Sunday, October 6, 2013

A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens (Blog Post No. 3)

A Tale of Two Cities
Charles Dickens

Genre: Social Criticism, Fiction Novel, Historical Novel

Number of pages read: 100/321

Summary: In the second part of the book "Book the Second: The Golden Thread", in which the plot is happening five years later, in chapters one through six, Dickens starts the story with describing how the Telson's Bank has lost its glory and now is "small, dark, ugly and incommodious". The bank is now located next to the Temple Bar, where the heads of executed criminals are displayed. Jerry Chruncher, a messenger and runner of Telson's Bank wakes up in the morning and starts arguing with his wife. Then, he goes with his son to Telson's Bank. Both of them were outside, waiting for instructions from the bankers. When Jerry got instructed to find Lorry, he abandoned his son in front of the bank and carried on looking for Lorry in the Old Bailey Courthouse. He saw Lorry and Lucie sitting as witnesses for the crime of Charles Darnay who was accused of giving away classified information to the French. The classified information was about England sending an army to the American Colonies. The trial was soon over and Darnay was found "Not Guilty". As Jerry and the witnesses were going out of the building, they saw Carton drunk. Stryver and Carton then go to Stryver's apartment where they talk and Carton reveals his love towards Lucie. The next day, Lorry wanted to pay a visit to the Manettes, with whom he became close friends, but they were not at their apartment, so he started a conversation with their neighbour miss. Pross about why Doctor Manette is still keeping his shoemaker's bench, or who would be the perfect husband for Lucie, for there are more than a dozen "volunteers". Soon, Lucie and Manette returned with Darney. They sat in their apartment and Darney told them about a workman who was imprisoned in the London Tower. The workman saw "D I G" written on the wall. At first, he thought that those were just someones initials, but then he realised that the letters spell out the word "dig", so he dug and found a ashes and burnt paper that had a message on it.
      In chapters 7 and 8, Dickens writes about a rich french lord Monseigneur, who is so spoilt, that he pays four servants just to help him drink chocolate. He parades around his guests and then leaves. Irritated by this, Marquis, one of his guests leaves and orders his driver to race around town, so he could watch people being nearly ran over by his horses. He accidentally kills a boy by running over him and then drops a coin to the boy's father that was weeping over him and  another coin to Monsieur Defarge who was helping the father. Then, when Marquis arrived to a small village he is a lord of, the people were begging for money and a women was begging for a tombstone. Everyone was poor and unhappy. He ignored the people.

Reflection: I have read a many pages this week, so I am very satisfied with that. I still have the same opinion about the book: it is very interesting and has fulfilled my expectations. I don't know what is going to happen next because the story is about many different characters in two different cities. I look forward to finishing the book.

Passage: "Killed!" shrieked the man, in wild desperation, extending both arms at their length above his head, and staring at him. "Dead!" ' (page 92)
I chose this passage because it describes the desperation and sadness of the men very vividly. This is an example of how well Charles Dickens can describe something with great emotion only in one, short sentence.

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