A Tale of Two Cities Chapter 7 Monseigneur in Town

A Tale of Two Cities Chapter 7Monseigneur in Town

Main CharactersMonsignor A rich noble who was one of the great lords of the court.Farmer General- Handles Monsignor's finances.Monsieur Orleans- Professor of the provinces. Marquis Evremonde- Charles Darnays uncle, the Marquis Evremonde is a French aristocrat who embodies an inhumanly cruel caste system. He shows absolutely no regard for human life and wishes that the peasants of the world would be exterminated.Gaspard- The father of the boy who dies. Monsieur DefargeMadame Defarge

Beginning of the chapter takes place in a Grand Hotel in Paris.On the streets of Paris in front of Monsieur Defarges wine shop. SettingsPlotMonsignor is throwing a reception with 1,700 people. Farmer-General is there in the outer rooms.Everyone was dressed and powdered and looked as if they were at a Fancy Ball. Monsignor is so rich and stuck up that he eats chocolate every morning which 4 strong men and a chef have to make before he will even but it to his mouth. He says The Earth and the fullness there of are mine He parades around his guests briefly and then returns to his sanctuary never to be seen the whole night.Everyone leaves and one man with his hat under his arm and his snuff-box in his hand, slowly passed some mirrors on his way out and said I devote you, to the Devil!

Plot cont. The mans name was Marquis Evremonde. When he left the reception he orders his carriage to be raced through the city streets. He found it amusing to see the peasants nearly run down by his horses. Suddenly the carriage jolts to a stop, and a child lies dead under his wheels. The boys father (Gaspard) is next to him in terror.The Marquis came out of his carriage and said It is extraordinary to me, that you people cannot take care of yourselves and your children. One or the other of you is for ever in the way. How do I know what injury you have done to my horses? See! Give him that. Marquis Evremonde throws a coin to the boys father.

Plot cont. Defarge came out of his wine shop and tried to comfort Gaspard. Marquis threw Defarge a coin also and asked if his horses were okay again.Marquis drove off, and a coin came flying back through the air into his carriage.He stops the carriage and says You dogs! I would ride over any of you very willingly, and exterminate you from the Earth.This entire time Madame Defarge watches the scene, knitting. Chapter 8:

Monsignor in the CountryMain CharactersMonsignorGabelleGaspardMarquis EvremondeDefarge

SettingsThe Marquis is traveling from Paris to the Evremonde country estate, and he rides through a landscape of withered crops. Main Plot PointsA road mender claims he saw a man riding under the carriage, but he is no longer there. He alerted the village official, Gabelle, to be on the lookout for the mystery man. Before he reaches the estate, a grief-stricken woman stops him at the graveyard and begs him for a marker for the grave of her dead husband. Chapter 9:

The Gorgons Head CharactersCharles Darnay (Nephew)

Monsieur Marquis

Monsieur Gabelle

SettingMarquiss chateau Late at night and early the next morning.

Near by village Early the next morning.Plot/SummaryThat night, at the Marquiss chateau, Charles Darnay, the nephew of the Marquis, arrives by carriage. Darnay tells his uncle that he wants to renounce the title and property that he stands to inherit when the Marquis dies. The familys name, Darnay contends, is associated with fear and slavery. He insists that the family has consistently acted shamefully, injuring every human creature who came between us and our pleasure. The Marquis dismisses these protests, urging his nephew to accept his natural destiny.Summary/PlotThe next morning, the Marquis is found dead with a knife through his heart. Attached to the knife is a note that reads: Drive him fast to his tomb. This, from Jacques.

Chapter Ten:

Two Promises

CharactersCharles Darnay

Dr. ManetteSettingDr. Manettes home in LondonPlot A year later, Darnay makes a moderate living as a French teacher in London. He visits Doctor Manette and admits his love for Lucie. He honors Manettes special relationship with his daughter, assuring him that his own love for Lucie will in no way disturb that bond. Manette applauds Darnay for speaking so feelingly and so manfully and asks if he can seek a promise from him. Darnay asks Manette to promise to vouch for the true nature of his love should Lucie ever ask. Manette promises as much.

Chapter 10 Plot PointsWanting to be worthy of his confidence, Darnay attempts to tell Manette his real name, confessing that it is not Darnay. Manette stops him short, making him promise to reveal his name only if he proves successful in his courtship. He will hear Darnays secret on his wedding day. Hours later, after Darnay has left, Lucie hears her father cobbling away at his shoemakers bench. Frightened by his relapse, she watches him as he sleeps that night.

Chapter 11:

A Companion Picture

CharactersCharles DarnaySydney CartonSettingStryvers ChambersMain Plot Points Mr. Stryver and Sydney Carton are in Stryvers chambers talking when Stryver tells Carton to mix some more punch because he needs to tell him something. Carton, who is already drunk, makes some more punch as directed and then ask what he wanted to tell him. Stryver tells Carton he intends to marry. After talking for a couple minutes Stryver tells Carton he intends to marry Lucie Manette. Chapter 12The Fellow of Delicacy

Major CharactersMr. StryverMr. Lorry

SettingSoho

Tellsons BankPlotThe day after the night that Stryver and Carton were talking about Stryvers intentions to propose, Stryver plans to take Lucie to the Vauxhall Gardens to make his marriage proposal. On his way, he drops by Tellsons Bank to inform Mr. Lorry of what he is going to do.Mr. Lorry tries to convince him to postpone the proposal until he knows for a fact she will say yes.He asks Stryver to hold off the proposal for a few hours so he can consult the family and see what they think of Stryver.

Plot continued..Lorry visits Stryver that night and confirms that if he would have proposed the Manettes would have rejected his offer.Stryver dismisses the entire affair as one of the vanities of empty-headed girls and begs Lorry to forget it.

Chapter 13

"The Fellow of No Delicacy"30Main CharactersSydney CartonDr. ManetteMr. StryverMiss ManetteSettingDr. Manette's house

31Main PlotSydney Carton enters the Manette's house on one August day and speaks to Lucie alone.She listens to what he has to say.He tells her how his life is wasted, complaining that he shall never receive a life than the one he now lives.Lucie assures him that he might become much worthier of himself.She believes that her tenderness can save him. 32Main PlotCarton insists that he has declined beyond salvation but admits that he has always viewed Lucie as "the last dream of {his} soul.She has mentioned to him considering beginning his life again, though he no longer believes in the possibility of doing so. He feels happy to have admitted this much to Lucie and to know that something remains in him that still deserves pity. Carton ends his confession to Lucie Carton ends his confession with a pledge that he would do anything for Lucie, including give his life.33Chapter 14 The Honest TradesmanMain charactersMr. Jeremiah Cruncher Young Jerry Mrs. Cruncher

SettingsFleet StreetJerry Crunchers houseA graveyard

Main plot pointsJerry Cruncher is sitting on a stool outside Tellsons bank with his son. He watches the funeral procession for Roger Cly (Charles Darnays former servant who stood witness against him earlier in the novel). A mob follows the funeral, shouting Spies! Pullem out, there! Dickens observes, A crowd in those times stopped at nothing, and was a monster much dreaded. Cruncher joins the crowd as they march to the cemetery. They become violent, breaking windows and looting before breaking up. Cruncher and his son return home. His wife asks if he is going to be going out to-night. He does. He takes a sack, a crowbar, and some rope and chain.His curious son follows him. His father had said he would be going fishing, but as his son sneakily follows him, he watches his father go to the graveyard and begin digging up a grave. Young Jerry runs home horrified.Plot Cont.In the morning, Mr. Cruncher and Mrs. Cruncher get into a argument about this dreadful business because he says she shouldnt disagree with the way hes getting money. He tells her that she should not oppose her husbands business. Young Jerry asks his father what a resurrection-man is.Mr. Cruncher responds that a resurrection-man is an honest tradesman whose goods are persons bodies.Chapter Fifteen:

Knitting

CharactersDefarge

Madame Defarge

The JacquesSettingsParisSt. Antoinne

The garret where Dr. Manette was hidden at the beginning of the novel.PlotDefarge enters his wine-shop with a mender of roads, whom he refers to as Jacques. Three men file out of the shop individually. Eventually, Defarge and the mender of roads climb up to the garret where Doctor Manette had been hidden. They are joined by the three men who recently exited the shop, and whom Defarge also calls Jacques. The mender of roads reports that, a year ago, he saw a man hanging by a chain underneath the Marquis carriage (the man was Gaspard, the dead childs father). He says he saw the man again several months later, being marched along the road by soldiers. The soldiers led the man to prison, where he remained in his iron cage for several days. The mender says he does not know what became of this man, but according to rumor, petitions soon arrived in Paris begging that the prisoners life be spared.He wonders if the petition spared the mans life.One of the Jacques tells him that a petition was presented to the King, by none other than Ernest Defarge. The petition was ignored. Workmen built a 40 foot gallows in the middle of town where the man was soon hanged.

Plot Cont.Defarge asks the mender of roads to wait outside a moment. The other Jacques call for the extermination of the entire aristocracy, including the entire Evremonde family (Charles Darnay). One points to the knitting-work of Madame Defarge, where she has been hiding a code in the stitching. The code contains an elaborate registry of the names of those whom the revolutionaries aim to kill a hit list. He asks if the Madame Defarge will always be able to decipher the names that appear there. She affirms that she will.Later that week, Defarge and his wife take the mender of roads to Versailles to see King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette. When the royal couple appears, the mender of roads cries Long live the King! and becomes so excited that Defarge must restrain him from flying at the objects of his brief devotion and tearing them to pieces. This performance pleases the Defarges, who see that their efforts will prove easier if the aristocrats continue to believe in the peasantrys allegiance.

Chapter 16: Still KnittingCharactersMadame DefargeMonsieur DefargeJacquesBarsardChapter 16 - SettingParis St. AntoinnePlotThe mood in St. Antoine has changed; it now bears a cruel look of being avenged, which they would henceforth bear forever.The Defarges make a trip to Paris to speak with Jacques of the police. The policeman warns Defarge that a spy by the name of John Barsard has been sent to their neighborhood. He is described as a rather handsome man whose nose has a peculiar inclination towards the left cheek.The Defarges return to the wineshop.Madame Defarge resolves to knit Barsards name into the register. That night, Defarge admits his fear that the revolution will not come in his lifetime. Madame Defarge dismisses his impatience and compares the revolution to lightning and an earthquake: it strikes quickly and with great force, but no one knows how long it will take to form.Plot Cont.The next day, in the wine shop, various Jacques are sitting around talking when a man enters the wine shop. It is Barsard. Madame Defarge puts a rose in her hat; the conversations break up, and the Jacques slowly disperse. Barsard speaks with Madame Defarge, he asks her about her family, trying to get her to say something incriminating. He masquerades as a sympathizer with the revolutionaries and comments on the horrible treatment of the peasants. While he speaks to her, Madame Defarge knits his name into her registry.Knowing that Ernest Defarge once worked as Doctor Manettes servant, he reports that Lucie Manette plans to marry, and that her husband is to be the Marquis nephew, Darnay. He wonders if they have kept in touch. Madame Defarge tells him that they have not. Barsard leaves.Ernest Defarge tells his wife that he hopes the Manettes, Lucie, and Darnay stay out of France if the revolution ever comes. Madame Defarge reminds him that Darnay and his entire family are registered in her knitting. The chapter ends with Madame Defarge and the other women, knitting, knitting, counting dropping heads.Chapter 17: One Night

CharactersDoctor ManetteLucie Manette

SettingDoctor Manette and Lucie sit under a plane tree all day together.The dinner table at dinner.Dr. Manettes bedroomPlot Doctor Manette and Lucie talk about her marriage which is the next day.For the first time since his release, Manette speaks of his days in the Bastille. In prison, he passed much time imagining what sort of person Lucie would grow up to be. He is very happy now, thanks to Lucie, who has brought him consolation and restoration. Later that night, Lucie sneaks down to her fathers room and finds him sleeping soundly.Chapter 18: Nine Days

Main CharactersLucieDarnayDr. ManetteMr. LorryMiss ProssSettingDr. Manettes homePlotCharles and Doctor Manette converse before going to church for Darnays wedding to Lucie. Manette emerges deadly pale from this meeting. Darnay and Lucie are married and depart for their honeymoon. Mr. Lorry and Miss Pross escort a subdued Doctor Manette home.Observing hints of the Doctors former mental incapacity, Mr. Lorry tells Miss Pross that although he must take care of some business, he would return soon.When Mr. Lorry returns, the doctor has regressed to his previous state of total absorption in his shoemaking and appears not to know Mr. Lorry or Miss Pross.The situation continued for nine days.Mr. Lorry arranges that neither the doctors patients nor Lucie and Darney know about the doctors relapse.Mr. Lorry also takes an unprecedented leave of absence from Tellsons to stay at the Manette house and watch over his friend.Chapter 19:An OpinionCharactersDoctor Manette

Mr. Lorry

Miss ProssSettingManette HousePlotOn the tenth morning, Dr. Manette awakens fully recovered and unaware that something unusual happened.Mr. Lorry tells the doctor what has happened and asks what caused the relapse. Dr. Manette explains that he expects it was due to the revival of certain memories. He does not believe he will have another relapse, and if he did, it would most likely result from an intense experience that revived those memories.Mr. Lorry questions the wisdom of keeping the shoemaking bench. He wonders if the presence of the bench reminds Dr. Manette of the past that has caused him so much pain.Lorry convinces Manette that the shoemakers bench should be destroyed; he couches this discussion by speaking of a man returning to a forge to do blacksmith work.Doctor Manette uneasily agrees and tells Lorry to destroy it in the name of Lucie. He requests that Mr. Lorry disposes of the bench and tools without him.Mr. Lorry and Miss Pross bury the tools and burn the shoemaking bench.The Doctor leaves to join Lucie and Charles on their trip.Chapter 20: A PleaMain CharactersSydney CartonCharles DarnayLucie ManetteSettingCharles and Lucies homePlotDr. Manette goes to live with Lucie and her husband. Sydney carton comes to visit them. He talks with Manette about the dinner they had together in the past. Carton asks Darnay if he can forgive him for being rude earlier and asks if they can be friends, Darnay replies by saying that he thought they were already friends. He also thanks him for helping in his court case many years before.Carton leaves, and over the course of the evening, Darnay makes some mention of this conversation in general terms, and speaks of Sydney Carton as a problem of carelessness and recklessness.He comments were not meant to be bitter or vindictive, but are supposed to be an offhanded fact as anybody who observed Carton might say. Plot Cont.When Darnay goes up to bed later, he finds Lucie waiting for him.Lucie tells Charles that she believes Mr. Carton deserves more consideration and respect then he expressed for him earlier that evening. She asks him to be very lenient with Carton, even when he is not around. She asks Darnay not to question why she thinks this, but that she knows it to be true. She believes that he has a heart heseldom reveals, and that there are deep wounds on it. She tells him, I have seen it bleeding.The narrator comments that if Sydney Carton had observed the exchange, he would have once more proclaimed, God bless her for her sweet compassion! Chapter 21:Echoing FootstepsMain CharactersCharles DarnayLucie DarnaySydney CartonMr. lorry

Setting Darnay and Manette homeTellson's bank

Main PlotTime passes, Lucie hears the echoes of distant footsteps. On occasion this seems ominous, but for the most part she hears in the echoes of years none but friendly and soothing sounds.Lucie has given birth to two children, but her son died, however it is described as an occasion that is not terribly sad, showing that Lucie can withstand pain and sorrow. The narrator describes the experience by saying, the rustling of an Angels wings got blended with the other echoes.Lucie also has a daughter, named Lucie (little Lucie).Six years pass and various changes take place in the lives of the characters, (for instance, Mr. Stryver marries a rich widow with three children) but nothing shocking happens. One night, Mr. Lorry comes over. There is a storm, he tells them that there is such an uneasiness in Paris, that we have actually had a run of confidence upon us! He is calmed when he sees that everything is as usual at the Manette household.

Plot Cont.In St. Antoine, the scene is not so calm.The peasants have taken up weapons and are led by the Defarges in storming the Bastille.Madame Defarge is heard shouting, To me, womenwe can kill as well as the men when the place is taken. They free the prisoners. Ernest Defarge forces a guard to show him One Hundred and Five North Tower, the cell where Dr. Manette had been held.Defarge finds the initials A.M. carved into the wall, along with the words, a poor physician. Madame Defarge cuts off the Governors head and they carry heads on spikes. The chapter ends with the hope that these footsteps stay out of Lucie Manettes life since they are head long, mad and dangerous(and) not easily purified when once stained red.

Chapter 22The Sea Still Rises7171Main CharactersMadame DefargeMonsieur DefargeFoulon

7272SettingSaint Antoine

7373PlotA week later, in St. Antoine, Madame Defarge and one of her sisterhood are knitting. This woman has already earned the complimentary name of The Vengeance. Ernest Defarge comes into the wine-shop, shouting that old Foulon, who told the famished people they might eat grass, has been captured.Foulon had faked his own death to avoid the peasants anger, unfortunately he was later found in the country.A crowd gathers to go to Foulon and serve him justice. Madame Defarge and The Vengeance go from house to house, rousing the women. The women are described as leaving their children and the aged and sick to fend for themselves while they go out in madness.7474The crowd reaches Foulon; grass is stuffed into his mouth and he is hanged from a lamppost, but the rope breaks and he doesn't die until the 3rd try. Madame Defarge is said to have treated him as a cat might have done with a mouse.Word spreads that Foulons son-in-law is on his way to Paris under a guard 500 strong. Yet the mob captures him and puts his head on a pike next to Foulons.Plot Cont.Chapter 23: Fire Rises7676Main CharactersThe JacquesMonsieur Gabelle

7777SettingSt. Antoine

7878The French countryside is described as ruined. An unidentified man, weary from travel, comes into town and meets the mender of roads. They address one another as Jacques to indicate their status as revolutionaries. The mender of roads directs the man to the chateau of the murdered Marquis. Later that night, the man sets the chateau on fire. A rider from the village urges the village soldiers to help him put out the fire and save the valuables, but everyone refuses. The peasants nearly kill Gabelle, the local tax collector, but he escapes to the roof of his house, where he watches the chateau burn. Gabelle later escapes on horseback.The narrator reports that scenes such as this are occurring all over France: there were other functionaries less fortunate, that nightwhom the rising sun found hanging across once-peaceful streets. The narrator also mentions that revolutionaries were losing their lives as well.PlotChapter 24: Drawn to the Lodestone Rock

CharactersGabelleStryverMr. LorryDarnayJerry Crutcher

SettingsTellsons Bank in LondonPlotThree years have passed. Royalty and the court are gone from France. The ruling class have become exiled in England, and are planning how to get the country back.Tellsons Bank in London becomes a place to read newspaper articles and gather. The bank has decided to dispatch Mr. Lorry to an unsettled Paris branch in hopes that he can protect their valuable ledgers.Darnay arrives to persuade Lorry not to go, but Lorry insists, saying that he will bring Jerry Cruncher as his bodyguard. Darnay says to Lorry that he wishes he was the one going to France. Charles Darnay is uneasy. Stryver suggests that the whole peasant class in France should be wiped out. It is revealed that only Dr. Manette knows Darnays true connection to France. Lorry receives an urgent letter, addressed to the Marquis St. Evremonde, along with instructions for its delivery. Darnay, careful to let no one suspect that he is in fact the missing Marquis, says that the Marquis is an acquaintance of his. He takes the letter, assuring Lorry that he will see it safely delivered. Plot Cont.Darnay reads the letter, which contains a plea from Gabelle, whom the revolutionaries have imprisoned because he has acted for an emigrant, Darnay. Gabelle begs the new Marquis to return to France and save him. Darnay sees the nobility being driven from France; he reasons that he has never oppressed anyone, so France must be safe for him. Darnay resolves to go to Paris to save Gabelle.Darnay decides to leave in secret, making himself known to Lorry only upon arrival in Paris. After writing a farewell letter to Lucie and Doctor Manette, he departs. Darnay begins his journey as he left all that was dear on earth behind him.Thus ends Book the Second.