Book II Chapter 1 Study Guide

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A Tale of Two Cities

Book II Chapter 1 Study Guide

I.  Notes

Dickens depicts the venerable Tellson's Bank as being in the business of death. Described as dark, ugly, and cramped, Tellson's boasts an atmosphere of deliberate grimness and decay. Money, documents, and valuables that go into Tellson's for safekeeping are buried in "wormy old wooden drawers"and acquire "a musty odor, as if they were fast decomposing"or being "corrupted."

Just as material goods are buried and decay in Tellson's, the bank transforms the people who deal with it as well. The bank hides clerks who go to work at Tellson's as young men until they become old. Additionally, Tellson's literally sends people to their deaths; the bank identifies forgers, debtors, counterfeiters, and petty thieves who eventually go to their graves under the harsh death penalty. Not coincidentally, Dickens locates Tellson's next to the Temple Bar, an arched gateway to the city where the government sometimes displayed the heads of the executed.

Jerry Cruncher, the messenger, serves as "the live sign of the house,"which indicates that he may have something to do with death as well. Like many of the other characters in the novel, Jerry appears to have a secret. Some of his physical characteristics and personality traits create an air of mystery, such as his muddy boots, his rusty fingers, and his paranoia regarding his wife's prayers.

II.  Terms

1. Barmecide room- a room in which things are an illusion. Barmecide was a prince in the Arabian Nights who offered a beggar a feast and set an empty plate before him.

2. purloiner- a thief.

3. Whitefriars- a dostrict of central London between Fleet Street and the Temple area where criminals and fugitive debtors lived.

4. personal board- a person's daily meals.

5. choused- cheated, swindled.

6. hackney coach- a coach for hire, oftentimes a six-seat carriage drawn by two horses.

7. laudanum- a solution of opium in alcohol or wine used as a painkiller or sleeping aid, or drunk as an intoxicant.

III. Questions

Chapter 1: "Five Years Later"

1. How does Dickens describe Tellson’s Bank?

1. Describe Tellson’s bank. What is the bank’s attitude toward change?

1. How does Tellson’s treat the young men in its employ?

1. How is Jerry Cruncher both comic and yet consistent with Dickens' attack on social conditions?

1. What behavior of Mrs. Cruncher makes Mr. Cruncher angry? Why does this anger him?

1. How do Jerry's hands and boots constitute a mystery?

1. What physical characteristic of his father’s does young Jerry wonder about? Can you make a guess about it?

1. How does Tellson's epitomize English complacency?

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