Article #98-1 | Gutenberg Articles

Excerpt

Excerpt from A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens

The gentleman from Tellson’s had nothing left for it but to empty his
glass with an air of stolid desperation, settle his odd little flaxen
wig at the ears, and follow the waiter to Miss Manette’s apartment.
It was a large, dark room, furnished in a funereal manner with black
horsehair, and loaded with heavy dark tables. These had been oiled and
oiled, until the two tall candles on the table in the middle of the room
were gloomily reflected on every leaf; as if they were buried, in deep
graves of black mahogany, and no light to speak of could be expected
from them until they were dug out.

The obscurity was so difficult to penetrate that Mr. Lorry, picking his
way over the well-worn Turkey carpet, supposed Miss Manette to be, for
the moment, in some adjacent room, until, having got past the two tall
candles, he saw standing to receive him by the table between them and
the fire, a young lady of not more than seventeen, in a riding-cloak,
and still holding her straw travelling-hat by its ribbon in her hand. As
his eyes rested on a short, slight, pretty figure, a quantity of golden
hair, a pair of blue eyes that met his own with an inquiring look, and
a forehead with a singular capacity (remembering how young and smooth
it was), of rifting and knitting itself into an expression that was
not quite one of perplexity, or wonder, or alarm, or merely of a bright
fixed attention, though it included all the four expressions--as his
eyes rested on these things, a sudden vivid likeness passed before him,
of a child whom he had held in his arms on the passage across that very
Channel, one cold time, when the hail drifted heavily and the sea ran
high. The likeness passed away, like a breath along the surface of
the gaunt pier-glass behind her, on the frame of which, a hospital
procession of negro cupids, several headless and all cripples, were
offering black baskets of Dead Sea fruit to black divinities of the
feminine gender--and he made his formal bow to Miss Manette.

“Pray take a seat, sir.” In a very clear and pleasant young voice; a
little foreign in its accent, but a very little indeed.

Explanation

Detailed Explanation of the Excerpt from A Tale of Two Cities

Context of the Passage

This excerpt comes from Book the First, Chapter 4 ("The Preparation") of A Tale of Two Cities (1859) by Charles Dickens. The novel is set against the backdrop of the French Revolution and explores themes of resurrection, duality, sacrifice, and the destructive forces of history.

At this point in the story, Mr. Jarvis Lorry, a loyal employee of Tellson’s Bank, has traveled from London to Paris to retrieve Dr. Alexandre Manette, a French physician who has been wrongfully imprisoned in the Bastille for eighteen years. Dr. Manette’s daughter, Lucie, whom he has never met (as she was an infant when he was imprisoned), is now a young woman living in England under the care of Lorry and the Manettes’ former servant, Miss Pross.

The scene takes place in a London hotel, where Lorry has come to inform Lucie that her father is alive and that they will soon reunite. The passage captures the moment of anticipation before this emotional reunion, emphasizing darkness, memory, and the ghostly presence of the past.

Themes in the Passage

Darkness vs. Light (Duality & Resurrection)
- The room is described in funereal, oppressive terms—dark furniture, heavy mahogany tables "oiled and oiled" like graves, and candles that cast a gloomy reflection.
- This symbolizes the weight of the past—Dr. Manette’s imprisonment, the suffering of the Manette family, and the buried truths that are about to resurface.
- Lucie, however, is a beam of light—her golden hair, blue eyes, and youthful vitality contrast sharply with the darkness, foreshadowing her role as a symbol of hope and renewal in the novel.
Memory & the Ghosts of the Past
- When Lorry sees Lucie, he is struck by a sudden memory of holding her as a baby during a stormy Channel crossing—a moment that connects past and present.
- The flickering likeness that "passed away like a breath" suggests how memory is fleeting yet haunting, much like the revenants (returning spirits) that populate the novel (e.g., Dr. Manette’s psychological trauma, the revolutionaries’ vengeance).
- The distorted reflections in the pier-glass (mirror)—with headless, crippled cupids offering Dead Sea fruit (symbolizing barrenness and death)—reinforce the idea of a broken, grotesque past that cannot be fully escaped.
Isolation & Reunion
- Lucie stands alone in the dark room, holding her traveling hat—a sign that she is in transition, neither fully English nor French, caught between two worlds.
- Her foreign accent (though slight) hints at her displacement, a theme central to the novel (many characters, like Sydney Carton and Dr. Manette, are exiles in some sense).
- The formal yet tense interaction between Lorry and Lucie sets up the emotional reunion with her father, which will be both joyful and traumatic.
The Uncanny & the Supernatural
- Dickens often blurs the line between reality and the supernatural. Here, the mirror’s distorted images and the sudden memory give the scene an eerie, dreamlike quality.
- The hospital procession of negro cupids (a bizarre, almost nightmarish image) suggests decay and lost innocence, possibly alluding to the corruption of revolutionary ideals later in the novel.

Literary Devices & Stylistic Analysis

Imagery (Visual & Tactile)
- Darkness & Decay:
  - "Funereal manner with black horsehair"
  - "Deep graves of black mahogany"
  - "Obscurity so difficult to penetrate" → Creates a claustrophobic, tomb-like atmosphere, reflecting the psychological burden of the past.
- Light & Youth:
  - "Golden hair, blue eyes"
  - "Bright fixed attention" → Lucie is a luminous figure, a contrast to the gloom of history.
Simile & Metaphor
- "As if they [the candles] were buried in deep graves of black mahogany" → The tables are metaphorical graves, suggesting that truths (and people) are buried but not dead.
- "The likeness passed away, like a breath along the surface of the gaunt pier-glass" → Memory is ephemeral yet haunting, like a ghost.
Symbolism
- The Mirror (Pier-Glass):
  - Reflects distorted, broken images (headless cupids, Dead Sea fruit) → symbolizes the fractured nature of history and identity.
  - Mirrors in Gothic literature often represent duality, self-reflection, or the uncanny (e.g., Dorian Gray’s portrait).
- The Candles:
  - Provide little light, yet their reflections are everywhere → suggests that truth is obscured but pervasive.
- Lucie’s Traveling Hat:
  - She is in motion, not yet settled—symbolizing her role as a bridge between past and future.
Diction & Tone
- Gloomy, oppressive words: "funereal," "gloomily," "obscurity," "cripples," "Dead Sea fruit" → Creates a forboding, almost Gothic tone.
- Sudden shift to warmth: "clear and pleasant young voice" →ie’s presence softens the darkness, foreshadowing her redemptive role.
Foreshadowing
- The stormy Channel crossing Lorry remembers foreshadows the tumultuous events to come (the Revolution, personal upheavals).
- The distorted mirror images hint at the violence and chaos that will later consume Paris.

Significance of the Passage

Introduction to Lucie Manette
- This is our first real glimpse of Lucie, who becomes the moral center of the novel.
- Her youth, beauty, and compassion contrast with the darkness of the Revolution and the corruption of characters like Madame Defarge.
- She is associated with light, resurrection, and love—qualities that Dickens suggests can transcend historical violence.
The Weight of History
- The oppressive furniture and darkness symbolize the burden of the past—Dr. Manette’s imprisonment, the aristocracy’s crimes, and the coming Revolution.
- The mirror’s grotesque reflections suggest that history is not just remembered but distorted, leading to vengeance and repetition of violence.
Duality & Doubles
- The contrasts (light/dark, youth/decay, memory/reality) reinforce the novel’s central theme of duality (e.g., London/Paris, love/hate, sacrifice/destruction).
- Lorry’s memory of Lucie as a baby vs. Lucie as a young woman shows how time changes people but also connects them.
Gothic Elements
- The funereal setting, distorted mirror, and spectral memory give the scene a Gothic tone, which Dickens uses to heighten emotional and psychological tension.
- This prepares the reader for the horrors of the Revolution, where ghosts of the past (like the Marquis’s crimes) return in violent ways.

Conclusion: Why This Passage Matters

This excerpt is pivotal because it:

Establishes Lucie as a symbol of hope in a world of darkness.
Foreshadows the novel’s central conflicts (past vs. present, love vs. vengeance).
Uses Gothic and symbolic imagery to create a sense of unease, preparing the reader for the violence and redemption to come.
Highlights Dickens’ mastery of atmosphere, where even a simple room becomes a stage for historical and personal drama.

The passage is not just description—it is a microcosm of the novel’s themes, where light struggles against darkness, memory haunts the present, and the past is never truly buried.

Questions

Question 1

The "hospital procession of negro cupids" in the pier-glass most plausibly functions as a symbolic representation of:

A. the colonial exploitation underpinning European aristocratic wealth, introduced to critique imperial hypocrisy.
B. the physical and psychological deformities inflicted by the French Revolution’s violence.
C. the grotesque distortion of idealised love and innocence by historical trauma.
D. Dickens’ satirical commentary on the absurdity of Rococo aesthetic excess in pre-Revolutionary France.
E. the racialised "othering" of suffering, reflecting Victorian England’s discomfort with non-white bodies.

Question 2

The narrative’s description of Lucie’s forehead as exhibiting "an expression that was not quite one of perplexity, or wonder, or alarm, or merely of a bright fixed attention, though it included all the four" primarily serves to:

A. underscore her intellectual precocity by depicting a complexity of thought beyond her years.
B. establish her as an unreliable narrator whose perceptions cannot be trusted.
C. evoke the uncanny fusion of past and present in her person, mirroring the novel’s themes of resurrection.
D. contrast her emotional restraint with the melodramatic reactions of other characters.
E. foreshadow her eventual psychological collapse under the weight of revolutionary violence.

Question 3

The passage’s repeated emphasis on the "oiled and oiled" tables and their "gloomily reflected" candles is most effectively read as:

A. a material metaphor for the recursive, inescapable nature of historical guilt.
B. an indictment of the Manette family’s excessive mourning for Dr. Manette.
C. a realist detail grounding the Gothic atmosphere in tangible domestic neglect.
D. a subtle critique of Victorian furniture polish as a symbol of bourgeois vanity.
E. an ironic juxtaposition of wealth (polished mahogany) with the poverty of the imprisoned.

Question 4

Mr. Lorry’s sudden recollection of Lucie as a child during the Channel crossing is structurally analogous to which of the following literary techniques?

A. Stream of consciousness, disrupting linear temporality to mimic memory’s associativity.
B. Pathetic fallacy, where the stormy weather externalises Lorry’s internal turmoil.
C. Chekhov’s gun, planting a detail that will later explain Lucie’s fear of water.
D. Dramatic irony, as the reader knows more about Lucie’s past than Lorry does.
E. Proleptic metaphor, compressing past and future trauma into a single haunting image.

Question 5

The "Dead Sea fruit" offered by the cupids in the mirror most resonates with which of the following interpretive frameworks?

A. The barrenness of revolutionary ideals when divorced from human compassion.
B. The sterility of aristocratic lineage, doomed by its own decadence.
C. The biblical allusion to Sodom and Gomorrah, condemning Paris as a modern den of vice.
D. The economic futility of colonial trade, where exotic goods lose value in Europe.
E. The Freudian symbolism of repressed desire manifesting as rotten or forbidden objects.

Solutions and Explanations

1) Correct answer: C

Why C is most correct: The "negro cupids" are described as headless, cripples, offering black baskets of Dead Sea fruit—a grotesque inversion of classical symbols of love (cupids) and fertility (fruit). This aligns with the novel’s broader preoccupation with how historical trauma (e.g., Dr. Manette’s imprisonment, the Revolution’s violence) distorts innocence and idealism. The image is not primarily about colonialism (A) or racial othering (E), nor is it a direct satire of Rococo (D) or a literal foreshadowing of Revolutionary violence (B). Instead, it embodies the Gothic uncanny, where familiar symbols (love, beauty) are rendered monstrous by history’s weight.