A tail of two cities

 Critical Thinking Questions:

1) Describe the gap between the high and low classes in the two countries.
As in the low class; the common people of France suffer from the poverty and
misery that they had to live in. the children had the faces and voices of old men
and hunger was written on the faces of the men and women while in the higher
class which is the people of the aristocracy. They were close to the king and they
had the power of life and death.
2) What secret did Mr. Lorry finally reveal to Lucie? What surprising news
did Mr. Lorry tell Lucie?
Mr. Lorry revealed to Lucie that Dr. Manette was still alive. He was a prisoner in
the bastille and he was set free and was in care of his old servant, Defarge.
3) Describe the conditions of people in Saint Antoine giving example of their
misery?
Saint Antoine was one of the poorest parts of Paris. Nothing brightened the
streets expect the shops that sold tools or weapons. And the people of Saint
Antoine were living in deep misery as the children who lived there had faces and
voices of old men and hunger seemed to be written on the face of every man and
woman. They suffered from hunger and the high taxes which the aristocrats were
imposing.
4) The ragged people were filled with hatred towards the wealthy classes
(nobles).
A. Why were these people filled with hatred?
Because the aristocrats were using their power against the people and imposing
high taxes on them which they couldn’t afford, the aristocrats hated the lower
class people and called them ‘animals’ and ‘rats’.
B. What would the feelings of hatred lead to?
The feelings of hatred lead to the revolution which one of its main goals was to
kill all the aristocrats.
5) What did the scene of the broken barrel of wine show?
The scene of the broken barrel showed the severe poverty that the people of
Saint Antoine lived in, as the people left whatever they were doing when the

1|Page
barrel broke and ran to the spot to collect some of the wine before it
disappeared into the ground.
6) What effect had the prison left on Dr. Manette?
The long years of prison has made Dr. Manette unrecognizable, as he had a white
bread, a hollow face and extremely bright eyes. He lost his memory and started
making shoes.
7) Why did Lucie want to take her father away from Paris? Where would
she take him?
Lucie wanted to take her father away from Paris because his life was in danger
and she took him to England.
8) Could Dr. Manette remember anything from his past life? Why?
No he couldn’t remember anything from his past life because he was greatly
affected by the long years in prison thus he lost his memory.
9) Why did Lucie catch the attention of Dr. Manette? Who did he think she
was at first? How could he recognize her?
He thought that she was the guard’s daughter, He recognized her because Dr.
Manette noticed that her golden hair that lay in curls on her shoulder then he
touched it compared it to the pieces of hair that were in a piece of cloth wrapped
around his neck with a blackened string .
10) How did Stryver destroy the witness?
Mr. Stryver destroyed the witness that were against charls as he proved in front
of the court that John Barsad and was once accused of dishonesty and Roger Cly
the servant was once a thief and he destroyed the last witness by showing the
similarity between Carton and Darnay.
11) Why did Mr. Lorry, Lucie and Dr. Manette become witness in Darnay’s
trial?
Because they’ve met Charles on their way to England.
12) How was Sydney Carton’s presence in the court of great importance?
Sydney Carton’s presence in the court had a great importance because the
similarity between him and Charles was the key that Stryver had used to drop the
false charges that were against Charles.
13) Mr. Stryver was the mouth that voiced Carton’s intelligence?
As Sydney carton helped Stryver with all of his cases and without him and his
intelligence Stryver wouldn’t be able to win Charles case as Sydney had pointed

2|Page
out to Stryver the similarity between himself and Charles and that was the key
for Stryver to drop down the charges against Charles.
14) Sydney Carton gave himself to the benefits of others. Explain the
statement.
As he is a man who had great powers of mind but these powers had never been
properly used, he was a good, clever man but he had never been able to make
anything of himself because he was always busy helping others with their work
but not himself.
15) Why did Carton feel jealous of Darnay? (envy)
Because even though Carton and Darnay were so alike in appearance darnay was
above him in other ways, but Lucie loved Darnay which made it much worse.
16) Why did Charles Darnay return of France?
He wanted to return back to France to save his loyal servant Gabelle the tax
collector.
17) Why was there uneasiness in the relation between Darnay and his uncle,
the Marquis?
Because his uncle the Marquis was like his father, his government was built on
ruins and misery of the people in France but Charles was against that.
18) Why did the Marquis throw a coin to Gaspard?
The Marquis threw a coin to Gaspard as a way for saying sorry for his lost son
after the Marquis’s cart stepped on his son and he died.
19) Why did Defarge believe that it was better for a child to die?
He believed that it’s better for the child to die because the child died in a
moment without pain but he wouldn’t be able to live without pain and suffering.

3|Page