A Tale of T~vo Cities
Lesson 4
Handout 10 (page 1)
Name
Date
Satire--The Reformer’s Tool
Directions: Satire is often used to point out the weaknesses of society. Read the passages below.
Decide what problems Dickens is trying to correct.
Sample II,
But indeed, at that time, putting to death was a recipe much in
vogue with all trades and professions, and not least of all with Tellson’s.
Death is Natures’s remedy for all things, and why not Legislation’s? Accordingly, the forger was put to Death; the utterer of a bad note was put
to Death; the unlawful opener of a letter was put to Death; the purloiner
of forty shillings and sixpence was put to Death; the holder of a horse
at Tellson’s door, who made off with it, was put to Death; the coiner of
a bad shilling was put to Death; the sounders of three-fourths of the
notes in the whole gamut of Crime were put to Death. Not that it did the
least hit of good in the way of prevention--it might almost have been
worth remarking that the fact was exactly the reverse--but it cleared off
(as to this world} the trouble of each particular case, and left nothing
else connected with it to be looked after.
Problem:
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23
A Tale of Two Cities
Lesson 4
Handout 10 (page 1)
Name
Date
Satire--The Reformer’s Tool
Directions: Satire is often used to point out the weaknesses of society. Read the passages below.
Decide what problems Dickens is trying to correct.
Sample L
Tellsons Bank by Temple Bar was an old-fashioned place, even in
the year one thousand seven hundred and eighty. It was very small, very
dark, very ugly, very incommodious. It ~vas an old-fashioned place,
moreover, in the moral attribute that the partners in the House were
proud of its smallness, proud of its darkness, proud of its ugliness,
proud of its incommodiousness. They were even boastful of its eminence in those particulars, and ~vere fired by an express conviction that
ff it were less objectionable, it would be less respectable. This was no
passive belief, but an active ~veapon which they flashed at more
convenient places of business. Tellson’s (they said) wanted no elbowroom, Tellson’s wanted no light, Tellson’s wanted no embellishment.
Noakes and Co.’s might, or Snooks Brothers’ might; but Tellson’s,
thank Heaven--!
Any one of these partners would have disinherited his son on the
question of rebuilding Tellson’s, In this respect the House was much on
a par with the Country, which did very often disinherit its sons for suggesting improvements in laws and customs that had long been highly
objectionable, but were only the more respectable.
Name
Date
A Tale of Two Cities
Lesson 4
Handout I0 (page i)
Satire--The Reformer’s Tool
Directions: Satire is often used to point out the weaknesses of society. Read the passages below.
Decide ~vhat problems Dickens is trying to correct.
Sample III.
Monseigneur, one of the great lords in power at the Court, held his
fortnightly reception in his grand hotel in Paris. Monseigneur was in his
irmer room, his sanctuary of sanctuaries, the Holiest of Holies to the
crowd of worshippers in the suite of rooms without. Monseigneur was
about to take his chocolate. Monseigneur could swallow a great many
things with ease, and was by some few sullen minds supposed to be
rather rapidly swallowing France; but, his morrHng’s chocolate could
not so much as get into the throat of Monseigneur without the aid of four
strong men besides the cook.
Yes. It took four men, all four a-blaze with gorgeous decoration, and
the chief of them unable to exist with fewer than two gold watches in his
pocket, emulative of the noble and chaste fashion set by Monseigneur,
to conduct the happy chocolate to Monseigneur’s lips. One lacquey
carried the chocolate-pot into the sacred presence; a second milled and
frothed the chocolate with the little instrument he bore for that function; a third presented the favoured napkin; a fourth {he of the two gold
watches) poured the ctlocolate out, It was impossible for Monseigneur
to dispense with one of these attendants on the chocolate and hold his
high place under the admiring Heavens. Deep would have been the blot
on his escutcheon ff his chocolate had been ignobly waited on by only
three men; he must have died of two.
Problem:
A Tale of Two Cities
Lesson 5
Handout 11 (page 1)
Nai1~e
Date
]~Ook II, Chapter 9o The Marquis enters his home:
It was a heavy mass of building, that chateau of Monsieur the Marquis,
with a large stone courtyard before it. and two stone sweeps of staircase
meeting in a stone terrace before the principal door. A stony business
altogether, with heavy stone balustrades, and stone urns and stone
flowers and stone faces of men, and stone heads of lions, in all
directions, As if the Gorgon’s head had surveyed it, when it was
finished, two centuries ago...
The great door clanged behind him, and Monsieur the Marquis crossed
a hall grim with certain old boar-spears, swords, and knives of the
chase: grimmer with certain heavy riding-rods and riding-whips of
which many a peasant, gone to his benefactor Death, had felt the weight
when his lord was ang~.
What are the connotations of the Gorgon’s head?
Boar-spears and riding-whips which are used for peasants?
Death?
A Tale of Two Cities
Lesson 5
Handout 11 (page t)
Name
Date
D~rections: Read the passages below which contain references to animal and/or monster images. Be
prepared to comment about the connotations of these images.
l~ook II, Chapter 8. The Marquis questions the peasant who has seen someone under
the carriage:
"What man, pig?. And why look there?"
"Pardon, Monseigneur; he swung by the chain of the shoe--the drag."
’NVho?’" demanded the traveller.
"Monseigneur, the man."
"May the Devil carry away these idiots! How do you call the man? You
know all the men of this part of the country. ~Vho was he?"
"Your clemency, Monseigneur! He was not of this part of the country. Of
all the days of my life, I never saw him."...
"What was he like?"
"Monseigneur, he was whiter than the miller. All covered with dust,
~vhite as a spectre, tall as a spectre!"
The picture produced an immense sensation {n the little crowd; but all
eyes, without comparing notes with other eyes, looked at Monsieur the
Marquis. Perhaps, to observe whether he had any spectre on his conscience.
’~rruly, you did well," said the Marquis, felicitously sensible that such
vermin were not to ruffle him, "to see a thief accompanying my carriage,
and not open that great mouth of yours. Bah! Put him aside. Monsieur
Gabelle!"
What are the connotations of pig?.
Spectre?
Vermin?
ATale of Two Cities
Lesson 5
Handout 1t lpage 1)
Nanle
Date
B~)~k II, Chapter 9. The Marquis spends his last restless moments on earth:
The valet come and gone, Monsieur the Marquis walked to and fro in his
loose chamber-robe, to prepare himseK gently for sleep, that hot still
night. Rustling about the room, his softly-slippered feet making no
noise on the floor, he moved like a refined tiger: looked like some
enchanted marquis of the impenitently evil sort, in story, whose
periodical change into tiger form was eitherj ust going off, or just coming
On,
What are the connotations of refined tiger?.
Enchanted marquis?
Referring again to these passages, state what you believe is the Marquis’ view of the peasants under
his power.
.
Referring to the passage about the Marquis and his home, what impression do you believe Dickens
wanted the reader to have of the Marquis de St. Evremond?
A Tale of Two Cities
Lesson 5
Handout 11 (page 1)
Name
Date
Imagery
Directions: Read the passages below which contain references to animal and/or monster images. Be
prepared to comment about the connotations of these images.
Book H, Cl~ap~:er 8. The Marquis questions the peasant who has seen someone under
the carriage:
"What man, pig?. And why look there?"
"Pardon, Monseigneur; he swung by the chain of the shoe--the drag."
’%Vtlo?" demanded the traveller.
"Monseigneur, the man."
"May the Devil carry away these idiots! How do you call the man? You
know all the men of this part of the country. Who was he?"
"Your clemency, Monseigneur! He was not of this part of the country. Of
all the days of my life, I never saw him."...
"%Vhat was he like?"
"Monseigneur, he was whiter than the miller. All covered with dust,
white as a spectre, tall as a spectre!"
The picture produced an immense sensation {n the little crowd; but all
eyes, without comparing notes with other eyes, looked at Monsieur the
Marquis, Perhaps, to observe whether he had any spectre on his conscience.
’~Fruly, you did well," said the Marquis, felicitously sensible that such
vermin were not to ruffle him, "to see a thief accompanying my carriage,
and not open that great mouth of yours. Bah! Put him aside, Monsieur
Gabelle!’"
What are the connotations of pig?.
Spectre?
Vermin?
A Tale of Two Cities
Lesson 5
Handout 11 (page 1)
Name
Date
Animal Imagery
Directions: Read the passages below which contain references to animal and/or monster images. Be
prepared to comment about the connotations of these images.
Book II, Chapter 8. The Marquis a~xives in his travelling carriage:
Heralded by a courier in advance, and by the cracking of his postions’
whips, which twined snake-like about their heads in the evening air, as
ffhe came attended by the Furies, Monsieur the Marquis drew up in his
travelling carriage at the posting-house gate.
What are the connotations of snake-like?
Furies?