Excess, the novel shows, was both cause and symptom of the perilousness of the times. It was an age of superlatives, of disproportion, of absolutes, and of absolute power. Absolute power by its very nature is unjust,13 for it lacks the relational proportionality that defines justice. Set in a time so full of injustice, A Tale of Two Cities dramatizes the horrible consequences that attend justice too long delayed.
