Jeff Scudder
English
Three Important Descriptions

"Sadly, sadly, the sun rose; it rose upon no sadder sight than the man
of good abilities and good emotions, incapable of their directed
exercise, incapable of his own help and his own happiness, sensible
of the blight on him, and resigning himself to let it eat him away."

Page 98

This is talking about the Jackal also known as Carton. Dickens is commenting on Carton's life and how he has the full ability to live a happy one, but instead chooses to live in sadness and despair, and letting his life and emotions eat him away along with his drinking problem.

"Cramped in all kinds of dim cupboards and hutches at Tellson's, the oldest of men carried on the business gravely. When they took a young man into Tellson's London house, they hid him somewhere till he was old. They kept him in a dark place, like a cheese, until he had the full Tellson flavour and blue-mould upon him. Then only was he permitted to be seen, spectacularly poring over large books, and casting his breeches and gaiters into the general weight of the establishment."

Page 61/61

This quote is relating to the fact that the bank of Tellson's was full of old businessmen, and they wanted to keep a grave and dark image for their customers, to make it seem like the bank was all about business and nothing else. This partly relates as a metaphor to the character of Madame Defarge, who on the outside pretended to be dark and grave, so that she could carry on her business as a leader with the revolution and people would not see her weaknesses.

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, 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"

Page 1

This quote explains the situation of the French Revolution, and how it was great for some people, but tragic for others. It also foreshadows the good and loving times of the novel, as well as the horrible and tragic ones. Many things in the novel have two sides, for example Madame Defarge who to the commoner at the beginning of the book was just a wife of a Wine shop owner, but in reality she was a ruthless leader of the French underground revolution.