Sunday, December 1, 2013

LITERATURE ANALYSIS: A TALE OF TWO CITIES BY CHARLES DICKENS

"Collaboration is not a crime"-Dr. Preston

Lit. Analysis
1& 2. Kylie Sagisi 
3. Lindsey Wong
4.
1. The first page is ridden with juxtaposition, the first line “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” is an iconic use of placing two very different things next to each other for emphasis. (pg. 3)

2. The wine spilling at the beginning of chapter five is both foreshadowing and a euphemism because it sets up the reader for all the blood that will be spilled during the revolution and since it is a delicate way of talking about a very serious topic it constitutes as a euphemism. (pg. 27)

3. Lucie is the ultimate combination of imagery and symbolism, her yellow hair, that Dickens describes and alludes to countless times throughout the novel, is the “golden thread” that connects her father to the present. (pg. 78)

4. The entire novel is a zeitgeist because the entirety of the story embodies the time period and the problems that occurred during Jerry Cruncher’s lifetime and beyond.

5. When Madame Defarge is asked why she is knitting she answers, “Pastime” which is an aphorism because she is commenting on the political turmoil rather than why she really knits. (pg.172)

6. Dickens uses other characters besides Lucie to serve as extended metaphors. Monseigneur serves as Dickens’ platform for commenting on the upper class of the time, he constantly stereotypes Monseigneur for example saying that he is “extravagant”. (pg. 229)

7. Charles Dickens was also a fan of alliteration and he described the revolutionaries as “fast, fierce, and furious”. (pg. 195)

8. Dickens used a lot of irony throughout the novel; one of the most important was when the lying, stealing, cheating Jerry Cruncher described himself as an honest man. (pg. 315)

9.Another example of imagery and an incident of a simile was when Dickens said that the wine shop looked “like a walnut cracked on its side”. (pg. 139)

10.The very last line uses repetition to drive home Dickens’ final points “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to that I have ever known.” This is one of the most well-known endings to a novel of all time. (pg. 364)

Characterization
1 & 2. Kristen Crockett
3. Lindsey Wong
4. Kendall Villa