A Tale of Two Cities- Study Guide

Where does A Tale of Two Cities take place?

In England and France

What is Mr. Lorry's occupation?

Banker at Tellson's

Where does Lucy Manette think her father has been?

Dead

How long did Doctor Manette spend in prison?

Almost 18 years.

Where must Mr. Lorry and Lucy go to get Doctor Manette?

To the house of an old servant in Paris.

What happens when a cask of wine spills along the street in Paris?

Everyone rushes to drink some.

What is Jacques a codename for?

Revolutionaries

Whom do the three Jacques watch through a hole in the wall in the fifth wall?

Doctor Manette, making shoes.

Whom does Doctor Manette think Lucie Manette is at first?

His late wife.

What does Lucy want to do now that she's found her father?

Take him back to London immediately.

What does Jerry Cruncher do for a living?

Messenger and runner for Tellson's Bank.

(Also a grave-robber)

In what year does the second book take place?

1780

What is Charles Darnay on trial for at the beginning?

Treason

Why is Darnay acquitted in the beginning?

Because Sydney Carton looks just like him.

How does Carton describe himself to Darnay?

Disappointed, misanthropic, unloved.

How do Stryver and Carton know each other?

They went to school together.

What are Stryver's and Carton's nicknames, respectively?

Lion and Jackal.

What does Miss Pross complain about?

All the suitors who visit Lucy

What is Doctor Manette's occupation in London?

Doctor.

What story does Darnay tell that makes Doctor Manette startle and look ill?

About a prisoner carving the word "dig" in his cell.

What does Marquis Evremonde's carriage run over?

A child.

What does the Marquis throw out of his carriage?

A few coins for the man whose son he just killed.

What does the road-mender tell the Marquis?

That someone was riding under the Marquis's carriage.

What does Darnay tell the Marquis that their family legacy is?

Fear, inhumanity, slavery.

What happens to the Marquis the next morning?

He is found stabbed to death by a "Jacques."

Who tells Doctor Manette of his love for Lucie?

Darnay

Who goes to the bank to tell Mr. Lorry of his intention to propose to Lucie?

Stryver

What does Mr. Lorry find out about Stryver from Doctor Manette?

Stryver has no hope of Lucie marrying him.

Who tells Lucie he loves her and would die for her?

Carton

What does Carton say about his life?

That he's wasted it and he's beyond hope.

Who is the dead man, Roger Cly?

A spy who testified against Darnay.

What does Jerry Cruncher's son see his father do?

Dig up a corpse.

What does the mender of roads tell the Jacques about?

The execution of the Marquis's murderer.

What is Madame Defarge knitting?

A registry of names of who should be executed after the revolution.

Whose name is added to the registry after the spy Barsad's visit to the wine shop?

Charles Darnay

What happens to Doctor Manette because of his talk with Darnay?

He falls into a trance and makes shoes again for 9 days.

What do Mr. Lorry and Miss Pross get Doctor Manette to agree to when he recovers?

To let them destroy his shoe-making bench and bury the tools.

What do Mr. Lorry and Miss Pross tell Lucy about her father's relapse?

Nothing.

How does Lucy say Darnay should treat Carton?

With sympathy and compassion.

Whom do the villagers hang?

Foulon: A wealthy man who said the starving should eat grass.

Whose castle do the revolutionaries burn down?

The late Marquis's

Who barely escapes from the fire?

Gabelle, a local tax collector.

Why does Tellson's send Mr. Lorry to France?

To safeguard the bank's assets and papers.

What does Gabelle's letter to Darnay say?

That he will be executed for overseeing Darnay's family estate.

What happens to Darnay as soon as he gets to France?

He is arrested and turned over to Defarge.

What form of execution has just been invented?

The guillotine

How does Doctor Manette help Darnay?

He becomes a prison doctor so he can watch out for Darnay's safety.

Why does Lucy stand in the same spot outside the prison every day for two hours?

So that Darnay might see her from a prison window.

Who often talks to Lucie while she waits outside the prison?

The wood-sawyer.

What happens at Darnay's first rowdy trial in France?

He is found innocent and released.

Who engineers Darnay's re-arrest the next day?

The Defarges.

How does Carton convince Barsad to help him save Darnay?

He threatens to reveal to the revolutionaries that Barsad is an English spy.

What does the letter that Defarge reads reveal about Darnay's father and uncle?

They were responsible for a rape, murders, and Doctor Manette's unjust arrest.

Why is Charles Darnay going to be executed?

Because of the sins of his family.

What is revealed about Madame Defarge?

That she is the sister of the woman raped by Darnay's uncle.

What does Carton do at the Manettes'?

He gives them his traveling papers and instructs them to leave the next day.

How does Carton get Darnay to switch places with him?

By drugging him.

What happens when Madame Defarge arrives at the Manette apartment?

Miss Pross ends up shooting her.

How does Carton feel before he is executed?

That he has redeemed himself through his sacrifice.

In the beginning, which company does Mr. Lorry travel by?

Dover mail coach.

Why is the Dover mail coach hesitant to stop for Jerry Cruncher's

They fear that he is a highwayman attempting to rob the passengers.

What object does Docto Manette keep during his imprisonment in order to escape "in spirit"?

A lock of his wife's hair.

By what name do the men in Defarge's wine shop call their fellow revolutionaries?

Jacques.

What skill did Doctor Manette develop in order to pass the time during his incarceration?

Shoemaking

What symbol does Dickens use to portend the bloodshed of the French Revolution?

The broken wine cask

During her testimony, to home does Lucie claim that Charles Darnay alluded on the boat ride from Calais to Dover?

George Washington

AFter Darnay's acquittal, why does Sydney Carton claim to dislike him?

Darnay reminds him of how far he has fallen and everything he might have been.

To which animal does Dickens compare Sydney Carton?

A jackal.

What image does Dickens frequently use to describe Lucie Manette?

A golden thread.

What sound does Lucie often hear echoing off the street when she is in her home?

Footsteps.

Who does Miss Pross believe is the ideal suitor for Lucie Manette?

Her brother, Solomon.

During the storming of the Bastille, who decapitates the fortress's guard?

Madame Defarge.

Who does the spy John Barsad turn out to be?

Miss Pross' brother, Solomon.

Why was Doctor Manette imprisoned?

The Marquis Evremonde feared that Manette would reveal one of the Marquis' dark ksecrets.

What is it about Mr. Crunger's appearance that mystifies his son?

His rusty fingers.

In Chapter 7 the Marquise stops at the billage near his estate. Why are there no dogs?

The dogs have been eaten.

Where is this written: "Drive him fast to his tomb. This, from Jacques"?

On the note pinned on to the Marquis by the knife that stabbed him.

Bonaparte said that the Revolution was made possible by...

Rousseau

Who was the "other" acuser of Darnay?

Dr. Manette's long-lost letter.

Who is "resurrected" in the book? (4)

Doctor Manette, Carton, Darnay, Roger Cly

What does Miss Pross represent?

The power of Britain.

How is Fate personified?

The woodsman.

How is Death personified?

The farmer.

Who are the first two witnesses against Gharles Darnay in the beginning?

John Barsad, Roger Cly

How is the Maruis' home depicted? (Imagery)

Stone.

What is Cruncher's grave-robbing compared to?

Fishing.

What do the echoes and footsteps foreshadow?

The mobs of the revolution.

What does the "smoldering fire" symbolize?

The revolution that is slowly growing in the background.

What does the Loadstone Rock stand for?

Charles' fate that takes him back to France.

What is the dance of the revolutionaries called?

The Carmagnole

How many people were sent to the Guillotine?

52.

How has Darnay's imprisonment been good for Dr. Manette?

Finally, Manette can repay Lucie and use his skills for good... it gives him empowerment.

"'Jerry, say that my answer was, "RECALLED TO LIFE."'" Book 1, Chapter 2, pg. 8

Mr. Lorry

"'She had laid her head upon my shoulder, that night when I was summoned out--she had a fear of my going, though I had none--and when I was brought to the North Tower they found these upon my sleeve. "You will leave me them? They can never help me to escape in the body, though they may in the spirit." Those words I said. I remember them very well.'" Book 1, Chapter 6, pg. 43

Doctor Manette

"'If, when I tell you, dearest dear, that your agony is over, and that I have come here to take you from it, and that we go to England to be at peace and at rest, I cause you to think of your useful life laid waste, and of our native France so wicked to you, weep for it, weep for it! And if, when I shall tell you of my name, and of my father who is living, and of my mother who is dead, you learn that I have to kneel to my honoured father, and implore his pardon for never having for his sake striven all day and lain awake and wept all night, because the love of my poor mother hid his torture from me, weep for it, weep for it! Weep for her, then, and for me! Good gentlemen, thank God! I feel his sacred tears upon my face, and his sobs strike against my heart. O, see! Thank God for us, thank God!'" Book 1, Chapter 6, pg. 44

Lucie Manette

"'I won't be gone again, in this manner. I am as rickety as a hackney-coach, I'm as sleepy as laudanum, my lines is strained to that degree that I shouldn't know, if it wasn't for the pain in 'em, which was me and which was somebody else, yet I'm none the better for it in pocket; and it's my suspicion that you've been at it from morning to night to prevent me from being better for it in the pocket, and I won't put up with it, Aggerawayter, and what do you say now!" Book 2, Chapter 1, pg. 53

Jerry Cruncher

"'I have sometimes sat alone here of an evening, listening, until I have made the echoes out to be the echoes of all the footsteps that are coming by and by into our lives.'" Book 2, Chapter 6, pg. 99

Lucie Manette

"'There is a great crowd coming one day into our lives, if that be so.'" Book 2, Chapter 6, pg. 99

Sydney Carton

"'What a night it has been! Almost a night, Jerry, to bring the dead out of their graves.'" Book 2, Chapter 6, pg. 100

Mr. Lorry