English II
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Introductory Noteguide
1. Look at the unit guide and note the verbs for the Targeted Standards. If
you'll notice, words such as "analyze" and "evaluate" and "interpret" appear
multiple times. We see these words many more times than we did in our
other unit overviews. What does this tell you about A Tale of Two Cities?
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
2. Note also the Essential Questions. Be sure to define the following terms as
we discuss these five questions that will guide our unit of study:
a. verisimilitude:__________________________________________________________
b. diction:________________________________________________________________
c. syntax:________________________________________________________________
d. serialization:___________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
3. Noteguide: Charles Dickens (A&E Biography)
4. Why in the Dickens?
Essential Question Five asks you to think about the social issues of today
and those described in A Tale of Two Cities. Those very social issues lead us
to the purpose of Dickens' entire work. But to understand those social
issues, we must first understand the context of the work.
a. First, think back to what we decided the main conflict of Shakespeare's
The Tragedy of Julius Caesar is:
________________________________ vs. ______________________________
Now remember this conflict because it will be the same type of conflict
that we see in A Tale of Two Cities.
b. Charles Dickens lived during the ______________________________________
era in ____________________________________ (country). This era occurred
during the _____________ century (which is the ______________ hundreds).
Now look at the inside page of the front cover of your novel. Note Dickens'
birth date:______________________________.
c. Look at your "On Location" map. What do you notice geographically
about the countries of England and France?
__________________________________________________________________
Based on the map, to what two cities do you think Dickens alludes in the
title of his book? _________________________ and ________________________.
d. Now look again at the inside page of the front cover of your novel. Scan
down to the bottom of the second paragraph and identify the year in
which A Tale of Two Cities was published:____________________.
e. However, if you look at p. 1 of the novel in the third paragraph, you'll see
that the novel is not set in this year. It is set in the year _____________.
f. What do you know happens in our country the very next year?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
1
g. As a result of what began in 1776, George Washington took the oath of
office as the first president of the United States on April 30, 1789. Less
than a week later, the long-awaited French Estates-General held its
opening session in Paris on May 5, 1789. So, in one of history's neatest
segues, the American Revolution officially closed just as the
__________________________ _________________________________ announced
its arrival on the world stage.
h. To understand why the French revolted, we must understand the social
structure of France during the 1800s. France was divided into three
'layers' of society, much like a feudal pyramid:
1st Estate:
2nd Estate:
3rd Estate:
j.
1859
2/7/1812
5/5//1789
4/ 30/1789
1776
If we place each of these events on a timeline, it might look like this:
1775
i.
Having noted the sequence of events and the geographical proximity of
England and France, why might Dickens, an English author living in
England and writing primarily for an English audience, have written a
book that is focused on the French Revolution that happened more than
two decades before his birth?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
His book is a ___________________________ of what happens when the
_____________________________ ______________________________ take
___________________________ ___________________________.
2
A Tale of Two Cities–
Book 1, Chapter 1, p. 1
Recalled to Life
That Profound Secret
Book the First, Chapter 3
“The Night Shadows”
Book the Second, Chapter 1
“The Golden Thread” p. 46
The following entry is to be used as soon as Chapter 5 of Book 1 is read.
The Red Stain
The following is
to be used as soon as
Book the Second, Chapter 1 (p. 46), paragraphs 1 and 2 are read.
Satire is defined as irony or caustic wit used to attack or expose folly, vice, or
stupidity.
The following definition is to be discussed prior to reading pp. 48 through 52 in
Chapter I of Book the Second.
Book the Second—Chapter 1, p. 48
The following journal entry is to be completed as soon as Chapter I of Book the
Second is completed.
Dickens’ narrator provides the following hints (foreshadowing) of Jerry
Cruncher’s “second” profession:
Based on the previously-discussed hints provided by the narrator, make
a prediction about what Jerry’s second profession could be. (Allow for all four
hints to be true.)
0.0\
We have now read the first book of A Tale of Two Cities. What is your
initial impression of it? Do you understand the action of the plot? What do you
find difficult about the book?
3