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???