What Caused Doctor Manette's Prison Relapse?

In Chapter 19, Dr. Manette spends nine days making shoes, while relapsing his prison days. Miss Pross and Mr. Lorry watch over Dr. Manette, making sure he is ok. Lucy just got married to Darnay, and is off on her honeymoon. But before they got married, Darnay had a conversation with Dr. Manette. We are not sure what they discussed, but we know that Dr. Manette became very pale right after, and soon starting remembering his prison days.

“The Door of the Doctor’s room opened, and he came out with Charles Darnay. He was so deadly pale – which had not been the case when they went in together” (p. 201).

So what caused Doctor Manette’s relapse this time? Obviously, Darnay said something that disturbed Manette, because he came out of the room so pale. Was it something that Darnay said to him, or was it losing Lucie to Darnay. Lucie helped Manette get better at first. Having Lucie with Manette helped him forget his prison days. His family means a lot to him, because he kept a strand of his wives hair until a prison guard took it away. And Manette also explains how thinking of Lucie helped him pass time in prison. He had never meet Lucie, so he said that thinking of what she became while growing up helped him survive in prison. So family means a lot to Manette. Now that she got married, she will not be with him as much. So could the reason for Dr. Manette’s relapse be because of Lucie getting married?

Another thing I thought was that something Darnay said could have bothered Manette, and started his relapse. Darnay was going to tell Manette what his real name was, but Manette told Darnay to refrain from telling him until the day he marries Lucy. Now that that day has come, that might have been what their conversation was about. We also know that Darnay ‘s family from France are aristocrats. The aristocrats are being targeted in the French Revolution, and Darnay was added to the Defarge’s kill list. Could Manette have learned something about Darnay that had to do with his imprisonment? Or did he hear something about how Darnay’s family is in trouble, which would then put his daughter Lucie in danger?

I think that what caused Dr. Manette’s relapse was something Darnay said to him. Dickens emphasizes the fact that Manette came out of the room pale. Then the relapses started. We do not know what was discussed between Manette and Darnay, but I feel that Darnay said something to Manette that caused it. I am not sure what he said, but because he came out of the room so pale, then started his relapse, I feel that Darnay said something to Dr. Manette, which sparked a prison memory, which led to his relapse.

Who is the Oppressor?

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. 

Recalled To Life

In Book 1, in A Tale of Two Cities, they continuously made reference to the same phrase, “recalled to life”. There was very little told about what it meant, other than we know he was being recalled to life after 18 years. We don’t know if he was actually dead or if this was figuratively speaking. We actually did not even know if it was even a him. It could have been a thing being brought out after 18 years. All we knew for several chapters was that something was being recalled to life after 18 years. But in Chapter 4, certain clues led me to figure out what was actually happening.

Dr. Manette, the father of Lucie Manette was being brought out from prison after 18 years in France. Lucie believed he was dead until Mr. Jarvis Lorry told Lucie the truth about her father.

“And when she die – I believe broken hearted – having slackened her unveiling search for your father, she left you, at two years old, to grow up to be blooming, beautiful, and happy, without the dark cloud upon you of living in uncertainty whether your father soon wore his heart out in prison, or wasted there through many lingering years” (page 28).

After reading this, I was able to answer many of my questions. Dickens said that a man was going to be dug out after 18 years in prison. He described this in a code as “recalled to life”. I answered my question of who or what was being dug out. At the age of 2, Lucie was parentless, with a dead mother and she thought a dead father. We learn that her father was not dead, yet he was in prison in France. My guess is that her father was a political prisoner in France. We know he was in prison in France for 18 years, and that Dr. Manette lived in France. France was going through the French Revolution in 1860, when he was sent to prison. I feel that he was seen as a political threat, and therefore sent to prison.

This was a true “aha” moment for me. I had many questions, but learning that her father was in prison for 18 years allowed me to realize that he was the thing the was being recalled to life.

Another “aha” moment I had was with Mr. Lorry. I was very confused with who Mr. Lorry was, and why he was delivered the message “recalled to life”. Lucie Manette seeks out Mr. Lorry because she thinks that he is the man who brought her from France to England when she was 2. “It was you who brought me to England. I am almost sure it was you” (page 26). We learned here that the reason Mr. Lorry received the “recalled to life” message was because he was responsible for Lucie. Dr. Manette had his money with Mr. Lorry, and with no one to care for his daughter, gave her to Mr. Lorry to take her away from France’s troubles into England. Receiving the message alerted Mr. Lorry that Dr. Manette was being brought out of prison, or “recalled to life” after 18 years, and it was his job to bring Lucie to France to be reunited with her father who she thought was dead.