Charles Dickens wrote A Tale of Two Cities in 1859, and many
parts of the book can be difficult to understand. I have continuously had
trouble understanding certain parts of the book, not because of its content and
plot, but because of the way it was written. But sometimes I am able to take
difficult passages, and think about it in a way that allows me to understand
the text.
An Example of this was on page 101 in A Tale of Two Cities.
“’Do you suppose,’ Mr.
Lorry went on, with a laughing twinkle in his bright eye, as it looked kindly
at her, ‘that Doctor Manette has any theory of his own, preserved through all
those years. Relative to the cause of being so oppressed; perhaps even to the
name of his oppressor?’”
At first, I did not understand what this meant. I went back,
and reread it two more times, and the word “oppressor” stuck out to me.
I was able to figure out what this paragraph meant by the
word oppressor. In the paragraph Mr. Lorry was talking with Miss. Pross about
Dr. Manette. We know that Dr. Manette was in prison for 18 years. To be
oppressed means to burden with cruel
or unjust impositions or restraints. Mr. Lorry never said, “Who had Dr.
Manette,” but because of the word oppressor, I was able to figure out that Mr.
Lorry was asking who imprisoned Dr. Manette for 18 years. Mr. Lorry uses the
word oppressed two times, describing Dr. Manette’s time in prison. No one so
far in the book has ever confronted Dr. Manette on his time in prison, and that
might be a reason he is still affected by it.
But Mr. Lorry got curious and asked Miss. Pross, the Manette’s maid.
When Mr. Lorry
says “Relative to the cause of being so oppressed”, I feel that he is talking
about the cause of his time in prison. Dickens never says this, which makes it
difficult for us to understand because he never directly points out what Mr.
Lorry is asking, but because he uses the word oppressed, he means the reason
for his imprisonment. The second time he uses the word, Mr. Lorry says, oppressor.
What he is trying to say is why was he imprisoned, and that we could find it
out by finding out who his oppressor was. When he says oppressor, he means the
man responsible for Dr. Manette’s imprisonment.
Like Matt, I too tend to sruggle with Dickens' language as well, and I agree with Matt in the fact that once you are able to depict Dickens' descriptive and confusing language, you find that the meaning of the passage is actually very clear. In the passage above, a few words stand out as "key words". Matt already touched on the word oppressed, but I also think the word "preserved" is very important to being able to understand the complete meaning of the passage. With one word, Dickens is able to tell us that he is referencing how Manette could have created the idea while imprisoned and "preserved" it this entire time. A lot of Dickens' writing is tough to understand, but I have found out that finding "key words" help one to understand Dickens.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Carter and Matt here. I have a hard time picking up on the meaning of a lot of passages due to Dickens' language, but when I slow down and reread passages, I start to understand them much better. It feels good to know that his writing is able to be understood over generations of people reading it. Unfortunately, there are still some things I struggle to catch while reading A Tale of Two Cities. Matt, I like your technique with picking out key words and finding the definition to see if it helps your understanding. I will be sure to try that.
ReplyDeleteMichael Lullo
I agree, at first I was confused because we don’t really hear the word “oppressor” anymore, but once I figured it out, after re-reading a few times, I became really curious to know who was the oppressor of Dr. Manette? These “key words” are easy to just read over, so congrats on picking it out. I have a feeling this “oppressor” character is going to play a big roll, as if he hasn’t had a big impact on the story already. We may never see in directly, but I’m sure he will be brought up again. I also think, from the way Dr. Manette looks and acts around Charles Darnay, that he may have a connection to this “oppressor”.
ReplyDeleteMatt - nice job focusing so closely on the word "oppressor," and I like the textual support you used throughout your post.
ReplyDeleteHere's a suggestion: for future blog posts try to refer to passages that we didn't discuss closely in class. Can you find these significant passages without the help of class discussion?