SQUID for Book the First, Chapters 5-6

A Tale of Two Cities

“And now that the cloud settled on Saint Antoine, which a momentary gleam had driven from his sacred countenance, the darkness of it was heavy – cold, dirt, sickness, ignorance, and want, were the lords in waiting on the saintly presence- nobles of great power all of them; but, most especially the last. Samples of a people that had undergone a terrible grinding and regrinding in the mill, and certainly not in the fabulous mill which ground old people young, shivered at every corner, passed in and out at every doorway, looked from every window, fluttered in every vestige of a garment that the wind shook. The mill which had worked them down, was the mill that grinds young people old; the children had ancient faces and grave voices; and upon them, and upon the grown faces, and ploughed into every furrow of age and coming up afresh, was the sign, Hunger (p.27).”

This is one of the deepest and most meaningful quotes in Book the First. This quote depicts the terrible poverty that the poor Parisians who lived in the suburb area of Saint Antoine. The quote starts out describing the “lords” of Saint Antoine. These are cold, dirt, sickness, ignorance, and want. These “lords” represent the things that plague the people of this area the most. The living conditions are awful (hence the cold and dirt “lords”). Sickness is prevalent throughout Europe in these days, and numerous diseases would have affected the Parisians. The people of Saint Antoine were not well educated, nor were many in Europe at this time (the “lord of ignorance”). The “lord” that plagued the people of Saint Antoine the most was want. The people were lucky if they had enough money for food and shelter. Things like wine and furniture were often far out of the budget of these people. Dickens also uses this quote to show that a large part of the population in France worked in mills. They would start working extremely young and would work their entire lives. The mills would “grind young people old,” aging them and making them lose their youthfulness. This quote ends with the idea of Hunger. Countless went without food in these days. Suffering from this was common, and hurt all but the nobility. These living conditions eventually lead to the French revolution. Yet this quote has a bigger purpose in this novel. It sets up the living conditions for poor Monsieur Manette. At this point in the novel, Monsieur Manette was locked in a “room” all alone and forced to live in these conditions. The quote helps set up the feelings of despair and hopelessness that Dickens uses to show just how awful Monsieur Manette’s life was when he was in prison and locked in Monsieur Defarge’s “room.” The horrendous living conditions that affected these poor Parisians and Monsieur Manette was a heart aching way that Dickens set the mood for the rest of the chapter and Book the First.