The figure of the "Resurrection Man" in Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities serves as one of the novel’s most potent symbols, bridging the gap between gothic horror and biting social satire. While the narrative sweeps readers through the tumult of the French Revolution, the character of Jerry Cruncher grounds the story in the grimy, fog-choked streets of London. His nocturnal profession—body snatching—is not merely a plot device to inject macabre atmosphere; it is a deliberate thematic mirror reflecting the novel’s central obsession with resurrection, both physical and spiritual. Understanding Jerry Cruncher requires peeling back the layers of his comedic exterior to reveal a man trapped by poverty, haunted by superstition, and ultimately redeemed by the very concept he violates for a living.
Short version: it depends. Long version — keep reading.
The Ghastly Trade: Defining the Resurrection Man
In the early nineteenth century, the term "Resurrection Man" was a grim euphemism for a body snatcher. The advancement of medical science in London created an insatiable demand for fresh cadavers for anatomical dissection, a demand that legal supply—limited to the bodies of executed criminals—could never meet. This gap spawned a shadow economy where men like Jerry Cruncher dug up recently buried corpses to sell to surgeons and anatomy schools.
This is where a lot of people lose the thread.
Dickens introduces Jerry not in a graveyard, but as a porter and odd-job man at Tellson’s Bank, a bastion of staid British respectability. By day, he is a functionary of the establishment, dusting the bank’s dark panels and running errands. Plus, jerry’s "fishing" expeditions, as he euphemistically calls them, are conducted with a terrifying casualness. Practically speaking, by night, he violates the sanctity of the grave. This split existence mirrors the novel’s broader structure of doubles—London and Paris, Darnay and Carton, life and death. Now, this duality is crucial. He treats the dead as cargo, referring to corpses as "subjects" and the act of exhumation as a trade no different than hauling coal That's the part that actually makes a difference. Worth knowing..
Yet, Dickens refuses to make Jerry a simple villain. On the flip side, he is a victim of the same systemic cruelty that drives the French peasantry to revolution. Jerry resorts to body snatching because his legitimate wages at Tellson’s are insufficient to feed his family. In practice, his famous complaint that his wife’s "flopping"—his derogatory term for her praying—hinders his luck reveals a man desperate for agency in a world that offers him none. He blames her piety for his professional failures, creating a darkly comic domestic tragedy that underscores the economic desperation fueling the resurrection trade.
The Comedy of Terror: Humor as a Coping Mechanism
One of Dickens’s masterstrokes is rendering the horror of body snatching through the lens of low comedy. Jerry’s internal monologue, his arguments with his son (Young Jerry), and his superstitious rituals provide levity that makes the darkness palatable. When Young Jerry follows his father one night and witnesses the "fishing" firsthand, the boy’s terror is juxtaposed with Jerry’s matter-of-fact professionalism.
Some disagree here. Fair enough Not complicated — just consistent..
"Father," said Young Jerry, "what’s a Resurrection Man?" "Blast your eyes!" said Jerry. Now, "How should I know? I never see no Resurrection Man And it works..
This exchange highlights the cognitive dissonance required to perform such work. Plus, jerry must deny the reality of what he does even while doing it. His "spiky" hair, described as standing on end like a porcupine, becomes a physical manifestation of his electrified, nervous energy—a man literally standing on end between the living and the dead.
The comedy serves a deeper purpose: it humanizes the underclass. Jerry is not a monster; he is a father trying to buy his son a pie, a husband nagged by a wife he loves despite his abuse, a laborer trying to survive. By making the Resurrection Man funny, Dickens forces the reader to confront the humanity of the poor, challenging the middle-class reader to see the "resurrection man" not as a gothic bogeyman, but as a product of social neglect And it works..
The Turning Point: The Case of Roger Cly
The narrative function of the Resurrection Man shifts from atmospheric background to critical plot mechanism during the exhumation of Roger Cly. When the coffin is opened, however, it contains only stones and dirt. Jerry is hired to "fish" him up. On the flip side, cly, a spy and informer who testified against Charles Darnay in his English treason trial, is supposedly dead and buried. Cly is alive, having faked his death to escape England.
This moment is the structural hinge for the novel’s climax. Day to day, the discovery of the empty coffin provides Sydney Carton with the use he needs to blackmail John Barsad (Cly’s partner in espionage) into granting Carton access to the imprisoned Darnay in Paris. Without Jerry Cruncher’s nocturnal violation of Cly’s grave, Carton’s plan to swap places with Darnay—and the novel’s ultimate act of sacrificial resurrection—would be impossible That's the part that actually makes a difference. Took long enough..
Here, the "Resurrection Man" inadvertently facilitates a true resurrection. Jerry, who steals bodies for money, unwittingly enables a man to give his life for another. The irony is thick: the professional desecrater of the dead becomes the instrument of a sacred exchange. It validates the novel’s thesis that redemption can emerge from the most corrupted vessels Small thing, real impact..
Thematic Resonance: False vs. True Resurrection
The character of Jerry Cruncher embodies the novel’s central dialectic: the distinction between physical resuscitation and spiritual resurrection Not complicated — just consistent. No workaround needed..
The False Resurrection (Jerry’s Trade): Jerry’s work is a parody of resurrection. He drags bodies from the dark earth into the cold light of the dissecting room. It is a movement from rest to violation, from peace to utility. It is a resurrection without a soul, a body without a spirit. It represents the materialist, utilitarian worldview—bodies as meat, death as a commodity. It is the resurrection of the guillotine: mechanical, bloody, and final That's the whole idea..
The True Resurrection (Carton’s Sacrifice): Conversely, Sydney Carton’s final act is a resurrection of the spirit. "I am the resurrection and the life," he repeats, echoing Christ’s words to Martha. Carton does not cheat death; he embraces it to grant life to others. His resurrection is metaphorical but eternal: he lives on in the heart of Lucie, in the future of the child who bears his name, and in the peace he finally claims for his wasted life.
Jerry Cruncher stands at the intersection of these two concepts. He practices the false resurrection for a living, yet he is moved by the true resurrection he witnesses. The novel’s conclusion sees Jerry reformed. He swears off "fishing," promising to become a "honest tradesman" and, crucially, to stop preventing his wife from "flopping.Even so, " He accepts the spiritual dimension he once mocked. The Resurrection Man is himself resurrected—redeemed from the grave of his own cynicism and cruelty That's the part that actually makes a difference. Took long enough..
The London Mirror: Social Critique in the Shadows
It is easy to focus on the guillotine in Paris as the novel’s symbol of death, but Jerry Cruncher reminds us that London has its own machinery of death. Tellson’s Bank, where Jerry works, is described as "the triumphant perfection of inconvenience," a place where "your money was put into the cellar, and the cellar was locked, and the key was thrown away." It is a tomb for capital.
Jerry’s body snatching feeds the medical establishment, which serves the living by consuming the dead. Both systems treat human beings as raw material. Which means this parallels the Revolution, which claims to serve the people by consuming the aristocracy. Jerry’s "luck"—his superstitious metric for success—is the only agency he possesses in a system rigged against him.
When Jerry beats his wife for praying, he is attacking the only spiritual resistance she has against their material hell. His eventual acceptance of her "flopping" signifies his
