In the present article, the focus is on the way Dickens captures the extremes of idealism and terror of the revolutionary period of the late 18th century. While the horrors of the French Revolution have been eclipsed for modern readers by the world wars and genocides of the twentieth century, the terrors of the French Revolution were the horror story of Dickens's time. English society is portrayed as dangerous but not lethal. Furthermore it is determinant in the interpretation A Tale of Two Cities. Paris and London (opposite cities) Paris and London constitute the true protagonists of the novel.