“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...”
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
* Reading -- you must read the entire novel (without the crutch of Cliff’s or other notes!) Don’t procrastinate in your reading; stay focused and be prepared for reading quizzes at any time.
*Novel Notes-- you will take notes both in your book and on paper with personal
annotations. Be sure to cover:
a. questions that arise as you are reading (non-plot oriented)
b. character information (major and minor) ; look for descriptions, comparison/contrast, motives, foils, etc.
c. setting -- compare the two -- tone, influence on characters, etc.
d. motifs and symbolism used
e. stylistic devices of Dickens; cite examples
f. social issues presented and statements showing the author’s opinion
g. 5 powerful quotations for discussion
h. theme -- write a one to two sentence statement for each book and for the entire novel.
* Stylistic Characteristics/ Devices/Plot Devices
Last year in 9th grade Pre AP, you learned about authors’ style by studying another of Dickens’ works. Remember the video you watched? You may find it helpful to reuse some of those notes. ( If you have not studied Dickens before, it would be helpful to watch this. I will announce a day when it will be shown after school.)
Listed are some of the characteristics of Dickens’ works. Make note of the use of these in the novel.
1. Complicated, intricate plots using suspense
Remember, Dickens was publishing in installments so curiosity had to be aroused at the end of each installment. Watch ends of chapters and books.
2. Coincidence
The use of coincidence drives the action of the plot and events and outcomes can be manipulated through its use.
3. Names
Very often Dickens’ characters’ names are of significance to the plot of the story. Think of what the name sounds like, and try to imply a meaning or, sometimes, there is an actual definition that is relevant.
4. Control of the written language
Look at sentence structure, diction, repetition, anaphora, etc. Here we will also
introduce the significance of syntax.
5. Dramatic purpose
WHY, WHY, WHY? Question the reason for characters, events, places, etc. that the author uses.
6. Motifs
A recurrent thematic element used in the development of a work.
7. Stock or conventional characters
A fictional character based on a common literary or social stereotype. These characters rely heavily on cultural types for their personality, manner of speech and other characteristics.
8. The hidden and discovered letter
A popular device for discovering the past or hearing a character’s innermost thoughts
9. Identical twins switching identities
10. Comic relief
These scenes may either follow or precede scenes of intense action or emotion.
*Terms to Know -- Listed below is an explanation of terms and places you will find helpful
in your reading. These will appear on your unit test.
Calais -- a port of France where one crosses the English Channel
Carmognole -- a wild dance performed by Revolutionists
Citizeness Knitters – the citoyennes tricoteuses, citizeness knitters, are famous in the French
Revolution lore. There are dozens of historical and psychological interpretations of their acts of unemotional knitting at the foot of the guillotine.
Dover -- a port of England where one crosses the English Channel
emigrant -- one who leaves his country or region to settle in another. The French term refers especially to one who has fled during a revolution.
flopping -- praying
Foulon -- a name notorious to revolutionary forces for his callous attitude toward the starving people of France as when he suggested that they might eat grass.
fortnight -- fourteen days
Hilary Term -- Hilary was a fourth-century bishop of Poitiers who was given an English feast day on January 13, which in turn gave its name to university and law terms
La Bastille -- a French prison torn down at the beginning of the French Revolution in 1789
La Force Prison -- French prison used during the Revolution to hold political prisoners who were accused of not supporting the revolutionary cause
Lettres de Cachet – letters signed by the King of France, countersigned by one or his ministers,
and closed with the royal seal (catchet). The most famous lettres de cachet were punitive
in nature, by which the King sentenced a subject to prison without trial and without an
opportunity to hear the charges filed against him or the chance to defend himself. These lettres de cachet were sometimes sold, with blanks to be filled in by the purchaser Thus the monarch had no knowledge of who was being imprisoned under his seal, and anyone with enough money to buy one could imprison anyone he wanted for any reason.;
Loadstone rock -- a magnetic rock that , according to legend, would lure sailors into it
Michaelmas Term -- the feast of St. Michael, a leader of the angels and their army. This feast was held on Sept. 29. Michaelmas was a law term and a term at Oxford and Cambridge.
Monseigneur -- a French dignitary. The term is also used as a title of honor preceding a title of office or rank. Ex: Monsiegneur the Marquis.
Old Bailey -- the English courthouse
St. Antoine -- a very poor quarter of Paris where revolutionary movement began
St. Germaine -- quarter of Paris where Tellson’s Bank was located
Soho -- an area of London
tricolor cockade -- a rosette or knot of ribbons or leather or any similar ornament worn on the hat as a badge of office or of party allegiance. Tricolor means the cockade would consist of three colors.
tumbril -- a two-wheeled cart; especially, a farmer’s cart that can be tilted to dump a load; a crude cart used to carry condemned prisoners to their place of execution
Introduction to A Tale of Two Cities
The novel you are about to read is a classic written by a master storyteller. Classic literature has lasting qualities partly because it probes issues or suggests truths that are vitally important to many people over generations in time. Literary art, like any other kind, is an individual expression. Charles Dickens, author of A Tale of Two Cities, drew from history and from his own experience.
In his youth Dickens lived in slums and suffered poverty. When he was eleven his father was imprisoned for debt, and the boy had to go to work for a mere six shillings a week in a shoe-polish factory where long, hard hours of child labor were of no concern to the management or to the lawmakers. After his father’s release from the humiliating imprisonment, Dickens received three years of schooling under a tyrannical schoolmaster. At sixteen he worked as an office boy in a law firm, where he had a chance to observe English courts. What he drew from such experiences and how he inevitably took the side of the underdog, you will observe in this novel.
For source material to lay the setting and the action, Dickens studied Thomas Carlyle’s history, The French Revolution. The French Revolution, which some people think was inspired by the success of the American Revolution, had ended - after a bloody decade - just sixty years before Dickens wrote this novel. Many old-timers remembered the way French masses exploded in rebellion against the aristocratic ruling class, who had pitilessly oppressed the common man.
Common people had been deprived of the basic rights that we today associate with democracy. They had no political liberty. They could not hold public meetings or speak freely. They could not worship as they pleased. Peasants bore an unfair and often crushing burden of taxation. They could turn to no one with their grievances. In fact, a nobleman with no more reason than a personal grudge could write a letter to the authorities and have a common man thrown into prison without benefit of trial. At last, on July 14, 1789, the oppressed and hungry of Paris stormed the Bastille, where many prisoners were unjustly confined. Then other outbreaks swept France. With the battle cry “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, or Death” the violent mob ruled with a lawless, vengeful, and fickle hand, the king and queen themselves finally being slain at the busy guillotine.
In A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens’ purpose was not to give the historian’s balanced picture of the revolution, to show both sides; rather, his concern was to recreate the revolutionary atmosphere largely from the viewpoint of the revolutionists. Although Dickens despised social injustice, selfishness, privileged rank, sham, tyranny, and cruelty, he injected the novel with an ultimate note of optimism. While sympathizing with the downtrodden in their fears and hopes, he believed in man’s ability to surmount periods of baseness, turmoil, and despair. He measured life in terms of human welfare, and he believed in orderly change through legal reforms. A dramatic writer, he created vivid characters, and he cast the characters in a historical setting to which he was sympathetic.
A main strength of the novel is its tightly knit plot. Dickens frequently introduces details that make the reader wonder. But the reader’s curiosity, once aroused, will be satisfied - the puzzles will be solved one by one. All the details are important in the later unfolding of the plot. The tantalizing digressions, the later tying-together of details, the crises, the unexpected turns, all contribute to make A Tale of Two Cities a suspenseful and thrilling novel.