Plot Summary
Chapter 15, the final chapter of A Tale of Two Cities, follows the six tumbrils as they carry the day's fifty-two condemned prisoners through the Paris streets to the guillotine. opens with a powerful authorial commentary: the Revolution's horrors are the inevitable fruit of centuries of aristocratic oppression. "Crush humanity out of shape once more, under similar hammers, and it will twist itself into the same tortured forms. Sow the same seed of rapacious license and oppression over again, and it will surely yield the same fruit according to its kind."
Crowds press toward the third tumbril, where the man they believe is Evremonde stands at the back with his head bent down, speaking quietly to a young seamstress and holding her hand. It is, of course, Sydney Carton, who has switched places with Charles Darnay. On the steps of a church, the spy Barsad watches the carts pass and is relieved to confirm the substitution has not been discovered. The Vengeance searches frantically for Madame Defarge at the guillotine, not knowing her friend is already dead.
Carton and the Seamstress
As the line of victims thins, Carton and the seamstress share a tender exchange. She tells him she believes he was sent to her by Heaven; he replies, "Or you to me." She asks whether her young cousin in the country might live to be old if the Republic does good for the poor, and whether the wait in "the better land" will seem long. Carton comforts her: "There is no Time there, and no trouble there." She kisses him, goes calmly to her death, and the knitting-women count Twenty-Two. Then Carton goes to his. The crowd notes that his face is "the peacefullest man's face ever beheld there" and many say he looked "sublime and prophetic."
Carton's Prophetic Vision
imagines what Carton's final thoughts would have been: a prophetic vision spanning generations. Carton sees the revolutionary oppressors—Barsad, Defarge, The Vengeance, the Judge—perishing by the same guillotine. He sees "a beautiful city and a brilliant people rising from this abyss" and the evil of the Revolution "gradually making expiation for itself and wearing out." He sees Lucie with a child who bears his name, Dr. Manette restored and at peace, and Mr. Lorry passing tranquilly to his reward. He sees himself held sacred in their hearts for generations.
The novel closes with one of the most famous lines in English literature: "It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known."
Themes and Literary Significance
This chapter brings together the novel's central themes of resurrection and sacrifice. Carton's death echoes the Christian passage he remembers—"I am the Resurrection and the Life"—transforming his wasted life into something sacred through self-sacrifice. The title "The Footsteps Die Out For Ever" refers both to the literal cessation of the condemned prisoners' footsteps and to the fading of the Revolution's violence. argues that love and sacrifice, not revenge, are the true path to renewal.