A Tale of Two Cities
Social commentary about the barbarous penal system. Even Jerry knows that quartering is barbarous (although a specific reason he dislikes this punishment)
Verbal irony shows Dickens social commentary about the
limitations of
44-45
“a wise old institution that inflicted a punishment of which no one could forsee the extent; also for the whipping post, another dear old institution, very humanizing to behold in action . . . Altogether, the Old Bailey, at that date, was a choice illustration of the precept that ‘Whatever is, is right.” – aphorism
· Mr. Attorney General is the prosecutor
· Mr. Solicitor General is the defense attorney (Mr. Stryver, assisted by the guy who stares at the ceiling the whole time and looks like Mr. Darnay, Mr. Sydney Carton),
· My Lord: the judge
The prosecutor (Mr. Attorney General) starts out by describing his two witnesses, Roger Cly and John Barsad, as the most virtuous men in the world because he admires them more than his own brothers and sisters and they are completely “immaculate and unimpeachable” even though we soon discover that they are both liars and cheats who owed Mr. Darnay money
The prosecutors diction is flowery and exaggerated.
Stryver, the defense attorney’s, is by contrast, fast paces and plain. His quick questions (p. 50: he inherited his money from some distant relative so he is a gentlemen who needs no employment, but had been in debtor’s prison six times and had been kicked down the stairs, or fallen of his own accord due to not paying back a personal loan. Had borrowed money and never paid the “prisoner”) get both witnesses to confess the truth, but it would really matter except for Carton’s idea to compare Darnay to him and make it clear that he could have been misidentified by the key witness. (p. 51: “He had not put [the fake documents] there first.”)
The prosecutor twists words and relies on connotation, no
real facts; 52, a little after
54 & 56: George Washington joke. Traitorous
by itself to suggest that George Washington would ever be as famous as George
Sydney Carton: untidy, rude, but clever and watching everything carefully
58: two sides of Carton: rude: “Yes, I could. I will, if you ask it.” But actually helping Darnay out
Carton’s ploy works and Darnay is acquitted (set free)
60: “She was the golden thread that united him to a Past beyond his misery, and to a Present beyond his misery: and the sound of her voice, the light of her face . . .”
Carton goes with Darnay to dinner and insults him. Why?
64: “Why should you particularly like a man who resembles you? . . . A good reason for taking to a man, that he shows you what you have fallen away from, and what you might have been! Change places with him, and would you have been looked at by those blue eyes as he was, and . . . You hate the fellow.”
65: “Sydney Carton, idlest and most unpromising of me, was STryver’s great ally.”
The Lion: Mr. Stryver—gets all the credit and rises in esteem and in wealth: a figurehead who looks good, noble
The Jackal: Mr. Carton—seems dirty and low (slovenly and drunk all the time)
The irony is that the jackal does all the work, is all the brains, and he (who eats carrion, feeds the lion who should be the great hunter. The Lion is the scavenger fed by the supposed scavenger.
66: “At length the jackal had got together a compact repast for the lion, and proceeded to offer it to him.”
67: “old seesaw