Lecture Notes

• Wrote a play The Frozen Deep
• Lucie from A Tale of Two Cities was inspiried by Met Ellen 
• Sydney Carlton : talented, sacrifices himself for love so the woman who he loves can live happily with her husband.
• Dickens said he likes Carlton and would have called him Richard/Dick as parallelism from a character in The Frozen Deep
• 1858
• Dickens separated from his wife.
• April 30, 1859  
• Chapters 1-3 published. A Tale of Two Cities was published in installments. 
• London was his inspiration and when he was away found it more difficult
• City of extremes in wealth and poverty; developed a bad image later 
• 1844
• Visited Paris on the way to Italy; was the most extraordinary place in the world to Dickens, felt like he couldn't conceive any other place so wonderfully expressive of its character.
• Paris was about half the size of London
• 1844-1868
• Visited Paris at least 15 times
•  Rented apartments; public readings for charity, spanned a period of political change.
• Attracted to the morgues in Paris
• Visualized both cities in  A Tale of Two Cities
• Early topographical investigations of the members of the Dickens fellowship as recorded in their journal, the Mckenzian.
• Two articles-One city and the other city, Paris
• 19th century fears Britain that there could be a revolution there
• Especially for the lower class, what with the urbanization
• Novel is a warning in confronting great Victorian fears.
• A Tale of Two Cities printed in the US and a monthly serial version was printed in the UK
• Dickens was more comfortable with the monthly serial. Let him compress his material and restrict his focus and include illustrations with 2-3 chapters.
• There were adaptations of the novel, a silent film version, and a sound film version.
• "...the events of the revolution and the aftermath constitute one layer of the novel..."

Charles Dickens & A Tale of Two Cities

What is it that made Charles Dickens write the novel you're reading? What in your analysis of literary techniques led you to this conclusion? (Make sure to include textual support illustrating Dickens' use of at least three techniques.)


A Tale of Two Cities was written to show how difficult it was to live during this time period.   The federal system was terrible, and Dickens wanted everyone to actually see the system for how it was.  He mainly wanted to display how dishonest or corrupt everything was.


Imagery
Dickens use of imagery helps the reader "see" what Dickens is trying to describe.  The reader is able to imagine what the streets were like, how the people acted, and what the people said.
"Samples of a people that had undergone a terrible grinding and regrinding in the mill, and certainly not in the fabulous mill which ground old people young, shivered at every corner, passed in and out at every doorway, looked from every window, fluttered in every vestige of a garment that the wind shook. The mill which had worked them down, was the mill that grinds young people old..."


Foreshadow/Symbolism
Charles Dickens helped "remind" people how fear was everywhere.  Fear was everywhere because of the French Revolution.  People thought they would die, that there were always unknown things everywhere.  The word "blood" being written on the street with wine signifies that there will be blood spilled in the streets in the future.  Also, the shadows everywhere symbolizes the unknown.
"The hands of the man who sawed the wood, left red marks on the billets; and the forehead of the woman who nursed her baby, was stained with the stain of the old rag she wound about her head again. Those who had been greedy with the staves of the cask, had acquired a tigerish smear about the mouth; and one tall joker so besmirched, his head more out of a long squalid bag of a night-cap than in it, scrawled upon a wall with his finger dipped in muddy wine-lees—blood."


Tone/Mood
During this time period, it was very dark.  Therefore, having the tone dark and gloomy was appropriate.  The mood was also the same, very melancholy.
"And now that the cloud settled on Saint Antoine, which a momentary gleam had driven from his sacred countenance, the darkness of it was heavy--cold, dirt, sickness, ignorance, and want, were the lords in waiting on the saintly presence--nobles of great power all of them; but, most especially the last."   

A Tale of Two Cities

A Tale of Two Cities

10 Questions on A Tale of Two Cities

1.  What two cities is Charles Dickens talking about?

- The two cities are London, England and Paris, France.

2.  When does this novel take place?

- This novel begins in the year 1775, during the French Revolution.

3.  In the beginning of the novel, why doesn't the driver of mail stop Jerry Lorry?

- The Dover mail coach drivers think that Mr. Lorry will rob the passengers.

4.  Where did Lucie think her father was?  What actually happened to Lucie's father?

- Lucie thought her father was dead.  When really, he was imprisoned for 18 years for being a witness to a murder.

5.  What did Doctor Manette do while he was imprisoned?

- He learned the trade of shoe making.

6.  Who is Mr. Lorry?

- Mr. Lorry is a man that delivered a note to Lucie and they both found Lucie's father.

7.  What is the difference between Charles Darnay and Sydney Carlton?

- These two man are completely different.  Sydney Carlton is an alcoholic, indifferent man.  Darnay however, is a very nice, responsible man.

8.  What does the spilled wine mean?

- The word "blood" in spilled wine is a foreshadowing that there might be spilled blood in the streets.

9.  What literary technique does Charles Dickens use in the beginning of the novel?

- He uses anaphora in the very first sentence in the novel.

10.  What are the diction and syntax in A Tale of Two Cities?

- The diction is very colloquial and descriptive.  His sentences were long and he used imagery as a literary technique.