To what extreme would you go if suddenly you had no money, no food, no gas?

Who would you borrow from? What would you sell first?

Would you steal?

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,

it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…

Charles Dickens

A Tale of Two Cities

(1859)

Intro

Horner

Spring ‘ 06

Dickens chose to make the

plot

the centerpiece of this novel.

The action of A Tale of Two Cities takes place over a period of about eighteen years, beginning in 1775, and ending in 1793. Some of the story takes place earlier, as told in the flashbacks. It centers around the years leading up to French Revolution and culminates in the Jacobin Reign of Terror.

It tells the story of two men, Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton, who look very alike but are entirely different in character.

The Plot

Lucie Manette

Sydney CartonCharles Darnay

Darnay is a romantic descended from French aristocrats, while Carton is a cynical English barrister.

The two are in love with the same woman, Lucie Manette: one of them will give up his life for her, and the other will marry her.

Madame Defarge

In France after more than seventeen years of unjust imprisonment, Dr. Alexandre Manette (Lucie’s father) is released from the infamous Bastille, setting into motion this time spanning story of revenge and resurrection.

Upon his release, Manette is sheltered and cared for by an old servant, Ernest Defarge, the wine vendor and his wife Madame Defarge.

                                                                 

The Setting

Paris, France

London, England

France’s revolutionary government frightened Europe’s monarchs, who feared that the spread of democratic ideas

would bring an end to their power.

Storming the Bastille

Conflict

•less food

•higher prices

•businesses failed

•unemployment in cities

Harvest failures in 1787-1788

The Enlightenment

Ideas:

Liberty

EqualityReason

Progress: The Industrial Revolution

Philosophers: Locke defended private property, limited sovereignty and fair government

Voltaire attacked noble privileges and the Church’s authority

"A good action is preferable to an argument.” -Voltaire

Feudal system

Estate System outdated

posed many difficulties to

rising middle class of Third Estate

difficult to move upward in

society, unless very rich

less well-off commoners resented

the inequality of the three estates

•‘web of obligations’

• unfairly overtaxed

• Nobles had hunting privileges

•Land-starved

•Subsistence farmers

Peasants’ situation unbearable

The Third Estate- Peasants were forced to do military service.

- Peasants could not hunt or fish on nobles’ estates.

- Peasants had to pay taxes to their lord, the king and the Church.

- Peasants had to use the lord’s mill, oven and winepress, and pay for them.

- Peasants made up 90% of the population.

Marie AntoinetteLouis XVI

Good intentioned, enlightened, but weak-willed,

and indecisive

Marie-Antoinette allowed

“to dispense patronage

amongst friends.”

In sum, the French Revolution:

• unleashed new forces,

• destroyed old ideas,

• offered new promises

• a triumph of the forces of reason over those of superstition and privilege

• was the first major social revolution, of far greater dimensions and of deeper purpose than the American Revolution.

Structure of the Novel & Literary Devices Used in

A Tale of Two Cities

• Originally written as a newspaper serial

lots of characters and cliffhangers

• Length = 367 pages

• Divided into three books-

Book The First: Recalled to Life (6 chapters)

Book the Second: The Golden Thread (24 chapters)

Book the Third: The Track of a Storm (15 chapters)

Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.

A Tale of Two Cities

Major theme: The possibility of resurrection and transformation, both on a personal level and on a societal level.

Minor themes:

the necessity of sacrifice oppression/exploitation

·         honor vs. dishonor violence/greed/hatred

·         corruption         effects of imprisonment

·         mob behavior self-sacrifice

·         love hopelessness

Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.

• Doubles

( various characters seemed paired as opposites)

Darnay= capable and accomplished

Carton= lazy and lacks ambition

• Shadows & Darkness

Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.

• The Broken Wine Cask (blood spilling on the streets)

• Madame Defarge’s Knitting (seemingly harmless, spinning vengeance)

• The Marquis (ruthless aristocratic cruelty)

Victorian Era: Read pages 832-837

1. What was different about Queen Victoria's rule as opposed to her predecessor's?

2. Define realism, psychological realism and naturalism.

3. Explain the different political views of Gladstone and Disreali.

4. Explain Darwin's influence on Britain's political landscape.