be respected because of it. Dr. Manette could have had another relapse once he found about his son in-law, but instead he tries his best to save him. This shows how much Manette changed, and he has left his past behind him.
When Manette is trying to find Darnay to save him he says "My old pain has given me a power that has brought us through the barrier" (Page 259) This shows growth in Dr. Manette because in the begining of the novel at the smallest mention of his imprisionment he would have a breakdown, but now he is trying to help his son in-law face the same thing he went through.
Dr. Manette Relates to all the unjust punnishments of the common people during the French Revolution. Dr. Manette's imprisionment in the novel was due to a lettre de cachet by a French aristocrat. Even though he did nothing wrong Manette was unjustly accused of something he didn't do. This was very common during the french revolution. Another example of this is if people were found in their homes morning their family members who were killed for treason they themselves could be convicted. These things were very common and caused many deaths of innocent people during the french revolution.
Dr. Manette is essential to the theme, our lives are often shaped by events over which we have no control, because of his imprisionment in which he had no control. Manette did nothing to deserve his imprisionment, but yet it still happened to him. In his letter hidden in his Bastille cell he writes "If it had pleased God to put in the hard heart of either of the brothers, in all these frighrful years, to grant me any tidings of my dearest wife-so much as to let me know by a word wether alive or dead-I might have thought that He had not quite abandoned them." (Page 325) In saying this Manette is referring to the Evremond brothers who imprisioned him by a lettre de cachet. This shows that Manette was unjustly accused of crimes he did not commit. This imprisionment shaped his entire lefe and eventually helped him to save is son in-law.
Dickens, Charles, and Frederick Busch. A Tale of Two Cities. Signet Classic, 1997.