Book 2, Chapter 2: “ A Sight ”

1. Book 2, Chapter 2: “A Sight” Title meaning: The circus-like atmosphere of the treason trial was quite a sight for the spectators to witness.

2. Plot Summary: • Jerry Cruncher heads into the bank to figure out what his assignment for the day will be. An old bank clerk sends him to the courts with a note for Mr. Jarvis Lorry, who works for Tellson’s. He was the man who took Lucie to France to bring her father, Dr. Manette, back home. Lorry wants Jerry to hang around as a messenger for him at the court. • Interested in the prospect of some excitement at the court, Jerry asks the clerk what sort of trial will be held today. It’s a trial for treason. The penalty will be death by drawing and quartering. • The court is packed with paying spectators who have been drinking. The atmosphere is like a circus. • The prisoner is Charles Darnay, a 25-year old, good-looking gentleman, who appears to be a little bit shaken. • The crowd is described as bloodthirsty, except for two people, Lucie and her father, who are witnesses against Darnay.

3. Literary Devices: Point of View:Dickens continues to use the free indirect style, combining third-person narration with an insider’s point of view. The juxtaposition of formal (“our serene, illustrious, excellent”) and informal (“and so forth”) speech shows the unrefined crowd’s zealous craving for the juicy details of the case, even as they recognize the decorum of their setting: “Charles Darnay had yesterday pleaded Not Guilty to an indictment denouncing him (with infinite jingle and jangle) for that he was a false traitor to our serene, illustrious, excellent, and so forth, prince, our Lord the King, by reason of his having, on divers occasions, and by divers means and ways, assisted Lewis, the French King, in his wars against our said serene, illustrious, excellent, and so forth ...” (64). Verbal Irony: A figure of speech in which what is said is the opposite of what is meant, such as when Jerry Cruncher refers to himself as an honest tradesman: “I know Mr. Lorry, sir, much better than I know the Bailey. Much better," said Jerry, not unlike a reluctant witness at the establishment in question, "than I, as a honest tradesman, wish to know the Bailey.” (59).

4. Essential Quote “... ‘he'll be drawn on a hurdle to be half hanged, and then he'll be taken down and sliced before his own face, and then his inside will be taken out and burnt while he looks on, and then his head will be chopped off, and he'll be cut into quarters. That's the sentence.’ ‘If he's found Guilty, you mean to say?’ Jerry added, by way of proviso. ‘Oh! they'll find him guilty,’ said the other. ‘Don't you be afraid of that.’” (62).