Unit 2: Chapters 2 – 6

4.  How else does Mr. Lorry try to prepare Lucie gently for the shock of the knowledge of her father’s imprisonment?

5.  Mr. Lorry is a study in appearances. His outward manner contrasts with his feelings and impulses.

  1. What clues to Mr. Lorry’s character are provided when we meet him at the inn? What other clues to his character do we get in his meeting with Lucie?
  2. Mr. Lorry says, “I have no feelings. I am a mere machine.” (page 19, line 26) Is this statement true or false? Why does Mr. Lorry so describe himself? Later he says, “That’s business, and if business is to be done I had better do it.” (page 41, lines 37-39) Why does he hide behind “business” to mask his real feelings?
  3. Mr. Lorry is quite overcome by the appearance of “the wild-looking woman,” whose name, as you will learn, is Miss Pross. How does he react to her blunt and overpowering actions and comments?
  4. What does the “repeated blowings of his nose” add to our interpretation of Mr. Lorry’s character?

12.  The two minor characters, Jerry Cruncher and Miss Pross, appear briefly to prepare us for more important roles later on.

  1. We first meet Jerry Cruncher as the messenger to the Dover mail. Why do the passengers distrust him.
  2. How is Jerry first described when he stops the mail?
  3. Miss Pross is first introduced as the “wild looking woman” with red hair. How else is she described? How does her devotion to Lucie make clear her own character?
  4. Miss Pross tends to be emotional rather than logical. How does her explanation for not going to France show a complete lack of logic?

15.  The episode of the spilled wine is dramatic, startling, and informative.

  1. How do the people react to the spilled wine? What does this reaction tell us about their lot?
  2. The scene is filled with a number of references and descriptions that convey a feeling of menace, of terrible violence to come. Give three or four such references or descriptions.

19.  Dickens often makes a word do two jobs. The word may have a simple meaning and a more profound one. When Dr. Manette, for example, is “recalled to life,” Dickens wants us to draw parallels between Dr. Manette’s nightmarish existence and death itself. The cell becomes a symbol of the death-in-life that Dr. Manette had to endure.

  1. Mr. Lorry thinks that he is going to “dig some one of a grave.” (page 11, line 19) How does this expression apply to Dr. Manette and his imprisonment?
  2. Chapter 3 is called “The Night Shadows.” How does the title both describe the time of day and also symbolize Mr. Lorry’s misgivings? What does Dickens suggest by the sunrise at the end of the chapter?
  3. Dickens sometimes makes the symbol obvious. For example, when the wine spills, someone writes “BLOOD” on a wall. How does the bursting of the wine cask resemble the outbreak of a revolution?

25.  For Dickens, the end of a chapter can be a summarizing statement, a hint of something to come, or an unfinished comment that entices us to read on.

  1. How does each chapter in this unit end?
  2. Do you consider the chapter endings effective? Why or why not?