A Tale of Two Cities THE FINAL WEEK

This was the final week of A Tale of Two Cities and I must say that it did not disappoint. I don't know that I would recommend this book to anyone else because the first 3/4 of the book were not particularly enjoyable, but the ending was definitely good. It picks up with Madame and the Jacques conversing about Defarge. Madame, surprise surprise, wants to kill her husband because he has empathy for the doctor and she feels that he is not a true patriot. This just adds to the whole fact that she is a heartless woman.

As the chapter goes on, we see that Cruncher has made a full transformation. He vows to never rob graves again, as well as to never interfere with his wife's "flopping." I think this change has occured as the result of a couple of different things. First, I think his overall involvement in the events helped because he got to see what it's like to be needed for good things as well as help others. The second thing that I think turned him around in terms of his wife's praying is that she prayed on the night the body of Cly was gone, and while he saw this as a bad thing at first, it actually helped out the Manettes.

The next even that follows, I thought, was quite exciting and Dickens wrote it very well. Madame and Miss Pross come face to face; Madame there to sentence Lucie and the rest of the clan. The two are speaking back and forth to each other in their own native tongues and cannot actually understand what's being spoken. Yet at the same time, the words are so intense they have some sort of an idea. You can tell the fight is coming and when it finally does, it doesn't let the reader down. In the end, Miss Pross shoots Madame and I think this is supposed to be a symbol of good prevailing over evil. This is also probably the first book where I've actually been happy to see a character die. It may always be necessary to the story, but I've never actually enjoyed the death of a character, good or bad. One bad thing that comes of the death is Miss Pross losing her hearing from the gun shot. I think Dickens did this to show that people, not just Carton, will sacrifice anything for Lucie.

In the following chapter, we again catch up with Carton, who is "patiently" awaiting the guillotine. He sits with the blonde girl whom he makes a connection with and actually manages to calm her before she has to face the blade. I think in the time leading up to his death, Carton has become an honorable man and I think that he feels honorable now as well. As soon as the girl is murdered, it is his turn. What I find interesting is that he is 23rd in line. Dickens didn't place him first or fifty-second, he put him in the middle to signify that he is just another person caught under the guillotine.

What I liked about this section is that Dickens wrote it from the present tense as if each event was happening right before my eyes. He also played down Carton's death. It wasn't this extravagant "and the guillotine came crashing down upon his neck spewing blood everywhere" sort of death. It was subdued and classy, and (I know this sounds fruity) I think Carton, as a character, deserved that respect.