A Tale of Two Cities

Reading Notes: pages 165 - 189

Ch. 21: Echoing Footsteps

The French Revolution begins

165 “Madame’s resolute right hand was occupied with an axe, in place of the usual softer implements, and in her girdle were a pistol and a cruel knife.”

The storm the Bastille (where Dr. Manette and other prisoners were once locked up)

But when they get there, there are only a few prisoners to free. Only 7

Visit Dr. Manette’s cell, but don’t seem to find much

169 “Saint Antoine’s blood was up, and the blood of tyranny and domination by the iron hand was down—down the steps of the Hotel de Ville where the governor’s body lay—down on the sole of the shoe of Madame Defarge where she had trodden on the body to steady it for mutilation.”

Ch. 22: The Sea Still Rises

The Vengeance, wife of the grocer – frenzied violence out of control

173: “and there Madame Defarge let him go—as a cat might have done to a mouse—and silently and composedly looked at him while they made ready, and while he besought her, the women passionately screeching at him all the time, and the men sternly calling out to have him killed with grass in his mouth.” Foulon who said let them eat grass

but things still aren’t much better, despite the revolution

174: “Not before dark night did the men and women come back to the children, wailing and breadless. Then, the miserable bakers’ shops were beset by long files of them, patiently waiting to buy bad bread . . . scanty and insufficient suppers those, and innocent of meat . . .”

Ch. 23: Fire Rises

Want to kill Monsieur Gabelle, the tax collector, on a 40 ft. gallows

Equate him with the Marquis, even though he has been doing Darnay’s bidding and helping all the villagers rather than cruelly starving them

The fire of revolution spreads across the countryside and many die

Ch. 24: Drawn to the Loadstone Rock

Darnay pities the people in France, but knows it is too dangerous to go and help until he receives the mysterious letter from M. Gabelle

Charged of working against the villagers at the commands of an emigrant (Darnay living in England). Doesn’t matter that he was helping them and collecting no rent, etc.

187: “Monsieur Gabelle had held the impoverished and involved estate on written instructions, to spare the people, to give them what little there was to give”

Darnay decides he must go “For the love of Heaven, of justice, of generosity, of the honour of your noble name” to save Gabelle from death in Paris where he is imprisoned.