Plot Summary
Book II, Chapter 3 of A Tale of Two Cities takes place at the Old Bailey, where Charles Darnay stands trial for treason against the English Crown. The Attorney-General opens with a grandiloquent speech accusing Darnay of passing military secrets to France over a period of five years, dating back to the first battles of the American Revolution. He calls upon the jury to find the prisoner guilty and sentence him to death, insisting that no loyal Briton could sleep soundly while Darnay lives.
Two prosecution witnesses take the stand. The first is John Barsad, presented as a selfless patriot who uncovered Darnay's treachery. Under cross-examination by Darnay's defense counsel, however, Barsad is exposed as a gambler, a debtor, and possibly a paid government spy. The second witness is Roger Cly, Darnay's servant, who claims to have found incriminating lists in his master's desk. Cly's credibility is similarly undermined when it emerges he has known Barsad for years and has his own history of petty dishonesty.
Character Development
Jarvis Lorry testifies next, confirming he traveled the Dover mail five years earlier and later saw Darnay board a Calais packet ship, though he cannot positively identify the prisoner. Lucie Manette is called and reluctantly describes her encounter with Darnay on the Channel crossing, recounting his kindness to her ailing father and his sympathetic comments about the American colonies. Her distress at potentially harming Darnay with her testimony visibly moves the courtroom. Doctor Manette testifies that his long imprisonment has left him with no memory of the voyage, drawing sympathy from the audience.
The chapter introduces Sydney Carton in a pivotal moment. Throughout the proceedings, a "wigged gentleman" has been staring at the ceiling with apparent indifference. When a witness claims to have positively identified Darnay at a garrison town, Carton passes a note to the defense counsel, Mr. Stryver. Stryver then asks the witness to compare Carton and Darnay side by side, and the striking physical resemblance between them destroys the witness's certainty, shattering the prosecution's case.
Themes and Motifs
The chapter develops the novel's central theme of resurrection. Darnay faces a gruesome death by hanging, drawing, and quartering, and his acquittal is a literal recall to life. Jerry Cruncher's closing remark ties this directly to the "Recalled to Life" message from Book I: "If you had sent the message, 'Recalled to Life,' again, I should have known what you meant, this time." The theme of doubles and duality is powerfully introduced through the Carton-Darnay resemblance, which will echo throughout the novel. Appearance versus reality pervades the trial: the "patriot" Barsad and "virtuous servant" Cly are frauds, while the accused Darnay is innocent.
Literary Devices
Dickens employs heavy satire in the Attorney-General's opening speech, using the relentless repetition of "That" clauses to mock the bombastic emptiness of legal rhetoric. The recurring image of blue-flies buzzing around the prisoner likens the spectators to insects swarming carrion, a grotesque metaphor for the crowd's bloodthirsty appetite for public execution. Dramatic irony saturates the chapter: the prosecution's "unimpeachable" witnesses are liars, while the seemingly careless Sydney Carton proves to be the sharpest mind in the courtroom. The title, "A Disappointment," itself is ironic, reflecting the crowd's displeasure at being denied the spectacle of a gruesome execution.