1. A Tale of Two Cities
By Charles Dickens

2. Time, Place and Plot
The story’s action 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 flashback.
The story’s main focus is on two men, Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton, who look alike, but are entirely different in character.
Darnay is a romantic, descended from French aristocrats, while Carton is a cynical English barrister.
Both men are in love with Lucie Manette; one will love her from afar and make a courageous sacrifice for her and the other will marry her.

3. Themes
Major Themes
The possibility of resurrection and transformation, both on a personal level and on a societal level.
Minor themes:
or theme: the necessity of sacrifice
honor vs. dishonor
corruption        
mob behavior

4. Motifs
A recurring structure, contrast, or literary device that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.
Doubles “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”
Darnay and Carton (capable and accomplished versus lazy and lacks ambition)
Dickens uses the oppositions to make judgments and assertions
Shadows and Darkness
Imagery is dark, ominous

5. Chapters 1 | The Period
The most famous lines in literature “It was the best of times…It was the worst of times”
The lines sets the stage for the competing and contradictory attitudes of the novel.

6. Chapter 1 | The Period Louis XVI – King of France, large jaw
Marie Antoinette – Queen of France, fair face
George III – King of England, large jaw
Sophia Charlotte – Queen of England, plain face
Mrs. Southcott – a religious fanatic
Cock Lane ghost – a poltergeist making headlines
The Woodman – a rebel building a killing machine
The Farmer – a rebel hiding this machine in his wagon

7. Chapter 1 | The Period
In France, an oppressive social system results in injustices being committed against average citizens, who believe they have the worst of life.
The breaking point—riotous rebellion—is near.
Meanwhile, in England, people give spiritualists and the supernatural more attention than the revolutionary rumblings from American colonists.
England’s ineffective justice system leads to widespread violence and crime.
While the English and French kings and queens ignore the misery in their countries, silent forces guide the rulers and their people toward fate and death.

8. Chapter 2 | The Mail
On a Friday night in late November of 1775, a mail coach wends its way from London to Dover.
From out of the mists, a messenger on horseback appears and asks to speak to Jarvis Lorry of Tellson’s Bank.
The other travelers fear that they have come upon a highwayman or robber.
Mr. Lorry, however, recognizes the messenger’s voice as that of Jerry Cruncher, the odd-job-man at Tellson’s, and accepts his message.
The note that Jerry passes him reads: “Recalled to Life” and “Wait at Dover for Mam’selle.”
Lorry instructs Jerry to return to Tellson’s with this reply: “Recalled to life.”

9. Chapter 3 |The Night Shadows
Lorry drifts in and out of dreams.
He imagines conversations with a ghost, who tells Lorry that his body has lain buried nearly eighteen years.
Lorry informs his imaginary companion that he now has been “recalled to life” and asks him if he cares to live.
He also asks, cryptically, “Shall I show her to you? Will you come and see her?”

10. Chapter 3 | The Night Shadows
Lorry thinks he must “dig” this person out of a grave (literal? metaphorical?)
This person has been buried alive for 18 years.
Symbolism – the rising sun as he is on his way to “resurrect” someone

11. Chapter 4 | The Preparation
Lorry is in Dover waiting for Miss Manette. He is dressed all in brown (serious, business-like)
Lucie, by contrast, is all light – golden haired, blue-eyed.
He tells her that her father, previously believed dead, has been found after a long imprisonment.
Lucie’s servant, Miss Pross, rushes in to attend to her.

12. Chapter 4 | Doubles and Shadows
Lorry, though proclaiming to be all about “business,” is truly interested and cares deeply for this family. He had worked for Dr. Manette, and he brought Lucie to England after her father was imprisoned and her mother died.
Note contrast between Lorry (grey and brown) and Lucie (golden and blue)

13. Chapter 4 | Symbolism
“red coals” in the fire may be fires of hell? He was “digging” in the coals… (digging is important if you are to unbury the dead…)
The woman who cares for Lucie is also red – perhaps her passionate attachment to Lucie?

14. Chapter 5 | The Wine-Shop
A cask of wine breaks open – the people are mad with hunger and thirst (more than just physical) This foreshadows the blood that will stain their hands and the streets in the Revolution.
Characters – Monsieur and Madame Defarge, Dr. Manette (shoemaker)
“hunger” is repeated 8 times??
Description of characters
Why is everyone called “Jacques”?

15. Chapter 5 | The Wine-Shop
Question: Why is everyone called “Jacques”?
Answer: Jacques is a code name that identifies themselves to one another as revolutionaries.

16. Chapter 5 | The Wine Shop Question: Why is hunger repeated 8 times?
Answer: Dickens is emphasizing the poverty of the people.

17. Chapter 6 | The Shoemaker
Dr. Manette – worn, thin, almost transparent, when asked for his name only responds “105, North Tower.”
Has a lock of hair in a rag tied around his neck. It belongs to Lucie’s mother
He leaves with Lorry and Lucie, but brings the shoemaking equipment.
Madame Defarge, against the door, knitting and “saw nothing.”

18. Chapter 6 | The Shoemaker: Doubles
Same golden color. Lucie is “fair” and “golden”. He is in “darkness.”
Her hair “warmed and lighted it as though it were the light of Freedom shining down on him.”

19. Book the Second
“The Golden Thread”

20. Chapter 1 | “Five Years Later”
It is now 1780, and we see Tellson’s Bank in London, located by Temple Bar, the spot where the government displayed the heads of executed criminals.
Jerry Cruncher wakes up in his small apartment, located in an unsavory London neighborhood.
He begins the day by yelling at his wife for “praying against” him; then, he throws his muddy boot at her. Why is his boot muddy?
Around nine o’clock, Cruncher and his young son await the bankers’ instructions.
When an indoor messenger calls for a porter, Cruncher takes off to do the job, leaving a young Jerry sitting alone, and wondering why his father’s fingers always have rust on them.

22. Chapter 2 |A Sight
The bank clerk instructs Cruncher to go to the Old Bailey Courthouse and await orders from Jarvis Lorry.
Cruncher arrives at the court, where Charles Darnay, a handsome, well-bred young man, stands trial for treason.
Cruncher understands little of the legal jargon, but he gleans that Darnay has been charged with divulging secret information about the English plans for the American colonies.
As Darnay looks to a young lady and her distinguished father, a whisper rushes through the courtroom, speculating on the identity of the two.
Eventually, Cruncher discovers that they will serve as witnesses against the prisoner.

23. Chapter 3 | A Disappointment
The Attorney-General prosecutes the case, demanding that the jury find Charles Darnay guilty of passing English secrets to the French.

24. Chapter 3 | A Disappointment
Mr. Lorry then takes the stand and is asked if five years ago, he shared a Dover mail coach with the accused.
Lorry states that his fellow passengers sat so bundled up that their identities remained hidden.
The prosecutors then ask similar questions of Lucie and she admits to meeting the prisoner on the ship back to England.
When she recounts how he helped her to care for her sick father, however, she seems to help his case—yet she then inadvertently turns the court against Darnay by reporting his statement that George Washington’s fame might one day match that of George III. (heresy!)
Doctor Manette is also called to the stand, but he claims that he remembers nothing of the trip due to his illness.

25. Chapter 3 | A Disappointment
Mr. Stryver is in the middle of cross-examining another witness when his insolent young colleague, Sydney Carton, passes him a note.
The court’s attention is now directed to Carton’s resemblance to the prisoner.
The likeness thwarts the court’s ability to identify Darnay as a spy beyond reasonable doubt.
The jury acquits Darnay.

26. Chapter 3 | A Disappointment
Will the real Charles Darnay please stand up?

27. Chapter 4 | Congratulatory
Dr. Manette establishes himself as an upright and distinguished citizen
Lucie feels confident in her power as “the golden thread that united him to a Past beyond his misery, and to a Present beyond his misery…(76).
Darnay kisses Lucie’s hand (a budding romance?)
A drunk Sydney Carton emerges from the shadows to join the men.
Lorry chastises him for not being a serious man of business.

28. Chapter 4 |Congratulatory
Darnay and Carton make their way to a tavern, where Carton asks, “Is it worth being tried for one’s life, to be the object of [Lucie’s] sympathy and compassion ?” (Is he jealous?)
When Darnay comments that Carton has been drinking, Carton gives his reason:
“I am a disappointed drudge, sir. I care for no man on earth, and no man on earth cares for me.” (he feels sorry for himself!)
After Darnay leaves, Carton curses his own image in the mirror, as well as his look-alike (why is he so angry?)

29. Book II |Chapters 1 -10 Lucie is the “Golden Thread”
“She was the golden thread that united him to a Past beyond his misery, and to a Present beyond his misery:” (Congratulatory, 76)
Sydney Carton “The Jackal”: Jackals help lion with the kill but the lions take all the glory. Stryver is the lion, Carton is the jackal.
Marquis Evremonde -  Charles Darnay’s uncle, the Marquis Evremonde is a French aristocrat who embodies an inhumanly cruel caste system.
He stops the carriage and says “You dogs! I would ride over any of you very willingly, and exterminate you from the Earth.”
Charles Darnay’s uncle, the Marquis Evremonde is a French aristocrat who embodies an inhumanly cruel caste system. He shows absolutely no regard for human life and wishes that the peasants of the world would be exterminated.

30. Book II |Chapters
Darnay tells his uncle that he wants to renounce the title and property that he stands to inherit when the Marquis dies.
The family’s name, Darnay contends, is associated with “fear and slavery.”
He insists that the family has consistently acted shamefully, “injuring every human creature who came between us and our pleasure.”
The Marquis dismisses these protests, urging his nephew to accept his “natural destiny.”
Gaspard is the father of the boy who dies who murders Marquis St. Evermonde
“Drive him fast to his tomb. This, from Jacques.”

31. Book II |Chapter 13
Sydney Carton enters the Manette's house on one August day and speaks to Lucie alone.
He tells her how his life is wasted, complaining that he shall never receive a life than the one he now lives.
Lucie assures him that he might become much worthier of himself.
She believes that her tenderness can save him.
Carton ends his confession to Lucie Manette with a pledge that he would do anything for Lucie, including give his life.

32. Chapter
The Defarges learn of a new spy by the name of John Barsad.
Barsad is also Solomon Pross, Miss Pross’s brother.
He masquerades as a sympathizer with the revolutionaries telling the Defarges that Darnay is the nephew of Marquis Evermonde.
On his wedding day, Charles reveals to Dr. Manette his true identity.
Dr. Manette slips backward into his role as a “shoemaker” for nine days.
Upon recovery, Mr. Lorry and Miss Pross bury the tools and burn the bench

33. Chapters
Lucie asks Charles to be kind to Carton he deserves more consideration
Tellson’s bank is being robbed in Paris
Defarge leads the crowd in the attack on the Bastille and goes to Dr. Manette’s old cell looking for the “DIG.”
Madame Defarge’s vengeance is revealed when she cuts the governor’s head off
Foulon, a wealthy man is hung, doesn’t die immediately, is later decapitated, his head is put on display and filled with grass (ugh).

34. Chapters
The “Jacques” torch the chateau of the Marquis, nearly killing Gabelle, the local tax collector.
Lorry receives a letter addressed to the Monseiur St. Evermonde
Darnay takes the letter, but does not reveal is true identity to Lorry
Gabelle begs the new Marquis to return to France to help him
Lorry also is dispatched to Tellson’s Paris branch
Darnay writes a letter of fairwell to Lucie and Doctor Manette and leaves

35. Book III | Chapters 1 - 3
Upon his arrival in Paris, the revolutionaries confine him to a prison called La Force – he is an emigrant with no rights.
As he is being led away, Darnay converses with Defarge who wonders aloud why Darnay would choose to return to France in the age of “that sharp female newly-born called La Guillotine.”
Darnay asks Defarge for help, but Defarge refuses.
Lucie and Dr. Manette arrive in Paris and seek Mr. Lorry’s help
Mr. Lorry and Doctor Manette see people sharpening their weapons on a grindstone as the plan to kill the prisoners.

36. Book III | Chapters 1 - 3 Lucie speaks to Monsieur and Madame Defarge
Lucie begs Madame Defarge to show Darnay some mercy, but Madame Defarge coldly responds the the revolution will not stop for the sake of Lucie or her family
“The wives and mothers we have been used to see, since were were little as this child, and much less, have not been greatly considered? We have known their husbands and fathers laid in prison and kept from them, often enough? All our lives, we have seen our sister-women suffer, in themselves and in their children, poverty, nakedness, hunger, thirst sickness, misery, oppressio, and neglect of all kinds?” (The Shadow, 253).

37. Book III | Chapter 4 - 5
Doctor Manette works to ensure the release of Darnay
Jokes about “the figure of the sharp female called La Guillotine” grew as it “hushed the eloquent, struck down the powerful, abolished the beautiful and good.”
Doctor Manette became “confident in his power”
The Wood Sawyer notices Lucie’s visits to Darnay and one time makes a joke as he cuts the wood of a mother and child’s heads coming off

38. Book III | Chapters 6 - 7
“Charles Evermonde, called Darnay” is finally brought to trial
Doctor Manette manages to free him
The reuniting does not last long for as “the shadows of the wintry afternoon were beginning to fall”
Later that evening, Charles is taken prisoner once again and will be told that “he is denounced-and gravely-by the Citizen and Citizeness Defarge. And by one other.”

39. Book III | Chapters 8 - 10 Miss Pross’ brother Solomon appears
Jerry Cruncher recognizes him as John Barsad, the witness who spoke against Darnay
Cruncher also reveals that Roger Cly’s coffin was empty
Carton notes that Barsad is the turnkey at the Concergerie
Carton begins to construct a plan for Darnay’s escape; he is no longer the “jackal” and he is planning to sacrifice himself for Lucie’s benefit

40. Book III | Chapters 8 – 10
AtDarnay’s new trial, the “one other” is revealed: Dr. Manette!
Dr. Manette lost hope and writes a “melancholy paper” denouncing the Marquis St. Evermonde family
Dr.Manette had been forced to care for a young peasant woman, dying from fever and the brother who is dying from a stab wound
Marquis’s brother had raped the woman, killed her husband, and stabbed the brother
Dr. Manette could not save the young woman’s life
Darnay is sentenced to death for the sins of his father and uncle

41. Book III | Chapters 11-13
Carton expresses to Manette to try his influence one more time
Lorry and Carton both feel certain there is no hope for Carton
At the wine-shop, the Defarges comment on how much Carton resembles Darnay
Defarge says “Extermination is good doctrine my wife…in general, I say nothing against it. But this Doctor has suffered much…”(318).
Carton overhears Madame Defarge’s plan to accuse Lucie, her daughter, and Dr. Manette of spying.

42. Book III | Chapters 11-13
Defarge believes this is not necessary, however, she reminds him of her personal grievance against the family – she is the surviving sister of the woman and man killed by the Marquis and his brother.
Carton leaves and immediately goes to see Mr. Lorry to him know that Lucie, her child, and Dr. Manette are in grave danger
He begins to share his plan with Lorry (at least part of it)
“Remember these words to-morrow: change the course, or delay in it –for any reason-and no life can possibly be saved, and many lives must inevitably be sacrificed” (324).

43. Book III | Chapters 13
52 prisoners are doomed to “roll” on the same day as Charles
Sydney Carton arrives in the cell, he tells Darnay at the request of his wife, he must change his boots
He dictates a letter that Charles must write “I am thankful that the time has come, when I can prove them. That I do so is no subject for regret or grief”(330).
Barsad is more worried about being betrayed than of Carton’s certain death

44. Book III | Chapters 13 Carton speaks to a “poor little seamstress”
She recognizes that he is not the real Monsieur Evermonde
Lorry manages to escape with Lucie, Dr. Manette, and Charles, who the “examiners” believe to be Carton in a “swoon” over the the loss of his friend.

45. Book III | Chapter 14 The Knitting Done
Madame Defarge does not trust her husband “has not my reason for pursuing this family to annihilation” (337).
She decides to go to Lucie’s house, certain the she is “home, waiting for the moment of his death. She will be mourning and grieving” (338).
“It was nothing to her, that an innocent man was to die for the sinse of his forefathers; she saw, not him, but them”(339). Madame Defarge’s sense of vengeance has lost all sensibility

46. Book III | Chapter 14
Miss Pross refers to Madame Defarge as “the wife of Lucifer” (343).
In a fight that results, Miss Pross hears a “flash and a crash,” the last sounds she will ever hear.
Madame Defarge is dead…

47. Book III | Chapter 15 The Footsteps Die Out For Ever
The Vengeance realizes that Madame Defarge is missing
Carton comforts the seamstress who tells her to keep her eyes upon him.
As Carton goes to his death he looks “sublime and prophetic”
Reread the end beginning with “I am the Resurrection and the Life”…