Book the First: Chapter 2

Chapter 2. I feel like the story is getting started now. I feel like I need to read each chapter a few times to understand all that is there. The first time I am concentrating on the sequence of events. The second time I can focus on some of the subtle nuances and literary devices Dickens has used. So here are my thoughts on chapter 2.



Sequence of Events: A mail coach is traveling along a road in England towards the city of Dover. It is driving us such a steep hill so the passengers have to get out and walk beside the coach. There are three passengers. One of them will be a main character, Mr. Jarvis Lorry, and we'll see about the others. At this time they seem to be incidental to the story. As they are coming to the top of the hill, a man on horseback approaches, Jerry, with a message for Mr. Lorry. The message is "wait at Dover for Ma'amselle". Mr. Lorry's reply in response is "Recalled to Life."



Subtle Nuances and Literary Devices:
On of the themes or symbols or whatever you want to call it that I felt in chapter 2 was the idea of darkess and vulerability. The passengers are all in a carriage driving up a steep hill notorious for robberies. Anyone could be a robber and no one trusts anyone else. Dickens' description of the mist that night adds to the dark and forboding mood. I love how he describes it: "There was a steaming mist in all the hollows, and it had roamed in its forlornness up the hill, like an evil spirit, seeking rest and finding none. A clammy and intensely cold mist, it made its slow way through the air in ripples that visibly followed and overspread one another, as the waves of an unwholesome sea might do." My impression of that passage is that the darkness is neverending. That could be the darkness of the actual night, the darkness of the times as described in chapter 1 or the darkness of the mission Mr. Lorry is undertaking. Maybe all three.

Words that Stumpped Stacy:

Capitulated (pg. 7): cease to resist an oponent, surrender

Jack-boots (pg. 8): large boots that went to the knees.

posting-houose (pg. 8): stops along the mail route

hardihood (pg. 9): boldness, daring

skid the wheel (pg. 9): an implement used for attaching the hind-wheel of a vehicle when about to proceed down hill.

adjuration (pg. 9): earnest, urgent appeal

soliloquy (pg. 11): the act of talking to oneself
I found a great website called Discovering Dickens that helped me understand some of the historical context.

Historical Context:

Dover Road: The Dover Road was a road about 70 miles long stretching between London and another city called Dover. Dover the city is positioned right on the Southeastern coast just as you are about to go across the water to France. The Dover Road was the road the mail coach traveled on to deliver mail between London and Dover. Highwayman and other robbers often waited along the mail routes and robbed the coaches and passengers. Shooter's Hill (8.25 miles along the Dover Road from London) was a perfect place for robbers to wait. From the top of Shooter's Hill you could look out on the entire city of London during the day. At night, however, it provided the perfect cover for those of the unnoble profession of relieving others of their various and sundry belongings (that was me trying to write like Dickens. What did you think?).

Dover Mail: The Dover Mail was the mail coach that traveled the Dover Road delivering mail and messages. There were several stations along the way where tired horses could be exchanged for fresh ones an the passengers would have the ability to refresh themselves. Passengers often booked passage on mail coaches to travel from one place to the next. The first known mail coach line was established in 1784 between Bristol and London. Although in 1775, at the time A Tale of Two Cities was set, there was no Dover Mail, Dickens created one for the purposes of his story. He needed the location of Dover to be involved. I think in the beginning of the book that Dickens is trying to create an atmosphere of gloom. Shooter's Hill was a perfect backdrop to create that atmosphere.

Blackheath: (mentioned on page 7) Blackheath is the mail stop just before Shooter's Hill.