A TALE OF TWO CITIES BOOK CLUB - WEEK 8 - BOOK 2 - CHAPTERS 19 -22

A TALE OF TWO CITIES by Charles Dickens

CHAPTER 19 - AN OPINION

ENGLAND

I find Chapter 19 very moving. Have you ever walked through a hard time with a friend or had a friend walk through a hard time with you? hat's exactly what we see happen in this chapter.

On day 10 after the wedding, Manette snaps out of his stupor, and Lorry, the best kind of friend, decides it's time to get to the bottom of what is going on. Interestingly to Manette, it's as if the wedding happened yesterday. He has zero recollection of the past 9 days and the disconnect to life he has experienced. I love Lorry's tiptoe approach to the situation, because we've all used it. "Uhhh, I have this friend..." Right? But, neither of them are fooled about who the "friend" is.

Manette knew the relapse was coming. He could feel the storm building inside. Maybe it's similar to the way a person feels the onset of a panic attack or a seizure. He tried to prepare, but he just couldn't escape it. What brought the episode on? Manette tells us two things 1.) "revival of train of thought and remembrance.." and 2.) "intense associations of a most disturbing nature were vividly recalled." What is he talking about? What just happened? Darnay and Lucie were married, but right before that, Darnay tells Dr. Manette who he is. There's definitely a connection there, so tuck it in the back of your mind.

Lorry tells Manette its time to get rid of the bench and tools. Manette can hardly fathom the thought. They've been his constant companions through the hurricanes of his life. They allow his fingers to move, to work in place of his brain pounding out in overdrive. However, the bench casts a shadow on a new attempt at life. It is a direct tie to the old, and it's time to let it go and close that door. Manette finally agrees to this, but only if it is done when he is not around. So one night, he is out, and Lorry and Miss Pross set to work destroying the remaining link. The book takes on a atmosphere of crime and death in this last paragraph of the chapter. Miss Pross holds the light while Lorry hacks the bench to pieces. As soon as the deed is done, the wood is gathered up and burned in the kitchen fire. The leather, shoes, and tools are buried in the garden. The specter of the past is put to death.

CHAPTER 20 - A PLEA

We're just going to cover a couple of main points in this chapter.

It's time for Sydney to mend fences. He takes Darnay aside and asks if they can be friends. Why? Because of Lucie, of course. Before we get our knickers in a knot about Carton and his desire to be close to Lucie understand that he knows that she loves Darnay. He's not trying to disrupt that or come between them. She brings out in him an emotion that he never thought he would ever feel that's deeper than love, the ability to care for someone/something in life. His desire at this point is just to be part of the family. He literally wants to be a piece of comfortable furniture to them. Darnay agrees to this, and he reinforces what Lucie said to him. He is capable of being more than he currently is to which Sydney denies. The chapter ends with Lucie asking Darnay to be kind towards Sydney. Tuck away in your mind that Lucie believes that Sydney is capable of "magnanimous things."

CHAPTER 21 - ECHOING FOOTSTEPS

Time passes. Good things happen, sad things happen, but still there are steps that are working their way toward the sweet little family that set Lucie's heart racing with anxiety. Mommas, I think we can sympathize with Lucie here in this opening section of the chapter. It's so easy sometimes to look around at all the beauty and blessings in life and know that things do not always stay this way. Lucie feels this.

Several things happen in this passing time. Two children are born to Darnay and Lucie: a little boy and a little girl, Lucie. Little Lucie lives, but the little boy dies. Sydney is a part of the family like he hoped. He is always sober and has found his special place in the hearts of the children.

In the approaching footsteps are rumbling sounds from France. The Scarecrows are rising up. "A forest of naked arms struggled in the air like shriveled branches of trees in a winter wind." Oh we understand that picture don't we? The bare, skeleton-like people who have been exposed to the barrenness of winter have had enough. And the epicenter? DeFarge's Wine Shop. Madame has finished her knitting. Now, she carries an axe, a gun, and a knife. The ignition of the French Revolution is lit with the storming of the Bastille. The prisoners are released and the guards are taken prisoner. DeFarge grabs a guard and makes him take him to 105 North Tower. Did you recognize that address? It's the cell Dr. Manette lived in for 18 years. Bursting into the cell, the initials A.M. and "a poor physician" are scratched into the wall. He's in the right place. Frantically, he searches. All the bits of things in the cell are piled up in the middle and burned.

The governor is captured. Marched to the hotel for judgement, he never makes it. He is stabbed repeatedly from behind until he falls down dead. But, it's Madame Defarge's gruesome act that solidifies in our minds just how bloody and vicious this revolution is going to be. The man is dead, yet, she chops off his head and walks over his body.

Remember the metaphor of the lamplighter earlier in the book. The fact that something other than the lights would soon be swinging from the poles? One of the guards is swung up to be left "on duty." The fury of the storm is unleashed.

This chapter ends with a somewhat confusing paragraph about two sets of seven faces. Seven of the faces are prisoners that have now been released. Carried overhead, their faces once contorted in fear now bloom with wonder and amazement. Seven other faces are carried up as well. Seven guards who once worked at The Bastille find their lives forfeit. Beheaded, their heads are put on pikes for all to see.

Dickens cries out at the end that Lucie's life be kept far from the footsteps of the mad crowd that now seeks blood. For even though they have shed it, they are not purified. They are not satisfied.

So what of this chapter is historically true? The French Revolution did begin with the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789. The governor was killed, seven prisoners freed, and seven guards killed and beheaded.

CHAPTER 22 - THE SEA STILL RISES

FRANCE

So now that blood has been shed, life can go on, right? Not a chance. The brutality is just beginning.

DeFarge comes running to the wine shop with news. Old Foulon, the aristocrat that told the peasants to eat grass and to feed it to their children, the one who everyone believed was dead, has been found hiding out in the country. I'm going to throw something else in here for a minute. Have you wondered why the women in particular are so brutal in all of this? I believe it has to go back to the mother bear idea. These women have watched their families, their children, starve and be abused for so long. There's something that happens inside a mother when she sees her child mistreated. They go crazy. That is what we are seeing played out here. Okay, back to Old Foulon. Can you picture the scene? Bound and drug through the crowd, arms shoot out pushing handful after handful of grass into his face. He begs for mercy, but it falls on the deafest of ears. The metaphorical picture that Dickens gives is amazing - " a log of dead wood through a forest of legs." Can you see it? He is dragged through the crowd until he comes to the lamppost at the corner where Madame DeFarge waits for him. Again, we have this beautiful use of language. Madame DeFarge with Foulon is compared to a cat playing with a mouse. Oh mu goodness. We get the terror of this moment. The horror of it. The crowd screams for him to be killed by stuffing him full of grass, but no. A rope is swung around his neck and he is hoisted up the lamppost. The rope breaks. Again, he is pulled up. The rope breaks again. A third time he is hoisted up, and this time "the rope is merciful." He dies. His head is chopped off and put onto a pike.

The chapter ends with the people going back to every day life. They go back to their insufficient suppers. Parents play gently with their children, lovers love and hope. They fall asleep. The day ends, but the bloodshed is just beginning.