A Tale of Two Cities

This section of the reading started off with the chapter called "The Knitting Done." This made me think of something going on with Madame Defarge. At first I was thinking it would have something to do with them being over with the knitting, finally acheiving their goal. But when I thought this through I realized that they would never truly be over with their murdering. They would never really finish this because the world and the people in it are not perfect and are not exactally how the Defarges want them to be. When I finally read this chapter it turns out that "The Knitting Done" actually has to do with Madame Defarge's death and her knitting coming to an end with the end of her life. And to top it all off Miss Pross is the one who took her down. Miss Pross has really changed from when the book started. I thought that she was a strong woman who acted motherly around Lucie, doing what it took to protect Lucie, which is what she does in the end. She can be compared to Carton in the way that he was willing to give up his life for Lucie and Miss Pross is willing to do the same thing for her because she loves her.

Miss Pross ends up killing Madame Defarge, accidentally. Then also Cruncher ended up changing too. He proclaimed that he would rather have his wife praying for him in order to have good 'luck' or something of that sort. The lives of the characters in the book have changed excessively.

Then is the time for Carton to be taken away in order to meet his fate. He is lead out by the seamstress and then taken to the guillatine. Carton says that he was in away more at piece with dieing rather than living. He dies knowing that his life was worth something in the sacrifice he made for Lucie.

A Tale of Two Cities

In this weeks reading we learn about the promise that Sydney Carton made to Lucie Manette. This has been foreshadowed for some time now, but now is when we actually read how it all unfolds.

It all started off with Dr. Manette denouncing Darnay through a letter that explained this. At the end of this we learn that not only is Dr. Manette denouncing Darnay but also his daughter Lucie and his granddaughter 'little' Lucie. This is all very surprising, he could denounce his daughter with Darnay, because that is her husband, but to denounce his granddaughter also is a step too far. Dr. Manette has been alone for so long, you wouldn't think he would want to push his family further and further away from him.

The next chapter talks a lot about time and it goes back and forth between thoughts and people. Finally we learn how the Evermonds/Defarges/Manettes are connected in this book. It is all pretty crazy too.

Finally the attention is turned to Sydney Carton and his promise to his love Lucie. He decides to trade places with Darnay in order for Lucie to keep her all to perfect life with Darnay. Carton finds a way to be snuck into the cell where Darnay is held and they switch clothes and drug Darnay in order to make it look as if it is Carton coming back from the cell. Then Carton is in the cell waiting...all he can do is wait for that moment when he goes against the guillatine and his life ends. Dieing for the one you love can't be the worst way to go but it is a major sacrifice. By doing this Lucie should know all to well how he feels about her. I wonder why she doesn't realize how good of a guy Carton is and not so much of her husband. Darnay has a wife and a daughter and a life to live for and Carton doesn't have anything and that is what helps to motivate him to do this for Lucie. Lucie is the only one he has ever loved and for that he would give his life and soon will.

A Tale of Two Cities

This section of the reading starts with an man named Foulon. This man is known as being a horrific 'wealthy' man and the Defarges catch him. He is then hung for his crimes of telling the poor people that if they are hungry then they should eat grass in place of food. This is what truly kills him, his disrespect and uncareness. Then they hang him in the gallows, yet he does not die on his firt attempt of hanging, not even on his second, but on his third try. In a way it makes me think that someone is trying to tell them something. There has to be some sort of reason this man does not die on their first or second attempt on hanging him. Then for these peoples own satisfaction they place his head on a pike, like their pride in the killing of this man.

The next chapter goes back to talking of the mender of roads. This person was of importance in the beginning of the book and now has come back with more importance to the story. Then the Chateau is burnt down as an act of support towards the Revolution.

Darnay then recieves a letter of plea to get him to go to France because of all that is going on there. Darnay decides that he must go in order to take back his name and his reputation. He is determined to succeed in giving up his inheritance and doing right by the people. Yet Mr. Lorry and Lucie are not so sure about this plan. I don't think that Charles is taking in consideration all about how much the people really despise him and his family. Whether or not he wants to stay away from that they still want to use him to make an example of what they are all about and what they will do in order to go towards what they hope to achieve from the capture of Darnay.

A Tale of Two Cities

This section of the reading starts off with a spy. This spy is reporting of Lucie planning to marry Darnay. When Madame Defarge hears this she adds Darnay's name to her registry. This registry has something to do with what she is knitting and how she is knitting names for a reason, whether that reason is foreshadowing his death or what.

The next chapter talks about the "eve" of Lucie's wedding. Mr. Manette seems worried, it is either since is torn between letting his daughter once again be taken from him or if it is from the fact that he is not to sure about Darnay. It also could be a sense of both. Lucie is also worried about her father and this is shown when she goes to his bedroom that night. She looks in his room to see how he is doing and finds him sleeping. I'm sure this takes a lot of pressure off her shoulders and makes it easier for her to go and get married. Her father is such a big part of her life seeing as how she just got to know him and doesn't want to lose him again. The last time she checked on him after the news of her engagement she found him once again working away making shoes. This disturbed her because this is what he spent so much time doing in jail. This shows that he was not so sure about Darnay, but now finding him asleep makes her feel better about everything.

The next chapter talks about Darnay telling Dr. Manette his secret. He confronts to him that his is related to the Marquis and that is his family, the same family that put Dr. Manette in prison. This does not set well with Dr. Manette and the fact that this man is about to marry his daughter and he is about to be a part of that family. This also falls into the next couple of chapters and how Dr. Manette has a relapse. Mr. Lorry and Ms. Pross try to figure out what to do about this and the doctor tells them to stay with him and he makes sure they are people he can trust in order to help Dr. Manette. This is a good thing for the doctor to do because things could possibly get worse if Mr. Lorry was not someone who could be trusted.

This reading is getting much more intense and starting to makes its way in deeper into the love triangle and the secrets everyone seems to carry.

A Tale of Two Cities

So this section of the reading starts off with Darnay arriving at his uncle, Marquis', home. Darnay is in a bit of an argument about his family name and how he doesn't really want to have a part of it. He no longer wants to be the one to inherit his money because it is associated with Fear and Slavery. The irony in this is that at the end of the chapter the Marquis ends up dead anyway, before Darnay has any bit of chance to take his name of the will. The Marquis is found stabbed with a note on the knife, from Jaques.

The next chapter is once again a year or so later and is when the love triangle first comes into focus. Darnay is addmitting his feelings for Miss Manette. He is in a way asking for approval from her father in order to court her, which back in the day means date. Darnay then addmits he has a secret he hopes to share with Miss Manette's father. But for some reason her father does not want him to reveal it at this time but wait. This book is really starting to get into the secrets and the mysteriousness. We have now learned that Darnay has a secret and it is obvious he is not the only one.

So then the book goes to the lawyers and Stryver is talking of his love for Lucie and telling all of this to Carton and what another secret is is that Carton himself has feelings for Lucie. The whole thing about everyone loving Lucie is crazy. What sort of spell does she have over these men that make them fall for her. Yet no one is able to addmit to her of their true feelings. I'm thinking this is going to come into play later on in the book about how everyones feelings will come out and there might be some jealousy and conflict...

A Tale of Two Cities

In this section of the reading we are introduced to a new character Miss Pross. Miss Pross is Miss Manettes care taker. Miss Pross is very protective of Miss Manette. When Mr. Lorry is talking to her, she is talking about all the people who come into Miss Manettes's life who don't appreciate her and Miss Pross seems very jealous. She doesn't want to be left out and she also doesn't want Miss Manette to have to let her go. Miss Pross talks of her brother who she believes is the only many worthy of Miss Manette.



The story then goes to Monseigeuners party. The party was held in Paris and was a big deal. Monseigeuner talks about when he ran over a young and killed him. He described this boy as a useless thing...something he could make better by buying someone off. When he said this it really struck me as disturbing. How could someone think this way? But not only is this completely horrible, when the boys father throws the money back at him, he says he would gladly run over any 'commoner' anyday. Ridiculous. This poor man just lost his son and instead of showing a bit of remorse Monseigeuner tries to pay him off. The way he acts here is just like how he acts with other common people on his journey. He is a heartless man but I wonder if he is going to have some bit of importance latter on in the story, something dealing with Miss Manette or Mr. Lorry or one of the others.

Then we learn that Mr. Monsegeuner is Mr. Darneys uncle. Big surprise there, even if Mr. Darney does not trust his uncle some of him may have rubbed off on him and may be how he acts. I wonder if this will come to be a bigger part with Miss Manette??

This book likes to go from month to month to year, it gets confusing. One moment we're in the present and the next it is a year later it tends to get confusing and hard to follow. This must just be the way Dickens gets through a long period of time, hitting the high points, is a short amount of time.

A Tale of Two Cities

This section of the reading started off talking of people who were put to death. Dickens' states many people in different situations who were put to death such as for stealing, someone with a bad note, a forgerer, and many others. This struck me as being an important part of the book, such as how even the smallest thing done wrong will proceed in someones fate. This is in a way what Dickens himself went through with his family and his fathers debt. I wonder if this is where he got this information from. The guitine is what is described as the importance to everyones death and how it is achieved.

Mr. Cruncher, who comes up in this section, is an angry man who has odd views on religion and life in general. When his wife is praying he gets mad at her for it and yells at her for this. What is the point in this? Is there a reason the woman, his wife, can't be her own self and do what she wants? This made me think of what we talked about in class about the kings and the queens and how the kings are powerful and the queen has no say in the matter and she also pretty much has no say in their life. Thinking about the movie Marie Antoinette, all that the woman was good for was having children in the growing of a family of royalty...she had no say in anything not even who she wanted to marry. She only had one duty and that was to marry this man, make him look good, and produce the next generation of children. Mr. Cruncher just relates in this way with how he is controling his wife and son.

Then the book goes into the long process of the trial and the crime this young man, Mr. Darnay, commited. It is said he committed treason but from the way he seems and how Miss Manette describes him he seems to possibly innocent unless she is testifying on his behalf for other purposes which you never know. The trial kind of confused me but it was pretty interesting in the way that I was able to get the feel of how these people lived and thought and how they seemed to get some pleasure from these criminals deaths.

In the end of this section it is talking about Mr. Carton and two other men who are drinking and are supposedly friends even though they don't really seem like it which is a lot like people now-a-days. But they are talking of Mr. Darney and I was curious as to why???