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Transcript

A Tale of Two Cities

Presented by: Joe Kingsriter

1st Passage

1st

And now that the cloud settled on Saint Antoine, which a momentary

gleam had driven from his sacred countenance, the darkness of it

was heavy-cold, dirt, sickness, ignorance, and want, were the lords in

waiting on the saintly presence-nobles of great power all of them; but,

most especially the last. Samples of a people that had undergone a terrible

grinding and regrinding in the mill, and certainly not in the fabulous

mill which ground old people young, shivered at every corner, passed in

and out at every doorway, looked from every window, fluttered in every

vestige of a garment that the wind shook. The mill which had worked

them down, was the mill that grinds young people old; the children had

ancient faces and grave voices; and upon them, and upon the grown

faces, and ploughed into every furrow of age and coming up afresh,

was the sigh, Hunger. It was prevalent everywhere. Hunger was pushed

out of the tall houses, in the wretched clothing that hung upon poles

and lines; Hunger was patched into them with straw and rag and wood

and paper; Hunger was repeated in every fragment of the small modicum

of firewood that the man sawed off; Hunger stared down from the

smokeless chimneys, and started up from the filthy street that had no

offal, among its refuse, of anything to eat. Hunger was the inscription

on the baker’s shelves, written in every small loaf of his scanty stock

of bad bread; at the sausage-shop, in every dead-dog preparation that

was offered for sale. Hunger rattled its dry bones among the roasting

chestnuts in the turned cylinder; Hunger was shred into atomics in every

farthing porringer of husky chips of potato, fried with some reluctant

drops of oil.

TDQ:

TDQ:

What inference can you make based on the knowledge given in the passage?

Responce:

Response:

From what this passage beautifully displays, the town of Saint Antoine, and other subsequent towns are doing very poor in this day and age. Through the painted picture made graciously by Charles Dickens in this passage, it is easy to infer the situation of this mid to lower class. In fact, just a paragraph before I believe it talks about the lively hood that goes about the town, only for a few moments, as a bottle of wine splashes on the streets and all the towns people go to scoop it up in their hands. This moment served as a break from their ungodly starvation.

2nd Passage

2nd

Having released his noble bosom

of its burden, he would have modestly withdrawn himself, but that the

wigged gentleman with the papers before him, sitting not far from Mr.

Lorry, begged to ask him a few questions. The wigged gentleman sitting

opposite, still looking at the ceiling of the court.

Had he ever been a spy himself? No, he scorned the base insinuation.

What did he live upon? His property. Where was his property?

He didn’t precisely remember where it was. What was it? No business

of anybody’s. Had he inherited it? Yes, he had. From whom? Distant

relation. Very distant? Rather. Ever been in prison? Certainly

not. Never in a debtors’ prison? Didn’t see what that had to do with

it. Never in a debtors’ prison?—Come, once again. Never? Yes. How

many times? Two or three times. Not five or six? Perhaps. Of what profession?

Gentleman. Ever been kicked? Might have been. Frequently?

No. Ever kicked downstairs? Decidedly not; once received a kick on

the top of a staircase, and fell downstairs of his own accord. Kicked

on that occasion for cheating at dice? Something to that effect was said

by the intoxicated liar who committed the assault, but it was not true.

Swear it was not true? Positively. Ever live by cheating at play? Never.

Ever live by play? Not more than other gentlemen do. Ever borrow

money of the prisoner? Yes. Ever pay him? No. Was not this intimacy

with the prisoner, in reality a very slight one, forced upon the prisoner

in coaches, inns, and packets? No. Sure he saw the prisoner with these

lists? Certain. Knew no more about the lists? No. Had not procured

them himself, for instance? No. Expect to get anything by this evidence?

No. Not in regular government pay and employment, to lay traps? Oh

dear no. Or to do anything? Oh dear no. Swear that? Over and over

again. No motives but motives of sheer patriotism? None whatever.

TDQ:

TDQ

Is the way the book is written (structure) add ot subtract to the main message of the book?

Response:

Response:

I believe that the way in which the book is written greatly adds to its story, but it could have a side effect. Like I've seen earlier in this book, Charles Dickens doesn't seem to have a fear of gargantuan sentences or going away from the conventional writing style a bit. This is where I can see a side effect. Now it may have been do to my tiredness at certain times, but I have found myself re-reading sentences multiple times. Whether the reason being that It is quite alot to take in or the sudden lack of the usual, conventual writing style. This passage is a wonderful example of the latter of those two. I actually re-read a page or two once I realized that my suspicions were correct, and the text I was reading was a dialogue. If you look at that passage you'll notice that there are no quotations. I believe this was not just Dickens trying to conserve space, but it was, in just the structure of the writing, describing the monotone and snappy nature of the trial with the witness.

3rd Passage:

3rd

Already, the mender of roads had penetrated into

the midst of a group of fifty particular friends, and was smiting himself

in the breast with his blue cap. What did all this portend, and what portended

the swift hoisting-up of Monsieur Gabelle behind a servant on

horseback, and the conveying away of the said Gabelle (double-laden

though the horse was), at a gallop, like a new version of the German

ballad of Leonora?

It portended that there was one stone face too many, up at the

chateau.

The Gorgon had surveyed the building again in the night, and had

added the one stone face wanting; the stone face for which it had waited

through about two hundred years.

It lay back on the pillow of Monsieur the Marquis. It was like a fine

mask, suddenly startled, made angry, and petrified. Driven home into

the heart of the stone figure attached to it, was a knife. Round its hilt

was a frill of paper, on which was scrawled:

“Drive him fast to his tomb. This, from Jacques.”

TDQ

TDQ

What is some unique wordage that the author uses and why do you think this word is chosen?

Responce:

Response:

There is this unique wordage this passage uses involving masks and "Gorgons." Gorgans in the ancient, Greek myths were mystical creatures that could turn people to stone. Such creatures like "Medusa." There were three Gorgans in the myth, and the chapter frequently referred to Monsieur the Marquis as a Gorgon. Up until this point in the story I thought this description more to take on how gravely sour and old he appears. This passage gave a new meaning, and it displayed a sort of foreshadowing that I had not picked up on. The alertness of the towns people as there was news that there was one too many stone faces at the chateau and then to give the realization that the stone face that was referred to was but a gorgeous description and symbol for the body of Monsieur the Marquis (being cold, frozen in petrification, and stone like), is a tremondously awesome and soul-driven way of writing liturature. That is why these words were chosen. They give deep feeling, emotion, and an underlying power behind the rest of the passage.

Presented by: Joe Kingsriter

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