Tale Of two cities
A Tale of Two Cities - Cliff Notes
Table of contents:
1) Chapter summaries (pp.2-32)
2) Characters (pp. 32-40)
3) Setting (pp. 40-41)
4) Dickens’ Style (use of detail, repetition, parallelism, theatrical elements, imagery, form and style) (pp. 41-43)
CHAPTER SUMMARIES
BOOK THE FIRST:
A TALE OF TWO CITIES: CHAPTER 1
Here is Dickens' voice, introducing the story he's about to tell. No action or characters are presented, but the scene is set: England and France, 1775. We encounter important themes--and one of the most unforgettable opening paragraphs in English literature.
NOTE: AN INSTANCE OF PARALLELISM "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...," the opening words, form a good example of parallelism--the repetition, for emphasis, of a grammatical structure. Here and elsewhere Dickens relies on parallelism to balance opposing pairs, to make contrasts and comparisons. Look closely for dual themes and characters, even (in Book the Second) for dual chapter titles. Most elements in the story have, if not an equal, at least an opposing element.
With a description of a brutal punishment carried out on a French boy, Dickens leads in to two major themes: Fate and Death. Each is personified--given human identity--a trick of style Dickens will be using again and again. The "certain moveable framework" for which trees have already sprung up is the guillotine; at the moment, the sinister-sounding "tumbrils of the Revolution" are merely farm carts.
The basis for their future employment, carrying the doomed through the streets of Paris, has already been laid by an unjust and ignorant society. Dickens' tone for describing abuses is ironic, but indignant, too.
Clearly, he doesn't believe that a murdering highwayman shoots
"gallantly," but he does view the hangman as "ever worse than useless." Few of Dickens' contemporaries despised capital punishment
Table of contents:
1) Chapter summaries (pp.2-32)
2) Characters (pp. 32-40)
3) Setting (pp. 40-41)
4) Dickens’ Style (use of detail, repetition, parallelism, theatrical elements, imagery, form and style) (pp. 41-43)
CHAPTER SUMMARIES
BOOK THE FIRST:
A TALE OF TWO CITIES: CHAPTER 1
Here is Dickens' voice, introducing the story he's about to tell. No action or characters are presented, but the scene is set: England and France, 1775. We encounter important themes--and one of the most unforgettable opening paragraphs in English literature.
NOTE: AN INSTANCE OF PARALLELISM "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...," the opening words, form a good example of parallelism--the repetition, for emphasis, of a grammatical structure. Here and elsewhere Dickens relies on parallelism to balance opposing pairs, to make contrasts and comparisons. Look closely for dual themes and characters, even (in Book the Second) for dual chapter titles. Most elements in the story have, if not an equal, at least an opposing element.
With a description of a brutal punishment carried out on a French boy, Dickens leads in to two major themes: Fate and Death. Each is personified--given human identity--a trick of style Dickens will be using again and again. The "certain moveable framework" for which trees have already sprung up is the guillotine; at the moment, the sinister-sounding "tumbrils of the Revolution" are merely farm carts.
The basis for their future employment, carrying the doomed through the streets of Paris, has already been laid by an unjust and ignorant society. Dickens' tone for describing abuses is ironic, but indignant, too.
Clearly, he doesn't believe that a murdering highwayman shoots
"gallantly," but he does view the hangman as "ever worse than useless." Few of Dickens' contemporaries despised capital punishment