A Tale of Two Cities Quotes

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1. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foo-lishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way…” Book the First, Chapter 1, Page 13
These famous words begin the novel. Dickens states how each city is essentially the opposite of the other, though he does not tell the reader which one is better off than the other. His use of parallel structure shows how each city directly contrasts the other. The motif of doubles starts here with the description of Paris and London. His singsong rhythm and his use of understatement by listing the evils shows how neither good nor bad are winning; rather, they are both equal. His long sentences with many commas show how the two cities contrasted each other many ways, emphasizing their differences.

2. “[Jarvis:] ‘Jerry, say that my answer was, RECALLED TO LIFE.’ Jerry started in his saddle. ‘That’s a Blazing strange answer, too,’ said he, at his hoarsest. ‘Take that message back, and they will know that I received this, as well as if I wrote. Make the best of your way. Good night.’” Book the First, Chapter 2, Pages 19–20
Jarvis tells Jerry to deliver back to Tellson’s bank that message. Jerry is perplexed at his answer, but Jarvis reaffirms him. The phrase “recall to life” is paradoxical because nothing can ever be brought back to life. However, it suggests that something that was “dead” in the sense of having no reason to live or theoretically “dead” has now come back to its full potential. It is revealed in the next chapter that a person in a prison cell was “recalled to life” by that he was let out of prison. “Recal-ling to life” is used interchangeable with “digging out of the grave,” showing the many ways of bringing someone back to life. Jarvis says it so nonchalantly that it would appear that it is common for him. The concept of bringing somewhat back to life is prominent throughout the novel.

3. “A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other. A solemn consideration, when I enter a great city by night, that every one of those darkly clustered houses encloses its own secret; that every room in every one of them closes its own secret; that every beating heart in the hundreds of thousands of breasts there is, in some of its imaginings, a secret to the heart nearest !” Book the First, Chapter 3, Page 21
The narrator gives the reader his own opinion of human nature, stating that people are inherently secretive and shady. This is one of the few times that the narrator gives his own opinion on a mat-ter, showing the strength of his belief. As for the novel, it mirrors that past actions of Doctor Ma-nette, as his past is revealed slowly throughout the novel. In addition, Sydney Carton is a strange character when he is revealed in the novel, as someone who drinks as much as he does is sure to have a troublesome past.

4. “The wine was red wine, and had stained the ground of the narrow street in the suburb of Saint Antoine, in Paris, where it was spilled. It had stained many hands, too, and many faces, and many naked feet, and many wooden shoes. The hands of the man who sawed the wood left red marks on the billets; and the forehead of the woman who nursed her baby was stained with the stain of the old rag she wound about her head again. Those who had been greedy with the staves of the cask, had acquired a tigerish smear about the mouth; and one tall joke so besmirched, his head more out of a long squalid bag of a nightcap than in it, scrawled upon a wall with his finger dipped in the muddy wine-lees—BLOOD.” Book the First, Chapter 5, Pages 37–38
In a suburb of Paris, a wine cask broke onto the ground and all of the peasants scooped down and drank it. Red wine, the same color of blood, symbolizes and foreshadows the blood that will “stain” the French during the French Revolution. The peasants are scrambling for the wine, showing how hungry and desperate they are. Everyone is involved in the scrambling, showing how the Revolution is wholly and affects everyone in France. The fact that the wine shop is owned by Monsieur Defarge shows how he will be a central part in the Revolution. In the next passage, all the peasants are hungry but not only for food, but for change.

5. “But indeed, at that time, putting to death was a recipe much in vogue with all trades and profes-sions, and not least of all with Tellson’s. Death is Nature’s remedy for all things, and why not Legis-lation’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. Book the Second, Chapter 1, Page 62

6. “‘What!’ said Mr. Cruncher, looking out of bed for a boot. ‘You’re at it agin, are you?’ After hailing the morn with this second salutation, he threw a boot at the women as a third. It was a very muddy boot… ‘What,’ said Mr. Cruncher, varying his apostrophe after missing his mark, ‘what are you up to, Aggerawayter?’ ‘I was only saying my prayers.’ ‘Saying your prayers! You’re a nice woman!…And what do you suppose, you conceited female…that the worth of your prayers may be?’” Book the Second, Chapter 1, Page 64
Mr. Cruncher is introduced to the audience as being very hostile, especially to his own mother. He does not care that his mother is praying and thinks that she is praying against him. His aggression gives him the appearance of a madman who is hostile and gives himself a bad first impression that lasts throughout the novel. “Aggerawayter” is Cruncher’s form of “aggravator” and suggests that he thinks that his mom is aggravating his financial crisis. Cruncher is using his mother as a scapegoat for his poor conditions. Cruncher mirrors Dickens’s father, who also had economic troubles.

7. “‘Al-ways rusty! His fingers is al-ways rusty!’ muttered young Jerry. ‘Where does my father get all that iron rust from? He don’t get no iron rust here!’” Book the Second, Chapter 1, Page 66
Young Jerry’s remark raises doubts in the reader’s mind because there is no part of the Older Cruncher’s description as of this quote that suggests he would be working with iron. It continues with Dickens’s practice of leaving questions to be answered at the end of the chapter. Some of his novels, including this one, were published periodically, so it was important to leave cliffhangers to make the audience want to read more. However, the color of rust, red, is symbolic. It has many meanings, but here it foreshadows the wrath than Cruncher has towards his mother and his eco-nomic position and also foreshadows how his hands will become bloody in the events of the novel.

8. “Silence in the court! Charles Darnay had yesterday pleaded not guilty to an indictment denouncing him (with infinite jingle and jangle) for that he was a false traitor to our serene, illustrious, excel-lent, and so forth, prince, our Lord the King, by reason of his having, on divers occasions, and by di-vers means and ways, assisted Lewis, the French King, in his wars against our said serene, illu-strious, excellent, and so forth; that was to say, by coming and going, between the dominions of our said serene, illustrious, excellent, and so forth, and those of the said French Lewis, and wickedly, falsely, traitorously, and otherwise evil-adverbiously, revealing to the said French Lewis what forces our said serene, illustrious, excellent, and so forth, had in preparation to send to Canada and North America. Book the Second, Chapter 2, Page 71
By the way the “Mr. Attorney-General” speaks, Dickens is mocking him as well as all other law pro-fessions. The Attorney-General calls the King of England “serene, illustrious, excellent, and so forth” four times, showing how people in law only repeat information. The juxtaposition of “serene, illustrious, excellent” with “and so forth” shows his incompetence by using a vague, informal phrase after his positive description of the King. The attorney also calls the French King “Lewis” and not “Louis,” showing his incompetence.

9. “When toned down again, the unimpeachable patriot appeared in the witness-box. Mr. Solicitor-General then, following his leader’s lead, examined the patriot: John Barsad, gentleman, by name. The story of his pure soul….Having released his noble bosom of its burden…” Book the Second, Chapter 3, Page 75
Dickens shows how the Solicitor-General builds up his witness to be a hero and a “patriot,” though all he is doing his giving his view on what happened. This suggests that the solicitor is incompetent and is symbolic of the rest of the law world. It is ironic that a product of law, the examination of Barsad, reveals that he is not very “pure,” as he has been in debtor’s prison two or three times. “Leader’s lead” again shows the solicitor’s repetition and dumbness.

10. “…the jackal sat at his own paper-bestrewn table proper, on the other side of it, with the bottles and glasses ready to his hand…the jackal, with knitted brows and intent face, so deep in his task, that his eyes did not even follow the hand he stretched out for his glass…‘Before Shrewsbury, and at Shrewsbury, and ever since Shrewsbury…you have fallen into your rank, and I have fallen into mine…you were always somewhere, and I was always—nowhere.’” Book the Second, Chapter 5, Pages 94 and 96
Dickens describes Sydney as a jackal, or someone who works with accomplices to deceive people. He is dejected and his work does not help his social status, and so he succumbs to drinking. Sydney is accepting of his worthless position instead of trying to change it. Since he looks very similar to Mr. Darnay, his life choices are measured against his, showing the theme of doubles, as evident in the first line of the play.

11. “Perhaps. Perhaps, see the great crowd of people with its rush and roar, bearing down upon them, too.” Book the Second, Chapter 6, Page 109
These two lines mean two very different things. From what Ms. Pross believes, the crowd is the men who are trying to win Lucie’s affection. However, in the larger and historical sense, it foresha-dows the French mob that will start the French Revolution and will change history.

12. “Monsieur the Marquis ran his eyes over them all, as if they had been mere rats come out of their holes. He took out his purse. ‘It is extraordinary to me,’ said he, ‘that you people cannot take care of yourselves and your children. One or the other of you is for ever in the way. How do I know what injury you have done my horses? See! Give him that.’ He threw out a gold coin for the valet to pick up, and all the heads craned forward that all the eyes might look down at it as it fell. The tall man called out again with a most unearthly cry, ‘Dead!’” Book the Second, Chapter 8, Page 116
Dickens mocks nobles by giving them obvious and redundant names. “Monsieur the Marquis” means Mr. Nobleman and generically shows how he represents all nobles, pompous and indifferent towards the lower classes. The nobles are introduced into the story as violent and indifferent, giv-ing them a bad first impression. Instead of caring for the dead son or the now-childless father, the Marquis only cares about his horses. However, when he gives a gold coin to Monsieur Defarge, he angrily throws it back and does not accept his pity, showing the class struggles between the two and also foreshadowing the French Revolution.

13. “It was a heavy mass of building, that château of Monsieur the Marquis, with a large stone cour-tyard 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 direction. As if the Gorgon’s head had surveyed it, when it was finished, two centuries ago.” Book the Second, Chapter 9, Page 125
The repetition of “stone” gives the château a cold and disheartening look, much like Marquis’s stone, indifferent heart. “Stone flowers” seems like an oxymoron because flowers are not made of stone; however, it represents that nobles, like Marquis, were once nice and compassionate, but have now been taken over by coldness. “Stone faces of men” and “Gorgon” foreshadow the Mar-quis’s death because the Gorgon was a Greek monster that killed anyone that looked at it by turn-ing him or her into stone.

14. “[Darnay:] ‘My friend, I will die, perpetuating the system under which I have lived…’ ‘This property and France are lost to me…I renounce them.’” Book the Second, Chapter 9, Page 129
Mr. Darnay openly defies his powerful uncle and loses the vast inheritance he has to prove a point: that there needs to be a change. At the end, he is the leading suspect of the Marquis’s death, as the Marquis criticized Darnay’s decision to disown himself of the nobility. He writes “JACQUES,” which is the code name for supporters of the French Revolution, showing the class struggles be-tween the nobility and the middle classes.

15. “[Lucie:] ‘My father!’ she called to him. ‘Father dear!’ Nothing was said in answer, but she heard a low hammering sound in his bedroom. Passing lightly across the intermediate room, she looked in at his door and came running back frightened, crying to herself, with her blood all chilled…Her un-certainty lasted but a moment; she hurried back, and tapped at his door, and softly called to him. The noise ceased at the sound of her voice, and he presently came out to her, and they walked up and down together for a long time. She came down from her bed, to look at him in his sleep that night. He slept heavily, and his tray of shoemaking tools, and his old unfinished work, were all as usual.” Book the Second, Chapter 10, Page 141
Doctor Manette’s return to shoemaking shows how troubled a man he is. While alone and impri-soned for eighteen years, he cobbled shoes. When Lucie leaves for a while, he returns to his habit. This suggests that unlike his title of “Doctor,” his real heart’s ambition is a cobbler, showing the complexity and secrets that humans have.