Keep Your Friends Close, Keep Your Enemies Closer...

In chapters 11-13 of book 2 in a Tale of Two Cities, we hear a lot from the suitors who want to marry Lucie. Charles Darnay went to speak with Dr. Manette about his feeling towards Lucie and his wish to one day marry her, while Stryver confided in Carton about his love for Lucie. The exchange between Carton and Stryver, however, was what confused me the most.

"I don't care about fortune: she is a charming creature, and I have made up my mind to please myself... She will have in me a man already pretty well off, and a rapidly rising man, and a man of some distinction: it is a piece of good fortune for her, but she is worthy of good fortune." - Stryver (p. 145)

Stryver seems very sincere here about his love for Lucie, however, he also seems very cocky. when he says "it is a piece of good fortune for her," I think he is acting like she would be lucky to marry him, while in actuality, Lucie is the one with all the suitors, so wouldn't he be the fortunate one?

Also, Stryver gives some advice to Carton as to whom he should marry. He suggests:

"Now, let me recommend you, to look it in the face. I have looked it in the face, in my different way; look it in the face, you, in your different way. Marry. Provide somebody to take care of you. Never mind your having no enjoyment of women's society, nor understanding of it, nor tact for it. Find out somebody. Find out some respectable woman with a little property... and marry her, against a rainy day. That's the kind of thing for you." (p. 146)

While Sydney Carton doesn't give much of a response to Stryver's suggestion, it makes me wonder what Carton might have been thinking of Stryver. If I were him. I would be thinking, is "different" good or bad? What does Stryver really think of me? Or even, is he really my friend? It is clear from the text that Stryver doesn't think very highly of Carton. At the same time however, I feel that Stryver may see Sydney Carton as competition towards Lucie, and that is why he is confiding his feelings for her to him. It almost seems like Stryver is saying, 'Lucie loves me, so marry whoever you want, even if you don't love them, but Lucie is mine.' I found the exchange between these two men very confusing.

A Better Understanding

While reading chapter 7 of book 2, I realized how detailed Charles Dickens' writing is. When reading this old English kind of writing style, it can be very confusing to understand what is going on in the text. Dickens described some scenes so well, however, that it is easy to "paint yourself a picture" in your mind. A good example of his extraordinarily writing is on page 114:

"With a wild rattle and clatter, and an inhuman abandonment of consideration not easy to be understood in these days, the carriage dashed through streets and swept around corners, with women screaming before it, and men clutching each other and clutching children out of its way. At last, swooping at a street corner by a fountain, one of its wheels came to a sickening little jolt, and there was a loud cry from a number of voices, and the horses reared and plunged."

In previous chapters, I was always confused on what was happening, but this paragraph, and even other parts of this chapter made a lot of sense to me. The verbs and adjectives that were used made it much easier for me to understand exactly how the carriage was moving through the streets, how the people were reacting, and for me, the end of this paragraph helped me understand how horrible the accident was, even though we don't know much about it at this point. 'Dashed, swept, and swooping,' are all words that explain the carriage, and 'clutching, screaming, and cry,' all explain the people's reactions. It is obvious that the carriage is moving too fast and that all of the pedestrians out on the streets are terrified.

The one sentence, however, that evoked the most emotion in me, was: "one of its wheels came to a sickening little jolt, and there was a loud cry..." The word choice here seems very dark and it seems as though Dickens, once again, wants us to feel the pain that the victims in this scene are feeling. Dickens is fantastic at bringing emotion to the reader and at using word choice to help the reader better understand what is going on.

Eighteen Years...

A Tale of Two Cities starts off with very little information about plot, characters, or setting. You want to know who the characters are and what their stories are. You also want to know the setting and what is going on during this time so that you can understand why characters are making certain decisions. It takes a while to comprehend everything that is going on in the book, so when you begin, you have many questions.

One of the biggest questions that appears in the first several chapters of the book, is why Dickens chooses to repeat the idea of a man being buried for 18 years over and over again. Dickens, at least three times thus far in the book, has said: "'Buried how long?' 'Almost eighteen years.' 'I hope you care to live?' 'I can't say.'" There are several questions that come from these few sentences. You could ask: Who was buried? Why were they buried? And even, what does Dickens define being 'buried' as? Most of these questions, however, were answered rather quickly by the author. We find that Mr. Manette was the man who was buried, and that 'buried' actually means being in prison. As for why Mr. Manette was 'buried,' we have only been given slight hints, but we can form some ideas based on the information we do know.

Not only does the previous excerpt from the book raise many questions, but it evokes a kind of pain in the reader. Eighteen years is a long time, especially for someone to be in prison and away from their family. When asked, Mr. Manette said he wasn't sure if he wanted to live, which is a sad thing for anyone to hear. In these moments, it seems as though Dickens wants us to feel bad for Mr. Manette. I know i did.