Summary: A Tale of Two Cities

Tak­ing place in 1775, both France and Eng­land are fac­ing soci­etal upheaval. Jer­ry Crunch­er, an employ­ee at Tellson’s Bank, stops the Dover mail coach with a mys­te­ri­ous mes­sage for Jarvis Lor­ry regard­ing a young lady await­ing at Dover. Lor­ry encoun­ters Lucie Manette, a young orphan, whose seem­ing­ly late father, a renowned doc­tor, is dis­cov­ered alive in France. Upon their arrival in Paris, they meet Defarge, who had been safe­guard­ing Doc­tor Manette, dri­ven to insan­i­ty by his pro­longed incar­cer­a­tion. Lucie’s affec­tion and ded­i­ca­tion suc­cess­ful­ly restore her father’s rationality.

Advanc­ing to 1780, Charles Dar­nay stands tri­al for betray­ing the Eng­lish monar­chy. With the aid of Syd­ney Car­ton, who bears a remark­able resem­blance to Dar­nay, the tri­al is won. This sim­i­lar­i­ty under­mines the pros­e­cu­tion’s asser­tion of cor­rect­ly iden­ti­fy­ing Dar­nay as the spy they wit­nessed. Car­ton har­bors bit­ter­ness towards Dar­nay for remind­ing him of the poten­tial he once pos­sessed. Mean­while, in France, the mer­ci­less Mar­quis Evré­monde cal­lous­ly kills a com­mon child with his car­riage, dis­play­ing no remorse. Dar­nay dis­ap­proves of his uncle’s harsh treat­ment of the under­priv­i­leged and renounces his Evré­monde identity.

A year lat­er, Dar­nay seeks Manet­te’s bless­ing to wed Lucie. He vows to dis­close his true iden­ti­ty to Manette if Lucie con­sents. On that same evening, Manette reverts to his for­mer shoe-mak­ing behav­ior from his time in prison. Yet, after nine days, he regains his san­i­ty and accom­pa­nies the new­ly­weds on their hon­ey­moon. The French Rev­o­lu­tion com­mences in 1789, with Dar­nay return­ing to France despite the per­il, in response to a plea from Gabelle. Arrest­ed upon his arrival, he lan­guish­es in prison for over a year until Manet­te’s influ­ence secures his release. Nonethe­less, he is re-arrest­ed that very night. Syd­ney Car­ton arrives in Paris with a scheme to res­cue Dar­nay, trick­ing him into exchang­ing cloth­ing and fac­ing exe­cu­tion in his stead. Car­ton meets his demise at the guil­lo­tine, ulti­mate­ly dis­cov­er­ing pur­pose in his life.

Introduction

Dick­ens briefly notes that his inspi­ra­tion for A Sto­ry of Two Urban Areas stemmed from his involve­ment in his acquain­tance Wilkie Collins’s the­ater piece, “The Frozen Deep.” He aims to enrich his audi­ence’s under­stand­ing of the French Revolution—a peri­od he dubs “that dread­ful time.” How­ev­er, he mod­est­ly sug­gests that grasp­ing the even­t’s full com­plex­i­ty might only be achieved by delv­ing into Thomas Carlyle’s “The French Rev­o­lu­tion,” pub­lished in 1837.

Book 1 Chapter 1

This brief seg­ment sit­u­ates us in the time­frame and loca­tions of the nar­ra­tive: 1775 in Eng­land and France. The era is char­ac­ter­ized by a blend of pos­i­tives and negatives—“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”—an echo of the peri­od when Dick­ens penned the tale. In Eng­land, indi­vid­u­als are pre­oc­cu­pied with reli­gious pre­dic­tions, the alleged “Cock-lane ghost,” and mes­sages from British colonists in Amer­i­ca to King George III. Con­verse­ly, France grap­ples with lav­ish spend­ing and exces­sive bru­tal­i­ty, fore­shad­ow­ing the deploy­ment of the guil­lo­tine. Nev­er­the­less, Eng­land’s social har­mo­ny and order also exhib­it imper­fec­tions, includ­ing ele­vat­ed crime rates and preva­lent executions.

Book 1 Chapter 2

In the lat­ter part of Novem­ber 1775, a postal car­riage embarks on a per­ilous jour­ney from Lon­don to Dover. The voy­age is so haz­ardous that its three occu­pants must trudge beside it as it ascends a chal­leng­ing slope. Amidst the dense fog, a mes­sen­ger on horse­back emerges, seek­ing Jarvis Lor­ry from Tellson’s Bank. The group reacts with wari­ness, sus­pect­ing a thief or brig­and. Mr. Lor­ry, how­ev­er, rec­og­nizes the mes­sen­ger as Jer­ry Crunch­er, a jack-of-all-trades from Tellson’s, and agrees to accept his mis­sive. Jer­ry deliv­ers a note stat­ing, “Wait at Dover for Mam’selle.” Lor­ry instructs Jer­ry to relay this response to Tellson’s: “Recalled to Life.” Bewil­dered and per­turbed by the enig­mat­ic direc­tive, Jer­ry pro­ceeds to con­vey the message.

Book 1 Chapter 3

The nar­ra­tor mus­es over the enig­mas each indi­vid­ual holds for anoth­er, illus­trat­ed by Lor­ry’s jour­ney in the postal coach with two unfa­mil­iar fig­ures. Drift­ing into a semi-con­scious state, he con­tem­pla­tive­ly rumi­nates on Tellson’s bank oper­a­tions. Yet, one per­sis­tent thought prevails—his mis­sion to revive some­one from their fig­u­ra­tive grave. Lor­ry envis­ages recur­ring con­ver­sa­tions with a specter, who men­tions being entombed for near­ly eigh­teen years. Lor­ry updates the appari­tion that he has been “recalled to life” and ques­tions if it desires to live. Puz­zling­ly, he asks, “Shall I intro­duce her to you? Will you come and see her?” The phan­tom’s respons­es fluctuate—sometimes assert­ing that glimps­ing the woman would pre­ma­ture­ly end his exis­tence, while at oth­er times, he weeps and implores to meet her instantly.

Book 1 Chapter 4

On the sub­se­quent day, Lor­ry arrives at the Roy­al George Hotel in Dover. He tran­si­tions from his trav­el garb to assume the facade of a refined six­ty-year-old busi­ness­man. Lat­er that day, Lucie Manette, described as diminu­tive, charm­ing, and youth­ful, arrives from Lon­don. She receives infor­ma­tion from the bank regard­ing a recent dis­cov­ery con­cern­ing her deceased father’s mod­est pos­ses­sions. Lor­ry, uphold­ing his pro­fes­sion­al demeanor, dis­clos­es the bank’s authen­tic rea­son for sum­mon­ing Lucie in Paris. Her father, a once esteemed doc­tor, is alive. Lor­ry informs her that her father has been relo­cat­ed to a for­mer ser­van­t’s res­i­dence in Paris. Their tasks are out­lined: Lor­ry is to iden­ti­fy him, and Lucie must reju­ve­nate him, instill­ing him with love, duty, repose, and solace. This rev­e­la­tion leaves Lucie in a state of shock, prompt­ing her viva­cious and devot­ed atten­dant, Miss Pross, to has­ten to her side.

Book 1 Chapter 5

The nar­ra­tive shifts from Dover, Eng­land to Saint Antoine, a des­ti­tute locale in Paris. A cask of wine shat­ters on the street, incit­ing a fren­zy as indi­vid­u­als scram­ble to sal­vage the spilled wine. Men col­lect the wine from the thor­ough­fare, while women absorb the liq­uid with fab­ric to feed their infants. Using the wine, a man inscribes the word ‘blood’ on a wall. The local wine shop belongs to Mon­sieur Defarge, a com­mand­ing man in his thir­ties. His wife, Madame Defarge, is a vig­i­lant woman who over­sees oper­a­tions from behind the counter. She noti­fies her hus­band of the arrival of an elder­ly gen­tle­man and a young lady – Lor­ry and Lucie. Observ­ing them dis­creet­ly, Defarge con­vers­es with three reg­u­lar patrons, who address each oth­er as “Jacques” – a covert code denot­ing their rev­o­lu­tion­ary con­nec­tions. After ush­er­ing the men to a room on the fifth floor, Defarge is beck­oned by Mr. Lor­ry for a pri­vate con­ver­sa­tion. Fol­low­ing their brief inter­ac­tion, Defarge leads Lor­ry and Lucie up a pre­car­i­ous flight of stairs to a dingy cham­ber. Inside, the three “Jacques” peer through crevices in the wall. Defarge jus­ti­fies his rev­e­la­tion of Doc­tor Manette to a select few, posit­ing that it may serve a noble pur­pose. He then intro­duces them to the sight of a senior gen­tle­man deeply immersed in craft­ing footwear.

Book 1 Chapter 6

Manette, with a voice soft­ened by seclu­sion, dis­clos­es that he’s con­struct­ing a lady’s shoe in the cur­rent vogue, despite being unaware of the con­tem­po­rary trends. Upon being asked for his name, he replies, “One Hun­dred and Five, North Tow­er.” Lucie then strides towards him. Notic­ing her radi­ant gold­en tress­es, Manette loosens a cloth around his neck, unveil­ing a bun­dle of sim­i­lar gold­en hair. Ini­tial­ly, Manette mis­takes Lucie for his spouse, rem­i­nisc­ing about the ini­tial days of his impris­on­ment, where he request­ed to retain some stray hairs from his wife for solace. Lucie implores her father to con­vey his feel­ings if her voice or hair arous­es rec­ol­lec­tions of some­one dear from his past. She sub­tly prompts him about the home await­ing him, assur­ing him that his “agony is over.” Over­whelmed with emo­tions, Manette breaks down; Lucie insists on imme­di­ate arrange­ments for their jour­ney to Eng­land. Lor­ry rais­es objec­tions due to con­cerns for Manet­te’s well-being, but Lucie asserts that trav­el­ing pos­es few­er risks than stay­ing in Paris. Defarge agrees and ush­ers them into a carriage.

Book 2 Chapter 1

The year is 1780. Tellson’s Bank, posi­tioned near Tem­ple Bar in Lon­don, is a small, dim, and unwel­com­ing estab­lish­ment, an image it proud­ly upholds as a sym­bol of its esteemed sta­tus. The loca­tion, his­tor­i­cal­ly uti­lized for exhibit­ing the heads of exe­cut­ed felons, under­scores the preva­lent theme of death in that era, employed as a com­mon penal­ty for offens­es encom­pass­ing forgery to horse theft. Jer­ry Crunch­er, a run­ner and mes­sen­ger for the bank, resides in a mod­est area of the city. He com­mences his day by rep­ri­mand­ing his wife for pur­port­ed­ly ‘pray­ing against’ him, even hurl­ing his mud­dy boot at her. By nine in the morn­ing, he and his son stand out­side Tellson’s Bank, await­ing instruc­tions. Sum­moned for an errand indoors, Crunch­er leaves his son alone, who con­tem­plates the recur­rent pres­ence of rust on his father’s hands.

Book 2 Chapter 2

Crunch­er is dis­patched by the bank clerk to Old Bai­ley Cour­t­house to await Jarvis Lor­ry’s guid­ance. He encoun­ters Charles Dar­nay, an appeal­ing, well-man­nered indi­vid­ual, being indict­ed for trea­son. Crunch­er bare­ly com­pre­hends the legal jar­gon used but infers that Dar­nay is accused of divulging con­fi­den­tial infor­ma­tion to the French monarch (Louis XVI). This clan­des­tine data per­tains to Eng­land’s inten­tions to deploy troops to the Amer­i­can colonies. Dar­nay glances towards a young woman and a dis­tin­guished man, incit­ing mur­murs among the court­room atten­dees regard­ing their iden­ti­ties. Crunch­er lat­er dis­cov­ers that these two are set to tes­ti­fy against Darnay.

Book 2 Chapter 3

The pros­e­cu­tion against Dar­nay is pre­sent­ed by the Attor­ney-Gen­er­al, who urges the jury to pro­nounce him guilty of con­vey­ing Eng­lish secrets to the French. John Barsad, pre­sent­ed by the Solic­i­tor-Gen­er­al, pro­vides tes­ti­mo­ny sup­port­ing this asser­tion. How­ev­er, dur­ing cross-exam­i­na­tion, Barsad’s osten­si­bly vir­tu­ous façade is tar­nished by rev­e­la­tions of past impris­on­ment for finan­cial debts and gam­bling alter­ca­tions. The pros­e­cu­tion’s sub­se­quent wit­ness, Roger Cly, is sim­i­lar­ly depict­ed by defense attor­ney Mr. Stryver as an unre­li­able source. Fol­low­ing this, Mr. Lor­ry tes­ti­fies, stat­ing that he failed to rec­og­nize his fel­low pas­sen­gers dur­ing a car­riage trip with the accused due to their bulky attire. Sim­i­lar inquiries are direct­ed at Lucie, whom Dar­nay had pre­vi­ous­ly tak­en an inter­est in. She acknowl­edges encoun­ter­ing Dar­nay on a return jour­ney to Eng­land and recounts how he aid­ed her with her ail­ing father, seem­ing­ly bol­ster­ing his defense. Nev­er­the­less, her tes­ti­mo­ny takes a neg­a­tive turn when she divulges Dar­nay’s com­men­da­tion of George Wash­ing­ton — a poten­tial­ly sedi­tious remark. Doc­tor Manette, Lucie’s father, also tes­ti­fies but pleads mem­o­ry loss due to his ail­ments. Amid anoth­er fruit­less cross-exam­i­na­tion, Syd­ney Car­ton, an out­spo­ken junior col­league of Mr. Stryver, dis­patch­es him a mes­sage. The con­tents of this mis­sive lead to a piv­otal twist in the tri­al as it high­lights Car­ton’s strik­ing resem­blance to the accused, Dar­nay. This dop­pel­gänger sit­u­a­tion casts doubt on the court’s cer­tain­ty in cor­rect­ly iden­ti­fy­ing Dar­nay as the alleged spy. Fol­low­ing delib­er­a­tions, the jury, now uncer­tain, absolves Darnay.

Book 2 Chapter 4

Upon exit­ing the court­room, Doc­tor Manette, Lucie, Mr. Lor­ry, Mr. Stryver, and Dar­nay pro­ceed with their day. Despite the inter­mit­tent shad­ows of his his­to­ry, Manette com­mands respect in soci­ety. Lucie per­ceives her­self as the “gold­en thread” link­ing her father to a future beyond his pri­or sor­rows. Dar­nay express­es grat­i­tude to Stryver for his assis­tance in court before shar­ing a ten­der moment with Lucie. As the group dis­pers­es, Syd­ney Car­ton, intox­i­cat­ed, emerges from the back­drop. Mr. Lor­ry admon­ish­es him for his lack of pro­fes­sion­al­ism. Togeth­er, Dar­nay and Car­ton head to an inn where Car­ton, with a smug grin, con­tem­plates if fac­ing a life-or-death tri­al is war­rant­ed for Lucie’s com­pas­sion. Not­ing his ine­bri­at­ed state, Dar­nay queries Car­ton. Car­ton’s retort embod­ies dis­il­lu­sion­ment and soli­tude: “I am a dis­il­lu­sioned drudge, sir. I have affec­tion for no man on earth, and no man on earth holds affec­tion for me.” Fol­low­ing Dar­nay’s depar­ture, Car­ton con­temp­tu­ous­ly regards his reflec­tion and his mir­ror image, as reminders of his own flaws.

Book 2 Chapter 5

Syd­ney Car­ton, char­ac­ter­ized as the “idlest and most unpromis­ing of men,” ambles towards Mr. Stryver’s res­i­dence post leav­ing the inn. The two com­pan­ions share a drink, dis­cussing the recent legal pro­ceed­ings. Stryver, also dubbed “the lion,” lauds his com­rade, “the jack­al,” for the astute point he raised in court regard­ing Dar­nay’s iden­ti­ty. Nonethe­less, Stryver cen­sures Car­ton’s unpre­dictable tem­pera­ment, a trait evi­dent since their school days — “now in high spir­its and now in des­o­la­tion!” Car­ton rebuffs Stryver’s alle­ga­tion of his lack of pur­pose in life. Incom­pe­tent to vie with Stryver’s lofty ambi­tions, Car­ton jus­ti­fies that his sole recourse is to lead a life “in decay and inac­tiv­i­ty.” Stryver shifts the con­ver­sa­tion to Lucie, admir­ing her grace. Car­ton labels her as a “gold­en-haired pup­pet,” prompt­ing Stryver to ques­tion if Car­ton con­ceals his gen­uine feel­ings for her.

Book 2 Chapter 6

Sev­er­al months lat­er, Mr. Lor­ry vis­its the Manette res­i­dence. In the absence of the doc­tor and his daugh­ter, he engages in dia­logue with Miss Pross. Their con­ver­sa­tion revolves around Doc­tor Manet­te’s con­tin­ued pos­ses­sion of his shoe­mak­er’s work­sta­tion and Lucie’s myr­i­ad suit­ors. Miss Pross vents her exas­per­a­tion at the inces­sant string of suit­ors, deem­ing them unde­serv­ing. She deems her broth­er, Solomon, as the sole suit­able match for Lucie. How­ev­er, she acknowl­edges the regret­table mis­take that pre­cludes him. On the con­trary, Lor­ry is privy to Solomon’s deceit­ful past, which left Miss Pross des­ti­tute. Lor­ry inquires if Doc­tor Manette has resumed his shoe­mak­ing activ­i­ty, to which Pross responds neg­a­tive­ly, stat­ing that the doc­tor has moved on. Com­menc­ing his for­mer dis­tress­ing impris­on­ment. Upon return­ing home with Lucie and her father, Dar­nay accom­pa­nies them and nar­rates a pecu­liar inci­dent. He recounts the tale of a work­man who stum­bled upon a carv­ing on a prison cel­l’s wall with­in the Tow­er of Lon­don. Ini­tial­ly appear­ing as mere ini­tials, the work­er even­tu­al­ly deci­phered the word “dig”. Fol­low­ing the direc­tive, he uncov­ered charred rem­nants of a mes­sage. The anec­dote star­tles Manette, but he swift­ly regains his com­po­sure. Sub­se­quent­ly, Car­ton joins the gath­er­ing, and they con­gre­gate near a win­dow. The rever­ber­at­ing foot­steps from the street below are over­pow­er­ing. Lucie spec­u­lates that these foot­steps might belong to indi­vid­u­als fat­ed to inter­sect their lives in the future. Car­ton play­ful­ly sug­gests that if such were the case, a large throng must be en route towards them.

Book 2 Chapter 7

In Paris, a noble­man at the roy­al court, Mon­seigneur, enter­tains guests amidst grandeur and opu­lence. He demands four atten­dants to aid him in con­sum­ing his choco­late, under­scor­ing his extrav­a­gance. The nar­ra­tor com­ments on the cor­rupt­ing impact of Mon­seigneur’s rich­es. Mon­seigneur briefly engages with his guests before with­draw­ing. Guest Mar­quis Evré­monde express­es his dis­dain for Mon­seigneur’s haugh­ti­ness as he departs. Mar­quis Evré­monde derives plea­sure from reck­less­ly rac­ing his car­riage through city streets, nar­row­ly evad­ing pedes­tri­ans. Sud­den­ly, his car­riage halts abrupt­ly after strik­ing a child, now life­less beneath its wheels. The Mar­quis toss­es a few coins to the griev­ing father, Gas­pard, and to Defarge, the local vint­ner attempt­ing to con­sole him. Upon depart­ing, a coin is hurled back into his car­riage, a ges­ture of resent­ment. In response, he curs­es the com­mon pop­u­lace, assert­ing he’d read­i­ly tram­ple them under­foot. Through­out the inci­dent, Madame Defarge observes intent­ly, cease­less­ly knitting.

Book 2 Chapter 8

The Mar­quis arrives at a pover­ty-strick­en vil­lage under his rule, inhab­it­ed by oppressed and under­nour­ished res­i­dents. He sin­gles out a labor­er, per­turbed by the man’s unwa­ver­ing gaze dur­ing his jour­ney. The labor­er dis­clos­es that his stare was due to some­one cling­ing beneath the Mar­quis’ car­riage. Pro­ceed­ing, the Mar­quis encoun­ters a mourn­ing woman beside a mod­est grave, plead­ing for a trib­ute to hon­or her deceased hus­band. Unmoved, the Mar­quis dis­miss­es her plea and pro­ceeds to his chateau. Upon reach­ing his des­ti­na­tion, he inquires about the arrival of Mon­sieur Charles from England.

book 2 chapter 9

Charles Dar­nay, the Mar­quis’ nephew, appears at his uncle’s chateau one evening. He artic­u­lates his desire to renounce the fam­i­ly’s title and wealth, which he will inher­it upon the Mar­quis’ demise. Dar­nay per­ceives the fam­i­ly name as sym­bol­iz­ing “fear and enslave­ment.” He con­tends that the fam­i­ly has con­sis­tent­ly act­ed malev­o­lent­ly, “harm­ing every soul who obstruct­ed our plea­sure.” Despite the nephew’s protests, the Mar­quis coun­sels Dar­nay to embrace his “inevitable fate.” The sub­se­quent day, the Mar­quis is found dead, stabbed in the heart. The weapon used in the crime bears a note: “Con­vey him swift­ly to his grave. Regards, Jacques.”

book 2 chapter 10

A year lat­er, Dar­nay earns a mod­est income teach­ing French in Lon­don. He vis­its Doc­tor Manette, con­fess­ing his affec­tion for Lucie. He reveres the unique bond between Manette and his daugh­ter, assur­ing the doc­tor that his love for Lucie will not dis­rupt their rela­tion­ship. Impressed by Dar­nay’s sin­cer­i­ty, Manette asks if he desires a promise from him. Dar­nay requests Manette to affirm his gen­uine love for Lucie if she ques­tions it. Manette con­sents. Striv­ing for com­plete trans­paren­cy, Dar­nay tries to divulge his true iden­ti­ty, admit­ting that Dar­nay is an alias. How­ev­er, Manette inter­rupts, insist­ing that he only unveils his true iden­ti­ty upon win­ning Lucie’s heart. The rev­e­la­tion will occur on their wed­ding day. Sev­er­al hours after Dar­nay’s depar­ture, Lucie dis­cov­ers her father engrossed in his shoe­mak­ing. Con­cerned by his regres­sion, she vig­i­lant­ly watch­es over him as he slum­bers that night.

book 2 chapter 11

Dur­ing the late hours, Car­ton and Stryver are occu­pied with­in Stryver’s office. Exhibit­ing his inflat­ed ego, Stryver unveils his inten­tion to pro­pose to Lucie. Car­ton, turn­ing to alco­hol, reas­sures Stryver that the propo­si­tion does not per­turb him. Stryver sug­gests that Car­ton con­sid­er espous­ing a “respectable lady with some prop­er­ty” to evade a future of ill­ness and destitution.

book 2 chapter 12

Stryver is deter­mined to pro­pose to Lucie at Vaux­hall Gar­dens the fol­low­ing day. He shares his scheme with Mr. Lor­ry at Tell­son’s Bank, who advis­es cau­tion in ensur­ing Lucie’s prob­a­ble accep­tance before pro­ceed­ing. This coun­sel ruf­fles Stryver, near­ly caus­ing him to label Lucie a “minc­ing Fool.” Nonethe­less, Lor­ry warns him against dis­re­spect­ing Lucie and requests addi­tion­al time to ascer­tain the fam­i­ly’s stance on Stryver’s pro­pos­al. Lat­er that evening, Lor­ry informs Stryver that his sus­pi­cions were accu­rate; the Manettes would not endorse his pro­pos­al. Stryver dis­miss­es the rebuff, attribut­ing it to the “super­fi­cial­i­ties” of “vapid women,” instruct­ing Lor­ry to dis­re­gard the entire matter.

book 2 chapter 13

Car­ton, often spot­ted lin­ger­ing near the Manettes’ abode, sur­pris­es Lucie one August day with a vis­it. A con­spic­u­ous change in his demeanor cap­tures her atten­tion. He express­es remorse over squan­dered years and his pes­simistic out­look on the future. How­ev­er, Lucie reas­sures him, con­vey­ing her belief in his capac­i­ty to reform and rebuild. Despite Car­ton’s bleak self-per­cep­tion and doubt regard­ing redemp­tion, he admits to Lucie that she is “the ulti­mate dream of [his] soul.” She inspires him to con­tem­plate a fresh start, despite his skep­ti­cism about its fea­si­bil­i­ty. Shar­ing this rev­e­la­tion with Lucie pro­vides him a sem­blance of joy, real­iz­ing that he can still evoke com­pas­sion. Car­ton con­cludes his con­fes­sion by vow­ing to sac­ri­fice his life for Lucie if necessary.

book 2 chapter 14

Jer­ry Crunch­er observes a funer­al pro­ces­sion out­side Tell­son’s Bank one morn­ing. He learns they are about to inter­view Roger Cly, a spy who tes­ti­fied against Dar­nay in his tri­al. Crunch­er joins the diverse assem­blage, includ­ing a chim­ney sweep, a bear leader with his aged bear, and a pie ven­dor. Fol­low­ing a rau­cous funer­al ser­vice and a few liba­tions, Cly is laid to rest. For amuse­ment, they decide to accuse ran­dom indi­vid­u­als of espi­onage, intend­ing to exact “ret­ri­bu­tion on them.” Lat­er that evening, Crunch­er reproach­es his wife once more for pray­ing, before announc­ing his depar­ture for “fish­ing.” How­ev­er, his true intent is to exhume Cly’s body for sale to anatomists. Unbe­knownst to his son. Upon reach­ing Crunch­er, trails him to the grave­yard, how­ev­er, becomes scared and runs away, under the illu­sion that the cof­fin is fol­low­ing him. The next day, he ques­tions his father about the role of a “Res­ur­rec­tion-Man” — essen­tial­ly indi­vid­u­als like Crunch­er who unearth corpses for sci­en­tif­ic pur­pos­es. He reveals his ambi­tion to pur­sue this pro­fes­sion in the future.

book 2 chapter 15

In the cap­i­tal of France, Defarge brings a road mender, known as “Jacques,” to his shop. Upon his arrival, three men depart from the shop sep­a­rate­ly. Defarge and the road mender then pro­ceed to the attic, a for­mer hid­ing place of Doc­tor Manette. The three men, also iden­ti­fied as “Jacques” by Defarge, lat­er join them there. The road mender recounts an inci­dent from a year pri­or. He wit­nessed a man shack­led beneath the Mar­quis’ car­riage, who, after sev­er­al months, was escort­ed to prison by sol­diers. The man was accused of mur­der­ing the Mar­quis and was to be exe­cut­ed as a par­ri­cide. Despite pleas for mer­cy reach­ing Paris, he met his end at the gal­lows erect­ed in the town square. Fol­low­ing the road mender’s nar­ra­tive, Defarge requests him to step out­side momen­tar­i­ly. The oth­er “Jacques” demands the elim­i­na­tion of the aris­toc­ra­cy. One of them points out Madame Defarge’s knit­ting, a covert list of those marked for their rev­o­lu­tion. He ques­tions her abil­i­ty to always deci­pher the encod­ed names. Sub­se­quent­ly, the Defarges escort the road mender to Ver­sailles to wit­ness King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette. Upon sight­ing the roy­als, the road mender exclaims “Long live the King!” and becomes over­ly enthu­si­as­tic, neces­si­tat­ing Defarge to restrain him from con­fronting the roy­als. The Defarges find this dis­play grat­i­fy­ing, real­iz­ing their schemes would be facil­i­tat­ed if the priv­i­leged class con­tin­ued to have faith in the com­mon folk.

book 2 chapter 16

Lat­er that evening, the Defarges return to Saint Antoine. A com­rade in the police force alerts Defarge about a spy, John Barsad, in the vicin­i­ty. Madame Defarge opts to inscribe Barsad’s name into her knit­ting reg­is­ter. Con­cerned that the rev­o­lu­tion may not tran­spire in his life­time, Defarge con­fides his wor­ries to his wife. Madame Defarge reas­sures him, liken­ing the rev­o­lu­tion to a light­ning bolt or an earth­quake — capri­cious yet potent. The sub­se­quent day, Barsad appears at their wine shop, feign­ing sup­port for the rev­o­lu­tion­ar­ies. He dis­cuss­es the unjust treat­ment of the peas­antry. With knowl­edge of Defarge’s past as Doc­tor Manette’s employ­ee, Barsad informs him that Lucie Manette is betrothed to Dar­nay, the Mar­quis’ nephew. Upon Barsad’s depar­ture, Madame Defarge weaves Darnay’s name into her reg­is­ter, unset­tling Defarge, con­sid­er­ing his pri­or alle­giance to the Manette family.

book 2 chapter 17

As Lucie is on the verge of mar­ry­ing Dar­nay, she and her father, Dr. Manette, have enjoyed many con­tent days togeth­er. Manette has begun to over­come the trau­ma of his impris­on­ment. He recounts his time in the Bastille for the first time since his release, reflect­ing on his visions of Lucie’s future. Lucie has brought him immense joy and has been a source of “com­fort and heal­ing” for him. Lat­er that night, Lucie qui­et­ly enters her father’s room and finds him peace­ful­ly asleep.

book 2 chapter 18

Before their wed­ding cer­e­mo­ny, Dar­nay con­vers­es with Doc­tor Manette, who appears exces­sive­ly pale post their dis­cus­sion. Fol­low­ing Dar­nay and Lucie’s nup­tials, they depart for their hon­ey­moon, and a notice­able change is observed in Manet­te’s demeanor; he appears fear­ful and bewil­dered. Lat­er that day, Miss Pross and Mr. Lor­ry dis­cov­er him in a per­plexed state at his cobbler’s work­sta­tion. They are con­cerned that he may not recu­per­ate in time to accom­pa­ny the new­ly­weds on their hon­ey­moon as planned. Over the ensu­ing nine days, they vig­i­lant­ly mon­i­tor his condition.

book 2 chapter 19

On the tenth morn­ing, Lor­ry awak­ens to find the cobbler’s bench stored away and Dr. Manette engrossed in a book. Lor­ry del­i­cate­ly asks Manette about the pos­si­ble cause of his recent set­back, fram­ing it as if it hap­pened to some­one else. Manette believes the relapse was like­ly trig­gered by a potent mem­o­ry. He assures Lor­ry and Miss Pross that a sim­i­lar episode is improb­a­ble as the cir­cum­stances lead­ing to it are unlike­ly to recur. Still hypo­thet­i­cal­ly dis­cussing the sce­nario, Lor­ry illus­trates with the exam­ple of a black­smith. He ques­tions if the black­smith should be deprived of his tools if they evoke dis­tress­ing mem­o­ries. Manette posits that man uses the tools to soothe his trou­bled mind and should be allowed to retain them. How­ev­er, even­tu­al­ly, Manette agrees to let Lor­ry dis­pose of his tools for Lucie’s peace of mind dur­ing his absence. A few days lat­er, when Manette departs to join Lucie and Dar­nay, Lor­ry and Miss Pross seize the chance to dis­man­tle the cobbler’s bench and dis­card the tools.

book 2 chapter 20

Upon the return of Lucie and Dar­nay from their hon­ey­moon, Syd­ney Car­ton pays them a vis­it. He acknowl­edges his pre­vi­ous intem­per­ate behav­ior dur­ing the tri­al and humbly seeks Dar­nay’s com­pan­ion­ship. He implores, “If you could tol­er­ate the pres­ence of such a worth­less indi­vid­ual… mak­ing errat­ic vis­its, I would request the priv­i­lege to come and go as an esteemed mem­ber [in the house­hold]…”. After Car­ton departs, Dar­nay com­ments on his reck­less and impul­sive dis­po­si­tion. Nonethe­less, Lucie dis­putes this harsh judg­ment, assert­ing that Car­ton pos­sess­es a good heart, albeit one wound­ed. Touched by Lucie’s com­pas­sion, Dar­nay vows to view Car­ton’s imper­fec­tions with empathy.

book 2 chapter 21

Time elaps­es, and Lucie’s house­hold enjoys a tran­quil exis­tence. She gives birth to a daugh­ter, named lit­tle Lucie, and a son who unfor­tu­nate­ly does not sur­vive long. Lucie retains a habit of sit­ting in a cor­ner of the liv­ing room, lis­ten­ing to the echo­ing foot­steps from the street. By 1789, these rever­ber­a­tions appear dis­tant and car­ry the sense of “a great storm in France with a dread­ful sea ris­ing”. On a July day, Lor­ry vis­its the Dar­nays, inform­ing them that more French indi­vid­u­als are trans­fer­ring their rich­es and pos­ses­sions to Eng­land. The nar­ra­tive then tran­si­tions to the vio­lent onslaught of the Bastille in Paris. The Defarges play piv­otal roles in the tumult. Upon breach­ing the Bastille, Defarge seizes a guard and demands to be led to 105 North Tow­er. He metic­u­lous­ly search­es the cell and then reunites with the mob, engaged in the act of dis­patch­ing and dis­fig­ur­ing the gov­er­nor who sought to shield the fortress. Madame Defarge pro­ceeds to sev­er the man’s head.

book 2 chapter 22

A week lat­er, Defarge returns to Saint Antoine with news of the cap­ture of Foulon, a wealthy man who once sug­gest­ed that the starv­ing pop­u­lace should con­sume grass. Foulon feigned death to escape the wrath of the com­mon­ers but was dis­cov­ered con­cealed in the coun­try­side. Madame Defarge­and a lady named The Vengeance guides the rebels in search of Foulon. The crowd attempts to hang Foulon, but the rope breaks, requir­ing three tries for his demise. Sub­se­quent­ly, his head is placed on a pole and grass is pushed into his mouth. The peas­ants then con­tin­ue with their rou­tines, con­sum­ing their hum­ble meals, guardians pam­per­ing their chil­dren, and part­ners demon­strat­ing their love.

book 2 chapter 23

The French coun­try­side is in sham­bles. A tired voy­ager encoun­ters a road fix­er. Both indi­vid­u­als use the alias “Jacques,” a sig­nal indi­cat­ing their par­tic­i­pa­tion in the revolt. The road work­er escorts the man to the ruined Mar­quis’ man­sion. That evening, the man sets the estate on fire. An emis­sary from the manor begs the town war­riors to aid in extin­guish­ing the flames and sal­vage the valu­ables, but they refuse. The vil­lagers with­draw to their homes, plac­ing “can­dles in every drea­ry lit­tle win­dow.” Gabelle, the tax col­lec­tor, nar­row­ly escapes death at the hands of the peas­ants and retreats to his rooftop, where he wit­ness­es the man­sion’s ruin. The nar­ra­tive dis­clos­es that com­pa­ra­ble inci­dents are unfold­ing across France.

book 2 chapter 24

Over three years, polit­i­cal tur­moil con­tin­ues to afflict France, com­pelling aris­to­crats to seek refuge in Eng­land. Tellson’s Bank in Lon­don emerges as a cru­cial cen­ter for such aris­to­crats. Mr. Lor­ry is cho­sen by Tell­son for a vital task at its Paris branch to safe­guard sig­nif­i­cant doc­u­ments from poten­tial harm. Despite Dar­nay’s efforts to dis­suade him, Lor­ry stands firm in his choice, select­ing Jer­ry Crunch­er as his safe­guard. Lor­ry then receives an urgent mes­sage intend­ed for the elu­sive Mar­quis St. Evré­monde. The mis­sion of deliv­er­ing the let­ter proves chal­leng­ing as the Mar­quis has desert­ed his inher­it­ed estate. Dar­nay, cau­tious not to unveil his con­cealed iden­ti­ty as the absent noble­man, assures Lor­ry of his famil­iar­i­ty with the Mar­quis. Tak­ing the let­ter from Lor­ry, he pledges to ensure its safe arrival. Upon read­ing the let­ter, Dar­nay uncov­ers a heart­felt plea from Gabelle, who is detained by the rebels for his man­age­ment of the Mar­quis’ prop­er­ty. Gabelle implores the new Mar­quis to return to France and res­cue him. Moved by a “mag­nif­i­cent vision of doing good,” Dar­nay resolves to jour­ney to Paris. He com­pos­es a farewell note to Lucie and Doc­tor Manette and embarks on his expedition.

book 3 chapter 1

Dar­nay’s voy­age to France is beset with hin­drances; he is inter­ro­gat­ed by antag­o­nis­tic rebels fre­quent­ly. Upon reach­ing Paris, he is appre­hend­ed by the rev­o­lu­tion­ar­ies and impris­oned in La Force. Despite Dar­nay’s asser­tion of his enti­tle­ments, the guard rebuffs him, con­tend­ing that as an expa­tri­ate, he pos­sess­es none. Iden­ti­fied as Evré­monde, he is hand­ed over to Defarge under strict orders of “In secret.” As he is led away, a dia­logue unfolds between him and the vint­ner Defarge. Defarge ques­tions Dar­nay’s deci­sion to return in the epoch of the dread­ed “La Guil­lo­tine.” Dar­nay seeks aid from Defarge but receives none. With­in La Force, Dar­nay feels as though he has crossed into a realm of the deceased. Anoth­er inmate greets him and hopes that he will not be con­signed “in secret” — a term denot­ing soli­tary con­fine­ment. Nev­er­the­less, Dar­nay is indeed sen­tenced to soli­tary con­fine­ment and is prompt­ly incar­cer­at­ed in a com­pact cell mea­sur­ing “five paces by four and a half.”

book 3 chapter 2

Lucie and Doc­tor Manette urgent­ly search for Mr. Lor­ry at the Paris branch of Tellson’s Bank, divulging Dar­nay’s deten­tion in La Force. Despite the grim cir­cum­stances, Manette believes his pri­or expe­ri­ence as a Bastille detainee might aid in lib­er­at­ing his son-in-law. Lor­ry escorts Lucie to the bank’s rear cham­ber for a dis­creet dis­cus­sion with Manette. They observe a crowd out­side, sharp­en­ing blades on a grind­stone, and Lor­ry dis­clos­es their intent to exe­cute the cap­tives. Upon hear­ing this, Manette throws him­self into the throng, elic­it­ing a cry: “Help for the Bastille prisoner’s fam­i­ly in La Force!”

book 3 chapter 3

Alarmed for the bank’s inter­ests, Lor­ry prompt­ly secures near­by lodg­ing for Lucie, her off­spring, and Miss Pross. He des­ig­nates Jer­ry Crunch­er as their guardian. Short­ly, Defarge vis­its Lor­ry at Tellson’s with a com­mu­ni­ca­tion from Manette. Fol­low­ing Manet­te’s instruc­tions, Lor­ry intro­duces Defarge to Lucie. Defarge insists that Madame Defarge must meet with Lucie, her daugh­ter, and Miss Pross for their pro­tec­tion in the future. The Vengeance, anoth­er lady, joins them as well. At the pro­vi­sion­al res­i­dence, Defarge hands Lucie a let­ter from the cap­tive Dar­nay, encour­ag­ing her to remain resilient. Des­per­ate, Lucie implores Madame Defarge for lenien­cy towards Dar­nay. How­ev­er, Madame Defarge stern­ly asserts that the rev­o­lu­tion will not halt for Lucie or her family.

book 3 chapter 4

Manette returns from La Force four days lat­er, appear­ing more vig­or­ous and author­i­ta­tive, a stark con­trast to his for­mer frail state. He dis­clos­es to Lor­ry that he suc­ceed­ed in per­suad­ing the Tri­bunal, the body over­see­ing the judg­ments of the rev­o­lu­tion’s cap­tives, to spare Dar­nay’s life. He also secures a posi­tion as the exam­in­ing physi­cian of three pen­i­ten­tiaries, includ­ing La Force, enabling him to keep a watch­ful eye on Dar­nay. As time pro­gress­es, France enters a tur­bu­lent phase; the mon­archs are exe­cut­ed and the guil­lo­tine becomes a per­ma­nent fix­ture in the city. Despite these events, Dar­nay endures impris­on­ment for one year and three months.

book 3 chapter 5

While await­ing Dar­nay’s tri­al, Manette informs Lucie of a spe­cif­ic win­dow in the prison where Dar­nay may glimpse her. Each day, for a cou­ple of hours, Lucie sit­u­ates her­self in a posi­tion vis­i­ble to Dar­nay. A local wood-cut­ter con­vers­es with Lucie dur­ing her vig­il, jest­ing that his saw is a guil­lo­tine (referred to as “Lit­tle Sainte Guil­lo­tine”) and each piece of wood he cuts sig­ni­fies a cap­tive’s head. Sud­den­ly, a throng of indi­vid­u­als wild­ly per­form­ing the fierce Car­mag­nole inun­dates the street. Fol­low­ing the dis­per­sal of the dancers, a shak­en Lucie encoun­ters her father. While he con­soles her, they encounter Madame Defarge. After a for­mal inter­ac­tion with Madame Defarge, Manette informs Lucie of Dar­nay’s impend­ing tri­al, assur­ing her that her hus­band will fare well.

book 3 chapter 6

Charles Dar­nay’s tri­al draws a diverse and row­dy audi­ence. The spec­ta­tors rejoice upon learn­ing that Doc­tor Manette is Darnay’s father-in-law. The court lis­tens to Dar­nay, Manette, and Gabelle, pre­sent­ing tes­ti­mo­ny that Dar­nay renounced his noble title as a ges­ture of his dis­dain for the nobles’ exploita­tion of the less priv­i­leged. Addi­tion­al­ly, being the son-in-law of the esteemed mar­tyr Manette aids in per­suad­ing the jury to set him free. Fol­low­ing his acquit­tal, the crowd joy­ous­ly hoists Dar­nay on their shoul­ders and escorts him home.

book 3 chapter 7

Despite Dr. Manet­te’s delight at sav­ing Dar­nay from demise, Lucie per­sists in wor­ry­ing about her part­ner’s well-being. That very day, she becomes uneasy upon hear­ing unfa­mil­iar foot­steps and a knock on their entrance. Dar­nay is once again appre­hend­ed by four sol­diers. Dr. Manette protests, but a sol­dier responds that if the Repub­lic demands an offer­ing, he must com­ply. Dr. Manette inquires about the indi­vid­ual who accused Dar­nay. Although it is against the law to dis­close such infor­ma­tion, it is revealed that the arrest is based on asser­tions made by the Defarges and a third, undis­closed per­son. The sol­dier assures that the iden­ti­ty of the third accuser will be revealed the next day.

book 3 chapter 8

Jer­ry Crunch­er and Miss Pross coin­ci­den­tal­ly encounter Miss Pross’s long-lost sib­ling, Solomon, who is in dis­guise as a spy for the Repub­lic. He scolds his sis­ter for attract­ing atten­tion to their reunion. Crunch­er iden­ti­fies Solomon as the same indi­vid­ual who tes­ti­fied against Dar­nay in his Eng­land tri­al more than a decade ago. Syd­ney Car­ton, appear­ing unex­pect­ed­ly, reminds Crunch­er of the man’s pseu­do­nym: Barsad. Car­ton admits that he has been in Paris for a day, await­ing the oppor­tune moment. He cau­tions Barsad that he will expose his true iden­ti­ty to the crowds unless Barsad accom­pa­nies him to Tellson’s. Upon reach­ing Tellson’s, Car­ton dis­clos­es to Mr. Lor­ry and Crunch­er that Dar­nay has been appre­hend­ed once more. Car­ton over­heard Barsad’s tav­ern dis­cus­sion, learn­ing this infor­ma­tion. Car­ton has devised a res­cue strat­e­gy for Dar­nay should he be found guilty, and he warns Barsad of reveal­ing him as an Eng­lish agent if he refus­es to coop­er­ate. Car­ton men­tions observ­ing Barsad con­vers­ing with Roger Cly, anoth­er sus­pect­ed Eng­lish agent. Although Barsad claims Cly is deceased and pro­vides a bur­ial record, Crunch­er denies his asser­tion, stat­ing Cly’s cof­fin con­tained stones and dirt, not Cly. Car­ton accepts Cruncher’s cryp­tic infor­ma­tion and reit­er­ates his threat to Barsad. With no alter­na­tive, Barsad acqui­esces and con­sents to aid Car­ton in his under­cov­er operation.

book 3 chapter 9

Lor­ry reproach­es Crunch­er for his undis­closed actions (gravesite exca­va­tion) beyond his duties at Tell­son’s. Crunch­er implies that numer­ous physi­cians who are clients of Tell­son’s might be engaged in sim­i­lar activ­i­ties. To make repa­ra­tions, Crunch­er pro­pos­es to offi­cial­ly become a gravedig­ger and allow his son to assume his duties at the bank, with Lor­ry’s per­mis­sion. After Barsad leaves, Car­ton reveals to Lor­ry and Crunch­er his inten­tion to vis­it Dar­nay before his exe­cu­tion. He shares his belief that a life devoid of affec­tion is a futile exis­tence, to which Lor­ry agrees. Strolling the Parisian streets at night, Car­ton’s thoughts are con­sumed by Lucie. He acquires an enig­mat­ic sub­stance from a phar­ma­cist and rec­ol­lects a pas­sage from his father’s funer­al: “I am the res­ur­rec­tion and the life, declares the Lord: who­ev­er believes in me, though he might die, shall live. And who­ev­er lives and believes in me shall nev­er per­ish.” After aid­ing a young girl across the street, who rewards him with a kiss, the words of the cler­ic rever­ber­ate in his mind once more. He wan­ders until day­break, then pro­ceeds to the court­room for Dar­nay’s tri­al. The judge dis­clos­es Dar­nay’s accusers: the Defarges and Doc­tor Manette. Manette, astound­ed, refutes ever accus­ing Dar­nay. Defarge then presents a let­ter he found at the Bastille’s 105 North Tower.

book 3 chapter 10

Defarge unveils a mis­sive by Manette, writ­ten dur­ing his impris­on­ment in the Bastille. It nar­rates Manet­te’s his­to­ry. In 1757, Manette was sum­moned by sib­lings, one being the Mar­quis Evré­monde (Dar­nay’s father) while the oth­er des­tined to be the sub­se­quent Mar­quis (Dar­nay’s uncle, who had pre­vi­ous­ly run over a child with his coach), to attend a grave­ly ill young peas­ant woman and her fatal­ly injured broth­er. The woman had been assault­ed by the Mar­quis’ broth­er, lead­ing to her hus­band’s demise and her broth­er’s stab­bing. Despite Manet­te’s endeav­ors, the woman did not sur­vive. The fol­low­ing day, a com­pas­sion­ate lady, the Mar­quis’ wife, and Dar­nay’s moth­er, approached Manette. Upon learn­ing of the trag­ic plight of the peas­ant girl and her fam­i­ly, she opts to aid the girl’s con­cealed sis­ter, whom the Mar­quis had failed to locate. How­ev­er, Manette was unaware of the sis­ter’s where­abouts. Swift­ly there­after, Manette was seized and incar­cer­at­ed in the Bastille by Mar­quis Evré­mon­de’s decree. Upon dis­cov­er­ing this tale, the jury con­demns Dar­nay to death to expi­ate his father’s and uncle’s transgressions.

book 3 chapter 11

Fol­low­ing Dar­nay’s ver­dict, the crowd spills out onto the streets in rev­el­ry. John Barsad, respon­si­ble for escort­ing Dar­nay to his cell, allows Lucie a final embrace with her spouse. Dar­nay implores Doc­tor Manette not to car­ry the bur­den of guilt for the tri­al’s out­come. Sub­se­quent­ly, Dar­nay is led to his cell to meet his des­tiny the sub­se­quent day, while Car­ton escorts the griev­ing Lucie home. He advis­es Manette to lever­age his influ­ence once more with the pros­e­cu­tors and then ren­dezvous with him at Tellson’s. Lor­ry, how­ev­er, sees no prospect for Dar­nay, a sen­ti­ment echoed by Carton.

book 3 chapter 12

Car­ton vis­its Defarge’s tav­ern, aston­ish­ing the Defarges with his uncan­ny resem­blance to the con­demned Dar­nay. Over­hear­ing their con­ver­sa­tion, Car­ton learns of Madame Defarge’s plan to accuse Lucie, Manette, and Lucie’s child as spies. Despite Defarge’s reluc­tance, his wife insists due to her per­son­al vendet­ta against the Evré­monde lin­eage, as she’s the sole sur­viv­ing kin of the duo slain by the Mar­quis and his broth­er. She demands the extinc­tion of their descen­dants. Car­ton set­tles his bill and returns to Tellson’s. At the stroke of mid­night, Manette returns home in a state of men­tal dis­ar­ray, fran­ti­cal­ly seek­ing his cobbler’s bench. After com­fort­ing Manette, Car­ton retrieves the essen­tial papers for Lucie, the doc­tor, and the child’s escape from the doctor’s coat. He hands these over to Lor­ry. Sub­se­quent­ly, he hands Lor­ry his per­son­al doc­u­ments with­out any expla­na­tion. Con­cerned that the per­mits may be revoked due to Madame Defarge’s scheme to con­demn the entire fam­i­ly, Car­ton implores Lor­ry to has­ten; the fam­i­ly must vacate the next day. Left alone on the streets that night, Car­ton whis­pers a heart­felt final good­bye and bless­ing to Lucie.

book 3 chapter 13

The des­tiny of fifty-two indi­vid­u­als is sealed — exe­cu­tion awaits them on the mor­row. Dar­nay resolves to con­front his impend­ing demise with for­ti­tude. Unex­pect­ed­ly, Car­ton appears at Dar­nay’s cell, his coun­te­nance odd­ly res­olute. Decep­tive­ly, Car­ton con­vinces Dar­nay to exchange gar­ments with him, drafts a note elu­ci­dat­ing the sit­u­a­tion, and then inca­pac­i­tates him with an elixir from a chemist. He instructs Barsad to trans­fer the uncon­scious Dar­nay to a car­riage sta­tioned by Tellson’s. By two in the morn­ing, jail­ers escort who they assume, is now known as Car­ton, emerges from the prison cell. Among the con­demned, Car­ton stands as one of many. A wrong­ly accused seam­stress notices that Car­ton is not Dar­nay and asks, “Are you sac­ri­fic­ing your­self for him?” Car­ton responds, “And for his spouse and off­spring.” Mean­while, Barsad hands over the real Dar­nay to Manette, Lor­ry, and Lucie, and they swift­ly leave in a car­riage. Pass­ing through the city gates, Lor­ry shows the nec­es­sary papers. Fear­ing pur­suit, they hur­ried­ly flee into the countryside.

book 3 chapter 14

Madame Defarge heads towards Lucie’s res­i­dence, hop­ing to find her involved in the illic­it act of mourn­ing for pris­on­ers, aim­ing to impli­cate the fam­i­ly. At the house, Miss Pross and Jer­ry Crunch­er pre­pare to depart Paris. To avoid arous­ing sus­pi­cion, Miss Pross instructs Crunch­er to wait at the cathe­dral with their ride. With Crunch­er gone, Madame Defarge bursts in, eager to dis­cov­er Lucie’s where­abouts. Ten­sions rise between the women, lead­ing Madame Defarge to draw a firearm. In the ensu­ing strug­gle, Miss Pross ends up shoot­ing Madame Defarge. She lat­er meets up with Crunch­er at the cathe­dral and explains that she is hear­ing impaired from the gunshot.

book 3 chapter 15

Approach­ing the guil­lo­tine along­side the young seam­stress, Car­ton attracts the atten­tion of rev­o­lu­tion­ary women, includ­ing The Vengeance, who fret over the pos­si­ble absence of Madame Defarge at Charles Dar­nay’s exe­cu­tion. In con­trast, the seam­stress con­tem­plates the future, envi­sion­ing a bet­ter life under the Repub­lic for the impov­er­ished, includ­ing her sur­viv­ing rel­a­tives. She bids Car­ton farewell with a kiss before brave­ly fac­ing her fate, fol­lowed short­ly by Car­ton. The nar­ra­tor vivid­ly describes Car­ton’s final moments, not­ing the peace­ful and almost vision­ary expres­sion on his face. The nar­ra­tor strong­ly implies that Car­ton’s last thoughts revolved around the future rebuild­ing of post-rev­o­lu­tion Paris and the well-being of the crowd gath­ered there, despite their cur­rent roles as oppres­sors. In his imag­ined final sec­onds, he envi­sions hap­pi­ness for Lucie, Dar­nay, and their child­bear­ing his name. He fore­sees con­tent­ment for Manette and a tran­quil life for Lor­ry. Car­ton sees a future where he is remem­bered affec­tion­ate­ly by these loved ones and future gen­er­a­tions. His name shines bright­ly, over­shad­ow­ing past mis­deeds. The nar­ra­tor believes that Car­ton’s ulti­mate real­iza­tion is that, “It is a much bet­ter deed that I am doing now than I have ever done; it is a far supe­ri­or peace to which I am going than any I have ever known.” Last­ly, the nar­ra­tor envi­sions a radi­ant city and its cit­i­zens emerg­ing from despair, grad­u­al­ly pay­ing for and erad­i­cat­ing the evils of the cur­rent era in their pur­suit of gen­uine freedom.