Book 2,Chapter 19:“An Opinion”

Title Meaning:This chapter centers around the retrospective opinion asked of Dr. Manette concerning, as Mr. Lorry puts it, a “dear friend.” Dr. Manette, understanding that he is the friend in question, proceeds to reflect upon himself from a third person perspective.

• Mr. Lorry wakes on the tenth day to find Dr. Manette not making shoes, but rather reading.

• Realizing no memory to be apparent and seeking a cause for relapse, Mr. Lorry inquires about the medical case of his “friend.”

• Jarvis describes the doctor’s case tactfully by not implementing Manette’s name, yet the doctor soon catches on.

• When questioned about a possible cause for relapse, Manette surmises that something must have recalled previous trauma for his “friend” and that he may not remember the relapse at all.

• Dr. Manette explains that it seems to have ended and that it would take extreme measures to perturb his “friend’s” mind in the future.

• Mr. Lorry goes on to question the correlation of his “friend’s” blacksmith hobby to his trauma and asks if said tools should be removed from him.

• After initial resistance, Dr. Manette agrees that they should be confiscated, but not with his “friend” present.

• That night, with the aid of Miss Pross, Mr. Lorry removes the cobbler’s tools and break his bench as Manette is out to meet Lucie and Charles.

• Feeling guilty, they burn or bury any and all remnants of the act.

Plot Summary

Literary DevicesSimileManette’s fear of losing his shoemaking is compared to the fear pertaining to a lost child:“…the idea that he might need that old employment, and not find it, gives him a sudden sense of terror, like that which one may fancy strikes to the heart of a lost child.” (p. 206).

Implied MetaphorThe act of Miss Pross and Mr. Lorry disposing of the shoemaking equipment is continually referred to as if it were a murderous crime:“…in a mysterious and guilty manner, Mr. Lorry hacked the shoemaker’s bench to pieces, while Miss Pross held the candle as if she were assisting in a murder—for which, indeed, in her grimness, she was no unsuitable figure. The burning of the body (previously reduced to pieces convenient for the purpose) was commenced without delay in the kitchen fire; and the tools, shoes, and leather, were buried in the garden…” (p. 207).

RepetitionWhile in an effort to remain discreet in his story, Mr. Lorry treads lightly around explicit information and repeats the phrase “it is the case of a shock” thereby emphasizing the details:“…it is the case of an old and a prolonged shock…It is the case of a shock under which the sufferer was borne down…It is the case of a shock from which the sufferer recovered, by a process that he cannot trace himself…It is the case of a shock from which he has recovered, so completely, as to be a highly intelligent man…” (p. 202).

Essential Quote

". . .no doubt it relieved his pain so much, by substituting the perplexity of the fingers for the perplexity of the brain, and by substituting, as he became more practised, the ingenuity of the hands, for the ingenuity of the mental torture; that he has never been able to bear the thought of putting it quite out of his reach.” (p. 206).