1. Book the Second Chapters 19-24
A Tale of Two Cities
Book the Second
Chapters 19-24

2. “An Opinion”
Chapter 19

3. The Tenth Morning
It is the tenth morning of Jarvis Lorry and Miss Pross’s vigil watching over Dr. Manette
Remember he has had a relapse and has reverted back to shoemaking for the past nine days
When Doctor Manette appears on the tenth morning, he is lucid and does not remember anything from the past nine days

4. A Hypothetical Situation
Jarvis Lorry discusses the situation with him through a hypothetical friend who had gone through a mental shock
Doctor Manette states that some sort of stimulus triggered the relapse
For him it was the conversation with Charles and learning Charles’ true identity
We know that he is Charles Evrémonde
Obviously there is a connection between Manette and the Evrémondes

5. A Hypothetical Situation
Manette reassures Miss Pross and Lorry that such a relapse is not likely to recur because the circumstances that caused it are unlikely to surface again.
Using the hypothetical friend and situation, Lorry creates a scenario about a blacksmith.
He asks whether, if the smith’s forge were associated with a trauma, the smith’s tools should be taken from him in order to spare him painful memories.

6. A Solution?
Manette answers that the man used those tools to comfort his tortured mind and should be allowed to keep them.
Lorry brings up the fact the tools should be disposed of for the sake of the daughter
Manette replies that it should be done when the person is away
Does Manette know Lorry is talking about him?

7. Destruction
Manette goes to join Lucie and Charles for the last segment of their honeymoon
Lorry and Pross destroy the shoemaker’s bench, destroy it, and bury the tools
Dickens makes it seem as if their actions are clandestine
Almost as if they were committing a murder

8. “A Plea”
Chapter 20

9. Congratulations
Once the newlyweds return home, Sydney Carton is the first to stop by to offer his congratulations
He is basically the same as he ever was
He had a “certain air of fidelity about him”
Darnay observes this as “new”
Why would he want fidelity to the Darnays?

10. Recalling the Past
Carton expresses to Darnay that he wishes to be friends
Darnay replies they already are friends
Brings up the dinner conversation they had after the trial
He tells Darnay that he regrets not liking him in the past and hopes Darnay will forget about it and his attitude towards him
Darnay considers it done and in the past

11. A Request
Carton asks Darnay if he could be permitted to come and go as a privileged person at their house
Basically says he would not abuse the privilege
States he would only come four or so times a year
Darnay agrees

12. Talking it Over with Lucie
Later that night, Darnay has a conversation with Lucie concerning Carton
She believes that Carton deserves more consideration and respect than Charles showed him tonight
He asks her what she would like him to do

13. Bleeding Heart
She tells him to be generous with him and lenient on his faults
She says Carton has a heart he seldom reveals
She says she has seen it bleeding
Metaphoric
Refer back to the conversation Lucie and Carton had when he pledged his love for her and any she holds dear

14. Happiness and Misery
Charles says, “It is a painful reflection to me that I should have done him any wrong. I never thought this of him.”
Again illustrates the lack of depth of character compared to Carton
Lucie tells him “to remember how strong we are in our happiness, and how weak he is in his misery.”
Charles agrees to remember this
Charles blesses his wife for her “sweet compassion”

15. “Echoing Footsteps”
Chapter 21

16. Golden Thread
“A wonderful corner for echoes, it has been remarked, that corner where the Doctor lived.
What do the echoes symbolize?
“Ever busily winding the golden thread which bound her husband, and her father, and herself, and her old directress and companion in a life of quiet bliss . . .”
How is Lucie still the golden thread?

17. Footsteps
“Lucie sat in the still house in the tranquilly resounding corner, listening to the echoing footsteps of the years.”
What do the footsteps symbolize?
Dickens states that every once in a while when she would be working when she would go into a type of trance
“For there was something coming in the echoes, something light, afar off, and scarcely audible yet, that stirred her heart too much.”
Foreshadowing

18. Lucie as a Mother Lucie gives birth to two children
A daughter named little Lucie
A son who dies very young
He is not named, but we can assume he is Charles, Jr
His death is described as Angels wings mixing with the footsteps
He is sympathetic towards Carton—as he dies he tells his parents, “Poor Carton! Kiss him for me!”

19. Carton and the Darnays Carton is an occasional visitor in the house
Comes about six times a year
Is never drunk when he visits
He is the first person little Lucie held out her hands to
Like a favored uncle

20. Sydney Carton
Dickens states, “No man ever really loved a woman, lost her, and knew her with a blameless though an unchanged mind, when she was a wife and a mother, but her children had a strange sympathy for him—an instinctive delicacy of pity for him.”

21. What About Stryver? We find out what happened to Mr. Stryver
Sydney Carton still works for him
He married a wealthy widow with property and three sons
Sons were rather stupid
Proposes that Darnay be their tutor
Darnay turns him down
Stryver is affronted at the “insult”
Creates a lie about Lucie
Says she was out to “catch” him but he turned her down

22. Echoes
By 1789, the echoes reverberate “from a distance” and make a sound “as of a great storm in France with a dreadful sea rising.”
One day in July, Lorry visits the Darnays and reports that an alarming number of French citizens are sending their money and property to England.

23. Storming of the Bastille
The scene then shifts to the storming of the Bastille in Paris.
Dickens says there were “mad and dangerous footsteps to force their way into anyone’s life, footsteps not easily made clean again if once stained red, the footsteps raging in Saint Antoine afar off, as the little circle sat in the dark London window.

24. The Swelling Sea
Defarge and Madame Defarge serve as leaders among the mob.
The mob is described as a swelling sea
Like a tidal wave

25. 105 North Tower
Once inside the Bastille, Defarge grabs a guard and demands to know what 105 North Tower is
He is told it is a cell number in the North Tower
Defarge demands to be taken to 105 North Tower.

26. Inside the Cell Defarge searches the cell.
He finds inscribed on the wall “Alexandre Manette” and “a poor physician”
He finds a calendar inscribed on a stone
He gets a crowbar to upturn the stone
He has other members of the Jacquerie rip apart the straw matress
It is not revealed for what he is looking or whether he found it

27. Killing the Governor of the Bastille
When he is finished, he rejoins the mob as it murders and mutilates the governor who had defended the fortress.
Madame Defarge cuts off the man’s head.
They release prisoners and put the heads of those people they killed on pikes in front of the prison

28. “The Sea Still Rises”
Chapter 22

29. Old Foulon What is the significance of the title of this chapter?
One week later in Saint Antoine, Defarge arrives bearing news of the capture of Foulon
A wealthy man who once declared that if people were starving they should eat grass.
Foulon had faked his own death to avoid the peasants’ fury
He was later discovered hiding in the country.

30. Old Foulon
The revolutionaries set out to meet Foulon, led by Madame Defarge and a woman known only as The Vengeance.
The mob strings Foulon up, but the rope breaks and he does not die until his third hanging.
The peasants put his head on a pike and fill his mouth with grass.
When they have finished, the peasants eat their “scanty and insufficient suppers,”
Parents play with their children, and lovers love.

31. “Fire Rises”
Chapter 23

32. Burning the Chateau The French countryside lies ruined and desolate.
An unidentified man, weary from travel, meets the mender of roads.
They address each other as “Jacques” to indicate their status as revolutionaries.
The mender of roads directs the man to the chateau of the murdered Marquis.
Later that night, the man sets the castle on fire.

33. Candles in the Window
A rider from the chateau urges the village soldiers to help put out the fire and salvage the valuables there,
They refuse
The villagers go inside their homes and put “candles in every dull little pane of glass.”
What does this signify?

34. Gabelle The peasants nearly kill Gabelle, the local tax collector
He escapes to the roof of his house, where he watches the chateau burn.
The narrator reports that scenes such as this are occurring all over France.

35. “Drawn to the Loadstone Rock”
Chapter 24

36. The Loadstone Rock What is the significance of the title?
What is a lodestone?
Three years pass.
It is now August of 1792

37. Gathering at Tellsons
Political turmoil continues in France, causing England to become a refuge for persecuted aristocrats.
Tellson’s Bank in London becomes a “great gathering-place of Monseigneur.”
Monseigneur is used to refer to all the aristocratic refugees
Used as a mail clearing house

38. Sending Lorry to Paris
Tellson’s has decided to dispatch Mr. Lorry to its Paris branch
They hope that he can protect their valuable ledgers, papers, and records from destruction.

39. Lorry and Darnay Darnay arrives to persuade Lorry not to go
His age and he situation in France
Darnay wishes he were going instead
Lorry admonishes him for his thoughts
Darnay is a Frenchman living in England
Darnay is regretting he did not do more for the people of the Marquis village
Lorry insists, saying that he will bring Jerry Cruncher as his bodyguard.

40. Stryver Stryver is at Tellson’s He is his usual pompous self
He is on his way to a state promotion

41. The Letter Tellson’s brings Lorry an unopened letter
Darnay sees the address
“Very Pressing. To Monsieur, heretofore the Marquis St. Evrémonde, of France. Confided to the cares of Messrs. Tellson and Co., Bankers, London, England.”
Lorry has made inquiries, but no one has claimed the letter

42. Discussion of the “Marquis”
Lorry laments the extreme difficulty of locating the Marquis, who has abandoned the estate willed to him by his murdered uncle.
Discussion is held among the Monseigneurs and Stryver as to the character of this missing man
Darnay, careful to let no one suspect that he is in fact the missing Marquis, says that the Marquis is an acquaintance of his.

43. Darnay Takes the Letter
He takes the letter, assuring Lorry that he will see it safely delivered.
Darnay reads the letter, which contains a plea from Gabelle, whom the revolutionaries have imprisoned for his upkeep of the Marquis’ property.
He did so under Charles request
Gabelle begs the new Marquis to return to France and save him.

44. Drawn to the Loadstone Rock
Darnay resolves to go to Paris, with a “glorious vision of doing good.”
Is this a wise decision?
Is Charles romanticizing the situation?
After writing a farewell letter to Lucie and Doctor Manette, he departs.