How does Charles Dickens use devices, chapter titles, foreshadowing, and cliff-hanger endings to maintain interest in his stories?A Tale of Two...

One of Dickens's most innovative works, A Tale
of Two Cities was originally a serialized novel, so Charles Dickens took
liberties with various
devices:

DOUBLING

Certainly,
the opening lines of the novel establish this doubling.  In Book the First, for
instance, Mr. Lorry and Lucie Manette travel to Paris to retrieve Dr. Manette, who has
been imprisoned for the past eighteen years. This resurrection of the "Bastille Captive"
is momentous, yet it has its humorous doppleganger on the other
side of the Channel with the inimical Jerry Crucher, who prides himself as a
"resurrection man."  Later, in Book the Third, Jerry's being a resurrection man is
pivotal to identifying a spy.  Of course, the foreshadowing for Jerry's important
identification comes in Book the First with Jerry's humorous and suspenseful scratching
of his spiked head as he wondered one thing while the reader wonders about what he is
concerned,

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No, Jerry, no!” said the messenger, harping on
one theme as he rode. “It wouldn’t do for you, Jerry. Jerry, you honest tradesman, it
wouldn’t suit your line of business!
Recalled—! 

In both
characterization and motifs as well, there are doubles. Almost every character on one
side of the English Channel has a doppelganger on the other side.  This doubling is
useful to continuity  as well as igniting interest in the reader.  With the motif of the
judicial systems of England and France there are serious flaws evident in the courts of
both countries as Charles Darnay is tried unjustly in both.  In a creative manner
regarding these courts, Dickens explores the relationship of private grievance to public
violence. 

LITERARY
DEVICES

Also present in Dicken's classic are select
chapters that become metaphoric.  For instance, Chapter V of Book the First, "The
Wine-Shop" is almost an intercalary chapter meant to foreshadow the French Revolution
with the spilled wine as a metaphor for the blood of the multitude of aristocrats that
will be shed by the bonnets rouges.  This chapter serves to
foreshadow the upcoming revolution led by many along with the Defarges, the wineshop
owners. Another chapter that also carries the motif of the Revolution is Chapter XXI of
Book the Second, "Echoing Footsteps."  Like Chapter V, Chapter VII of Book the
Second the monseigneur becomes an archetype for the decadent aristocracy that has been
so pampered and waited upon that they are no longer able to even bring a cup to their
lips without the aid of several servants.  Likewise, the Marquis d'Evermonde is the
archetype of the cruel and snobbish corrupt social order with Madame Defarge as the
archetype of revenge and La Violence for evil.

Symbols such
as the broken wine cask and Madame Defarge's knitting, the mender of roads, the gorgon,
the fountain, and the guillotine and tumbrils are serves to enhance meaning and further
plot.

Foreshadowing also gives continuity and suspense to
A Tale of Two Cities as "the footsteps" that Darnay hears and his
promise to do anything for Lucie ignites interest.

CHAPTER
TITLES AND ENDINGS

The clever use of ironic titles and ones
that are suggestive of future action furthers readers' interest.  Such titles as "The
Fellow of Delicacy" and "The Fellow of No Delicacy" are examples.  Title such as "The
Sea Still Rises" effects reader interest.  "The Night Shadows" finds its completion in
"The Shadow" of Book the Third.