Scene Comparison: Fringe and a Tale of Two Cities

In Charles Dickens novel, "A Tale of Two Cities" he wrote about 17-year-old Lucie Manette whose father was unlawfully put in jail before she was even born. She lived her whole life without ever knowing that her father was alive. However, 17 years into her life she is told that her father is actually still alive and she travels to his cell to be united with him. In the first episode of the television series "Fringe", there is a very similar scene where Peter Bishop once again meets his father, who had been separated from him for years after he had been sent to a mental institution. A closer analysis reveals a large amount of similarity and contrast between the two scenarios.

Both of these situations are similar in the fact that they involve a child being united or reunited with their long-lost fathers. In both cases, Lucie and Peter showed some distaste in the idea, however Lucie's doubt only came about in the form of fear. Peter, on the other hand, was entirely against meeting his father because his ill feeling towards the past they had shared together. Both of the fathers were being taken care of in some form of cell, although one was a prison cell and the other was a mental institution. Lastly, both stories featured the child taking their fathers away from their cells and back into the real world again, even to other countries. Beyond this, there is one main difference between the two stories.

The main difference between Lucie and Peter is that Lucie desperately wanted to see her father again. She may have been scared for a moment, but this was her first time actually meeting him. Peter had known his father when he was a kid and was trying to do whatever he could to avoid meeting him. In fact, Peter was blackmailed into seeing his father again while Lucie begged for forgiveness from hers. Furthermore, the amount of time they had separated was different, seeing as how Lucie's father had been imprisoned for 18 years. Altogether, the two episodes of reunion between father and child carry a large amount of similarity.