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.