1. Book The First Recalled to Life
A Tale of Two Cities
Book The First
Recalled to Life

2. Chapter 1
The Period

3. Two Cities
Two Cities
London, England
Paris, France
First Passage establishes the contrasts between the two countries and cities
Year is 1775

4. Antithesis
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way--

5. Guillotine Reference to the Guillotine
Trees growing in France and Norway
Woodman—Fate
Farmer--Death

6. Chapter 2
The Mail

7. The Dover Road The Dover Road
The mail route from London to Dover (a costal city)
Travelers could then catch a ship to the French port of Calais
Mail was carried by coach with the passengers

8. Mail Coach
Passengers would often have to get out of the carriage and walk up hills when it was rainy or muddy
This was a time of highway men
Robbers who held up carriages

9. A Cryptic Message Passengers in the carriage
Two men who are covered with mufflers
Jarvis Lorry
Banker for Tellson’s Bank
A rider approaches with a message for Mr. Lorry
Wait at Dover for Mademoiselle

10. A Cryptic Message The rider is employed by Tellson’s Bank
Jerry Cruncher
Does Odd-Jobs for Tellson’s
Reply to the note
Recalled to Life
cryptic

11. Chapter 3
The Night Shadows

12. Tellson’s Bank Jarvis Lorry dozes off in the coach
He has dreams/images of Tellson’s Bank
Impression that Tellson’s drains a man of his youth
Established as rigid in its structure

13. Digging out of a Grave
Lorry also dreams that he is on his way to “dig someone out of his grave”
Metaphoric
Connect to message
Imagines a conversation with a “ghost” who tells him he has been buried for eighteen years

14. Imagined Conversation
Lorry informs his imaginary companion that he now has been “recalled to life”
Asks him if he cares to live.
He also asks, “Shall I show her to you? Will you come and see her?”
The ghost’s reaction to this question varies,
Sometimes claims that he would die were he to see this woman too soon;
At other times, he weeps and pleads to see her immediately.

15. Chapter 4
The Preparation

16. At the Royal George Inn Lorry arrives at the Royal George Inn
Meets with Mademoiselle
Lucie Manette
She has received word from that the bank had information on property of her father

17. Lucie Manette Established she is an orphan
Father died before she was born
Mother died when she was two
Tellson’s bank acts as her guardian

18. Purpose of the Meeting
Lorry relates the real reason that Tellson’s has summoned Lucie to Paris.
Her father, once a reputed doctor, has been found alive.
“Your father,” Lorry reports to her, “has been taken to the house of an old servant in Paris, and we are going there: I, to identify him if I can: you, to restore him to life, love, duty, rest, comfort.”
Lucie goes into shock,
Miss Pross, her Nanny/Servant rushes in to attend to her.

19. Chapter 5
The Wine Shop

20. The Broken Cask
Story now moves to the Saint Antoine Quarter of Paris, France
A wine keg falls off a cart and breaks in the street
The people attack the spilt wine like savages
Broken wine cask conveys the suffering and rage that will lead the French peasantry to revolt.

21. BLOOD
One man dips his finger into the “muddy wine-lees” and scrawls the word blood on a wall.
Foreshadows the blood that will be spilled in the revolution
“Those who had been greedy with the staves of the cask, had acquired a tigerish smear about the mouth.”

22. The Wine Shop The wine shop is owned by Monsieur Defarge
His wife, Madame Defarge, sits solemnly behind the counter
Watchful of everything that goes on around her.

23. Personification/Parallelism
Hunger was pushed out of the tall houses Hunger was patched into them with straw and rag and wood and paper; Hunger was repeated in every fragment of the small modicum of firewood that the man sawed off; Hunger stared down the smokeless chimneys Hunger was the inscription on the baker’s shelves Hunger rattled its dry bones among the roasting chestnuts in the turned cylinder; Hunger was shred into atomies in every farthing porringer of husky chips of potato

24. At the Wine Shop She signals to her husband as he enters the wine shop
Alerts him to the presence of an elderly gentleman and a young lady.
Lorry and Lucie
Defarge eyes the strangers but pretends not to notice them

25. The Four Jacques Defarge speaks with three familiar customers
Each refers to the other two as “Jacques”
Code name that identifies themselves to one another as revolutionaries.
Defarge directs the men to a chamber on the fifth floor and sends them out

26. Door to the Garret
Mr. Lorry approaches from the corner and begs a word with Defarge.
The men have a brief conversation
Defarge leads Lorry and Lucie up a steep, dangerous rise of stairs.
They come to a filthy landing, where the three men from the wine shop stand staring through chinks in the wall.

27. Chapter 6
The Shoemaker

28. The Shoemaker
The man reports that he is making a lady’s shoe in the “present mode”
Even though he has never seen the present fashion
Lorry’s purpose is to identify him as Dr. Manette

29. One Hundred and Five North Tower
When asked his name, he responds, “One Hundred and Five, North Tower.
Lucie approaches.

30. Golden Hair He notices Lucie’s radiant golden hair
Manette opens a knot of rag that he wears around his neck
He keeps a strand of similarly golden curls.

31. Lucie and her Father At first, Manette mistakes Lucie for his wife
Recalls that, on the first day of his imprisonment, he begged to be allowed to keep these few stray hairs of his wife’s as a means of escaping his circumstances “in the spirit.”
Lucie delivers an impassioned speech, imploring her father to weep if her voice or her hair recalls a loved one whom he once knew.

32. Recalled to Life
Lucie urges that arrangements be made for his immediate departure for England.
Fearing for Manette’s health, Lorry protests,
Lucie insists that travel guarantees more safety than a continued stay in Paris.
Defarge agrees and ushers the group into a coach.