1.
guillotine, timeline, Carlyle’s history (Dickens based
his novel on this popular history of the French revolution—making it more
personal and “picturesque”), severe bigotry between the social classes—nobles
really were cruel, didn’t pay taxes, etc., double standard (different
rules/laws based on class), Jacobins (Jacques)—Saint Antoine, Dr. Manette to Robespierre (R was actually killed despite being
a leader of the revolution initially), violence, numbers of deaths (and type of
people killed)
2.
revealing the extreme poverty,
desperation, starvation, foreshadowing the bloody revolution. Anaphora “hunger”
21-22, red wine symbolizes the blood that will be spilled later, hands stained
red—guilt for future crimes, excessive revenge and violence, Gaspard scrawls “blood” in red wine—blood revenge, tainted by the blood—evil. Uses the
repetition of the word “hunger” (anaphora) to show the desperation and poverty
of the poor
3.
watching and knitting, stop
fire and wind but not her (264), personification of the revolution—all the
evil, violence, and revenge that gets out of control. She is the living thing
that symbolizes the revolution, hidden at first, but comes out in the end, she
is the power, the soul (soulless) of the revolution, no one could stop her and
no one could stop the revolution,
a. her
soul is tainted by hate just as the revolution is, both end in misery
4.
Stryver: pompous, stupid,
Carton is the brains,
a. Foil
to Carton, Carton looks bad on the outside but has brains and heart that he
rarely shows. Stryver is impressive on the outside
but has no substance==lion and jackal
b. Proposal
to Lucie: debates it in his head, thinks it’s an easy case. Once he learns that
Lucie is probably not interested, he shifts gears—she’s not worthy of him,
narrow escape from marrying down
5.
The analogy used for Carton’s interactions with Barsad. He has the good cards, and Barsad
is stuck so he cooperates. Carton’s ace is his knowledge that Barsad is Sol. Pross and that
Roger Cly is alive—gets access to Darnay—allows
him to save him. Why? Show the bridge between the old Carton and the new: rough
and tough (gambler) but doing good. In control,
manipulating easily, but doing it for good. Showing experitise,
adding drama. Like the fishing analogy for grave digging.
6.
Irony: discrepancy between appearance and reality
a. Dramatic irony: character says one thing but
the audience knows the opposite is true
b. situational irony: when the opposite of what
is expected occurs
c. verbal irony: character says one thing, but
means the opposite
examples: Liberty, Equality,
Fraternity, or Death: becomes all about death (which is the opposite of
liberty), When the Vengeance calls Madame Defarge an
“angel” (really closer to a devil), irony: Madam Defarge
is beautiful (but so ugly on the inside) just as Miss Pross
is ugly (but beautiful on the inside in her love and devotion for Lucie), when
people begin wearing the guillotine instead of the cross, Carton’s
life—worthless to revered, Stryver talking about
Lucie as low (marriage, she is really better than he is)
7.
“Hunger” 21-22, “death”
a. anaphora:
repetition of a single word in order to emphasize
i.
different than a repeated motif: footsteps (at Lucie’s house in
ii. motif: resurrection
8.
Foil: two characters set in opposition in order to show
each character in more detail
a. Madam
Defarge & Miss Pross
b. Carton
& Darnay (twins)
c. Carton
and Madam Defarge
d. Carton
and Stryver
e. Miss
Pross and Mr. Lorry
f.
Darnay & his uncle the
Marquis
9.
Foreshadowing: hint at what will happen later in the
story
a. Carton
saving Darnay’s life in the trial because they look
alike
b. Footsteps
c. Wine
cask and “blood” scrawled on the wall
d. Gaspard’s killing of the Marquis
10. Themes:
a. Conflict
between good and evil
b. Resurrection
and renewal
c. Love
is more powerful than hate
d. Power
corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely
e. The
lust for revenge can destroy
f.
Out of suffering can come great good or great evil
g. Power
of self sacrifice
h. History
parallels individual lives
i.
Hate breeds hate, terror breeds terror
11. Madam
Defarge, guillotine, red caps, “
12. Vigor
of love so much stronger than hate 286
13. resurrections:
a. Dr.
Manette (recalled to life)
b. Darnay (after the trial for treason, Carton saves him)
c. Carton
(when he decides to lay his life down for Darnay):
good side is reborn
d. Carton
(after dies, reborn through Sydney Carton
Darnay) little Carton is a lawyer with great
promise and success
e. Darnay again (released from prison, and when Carton dies
for him)
f.
Jerry Cruncher (irony: he is a resurrection man (grave
digger)—is promises to never dig up graves again, and regains a belief in God
and in his wife praying for him)
g. France
(beautiful city and brilliant people) out of the bloody streets and abyss
14. The
Vengeance: in the Jacquerie (like Madam Defarge), 2 defarges, the Veng, Jacques Three, Gaspard
15. plot
development and overall structure:
a. slow
build up to climax, short resolution (230 pages of build up, 40 of climax, 5 of
resolution
b. all
of the foils (
c. music: chords (overlapping foils and oppositions, and
parallels are the chords). Dickens weaves all of this chords to tell the whole
story
16. Darnay is boring, Carton grew so much,
a. Modern
literature: the hero is a typical guy, not a king
i.
Has great potential, but has a lot to improve upon
ii.
We can see ourselves in the hero, we have the potential
to be great as well
b. Carton
is a tragic hero
c. A
Tale is essentially a tragedy
i.
Carton learns from Lucie (the heroine)
ii.
In the end he has learned and tyranny is stopped
d. Central
irony: in the end we wish that Carton had been the one to live and marry Lucie,
but if he hadn’t sacrificed his life and saved the day, he wouldn’t have been
so admirable
17. symbolism
of Carton’s death: like Jesus—died for our sins,
a. Carton
is resurrected, France and all its people are reborn
b. Because
of his great sacrifice, we all have a better life
c. He
is a model for all of us