Robert.Coss is currently reading A Tale of Two Cities.
I’m 48 years old, male, from the United States. I’ve been a DailyLit member since January 14, 2009.
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A Tale of Two Cities - What does this mean?
Interesting.
A Tale of Two Cities - Is this a reference to the guillotine?
"It is likely enough that, rooted in the woods of France and Norway, there were growing trees, when that sufferer was put to death, already marked by the Woodman, Fate, to come down and be sawn into boards, to make a certain movable framework with a sack and a knife in it, terrible in history."
Is this a reference to the guillotine?
A Tale of Two Cities - What does this mean?
Thank you for taking the time to look at this and reply.
I looked at this again this morning and focused on the antecedent of “it”. The authorities insisted on “what” being received…? Then I saw that it must be this great contrast that Dickens writes about. My first thought after that was that this time period is anything but a stable time that Dickens is describing and an ideal situation for men of power to take advantage of. Hence, this royalty raise their voices and command that you may observe a contrast, but you must not do anything about it. This was a time of revolution and the uprising of people putting kings and queens on edge no doubt as you indicate.
A Tale of Two Cities - What does this mean?
A vivid description of France and England and life in general. But this sticks in my mind wanting to know its meaning. It is at the end of the first paragraph.
"...the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."
What did they mean "insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only"?