Forgery?

        In chapter 10 of Book the Third, we are introduced to the letter that Doctor Manette supposedly wrote while he was imprisoned in the Bastille. The Defarges claim that he wrote about a story where a pair of brothers, ordered Doctor Manette to care for a peasant woman who was of a fever and her brother, who was dying of a stab wound. Although the woman was still alive, Doctor Manette failed to save her. A couple days later, the Marquis Evremonde ordered Manette to be taken away and imprisoned in the Bastille.  

 At the end of the chapter, we still do not know if the letter is real or fake, but in my opinion, there are many reasons which can lead the reader to believe that this letter was forged by the Defarges.       

    

     One prime example is when there is a constant reminder in the letter that it is "real". "' I repeat this conversation exactly as it occurred. I have no doubt that it is, word for word, the same. I describe everything exactly as it took place, constraining my mind not to wander from the task. Where I make the broken marks that follow here, I leave off for the time, and put my paper in its hiding-place'" (332). This quote lead me to believe that the letter was fake. Often times when people are lying, you notice them repeating a certain aspect that would lead the reader to believe that it is real and that they are not lying. Although, this does the opposite. By constantly mentioning that the story is "real", I get the sense that they are worried about someone finding out the truth, which in this case is that the story was not writen by Doctor Manette. 

Happiness At Last

     In chapter 17, it is the night of Darnay and Lucies marraige and Doctor Manette has enjoyed the last few days of happiness. Up to this point, Doctor Manette has been in a shell of sorrowness and it has been made clear that Lucie is beginning to bring him out of this shell and overcome his past. He has finally begun to put his years of imprisonment behind him and move on to enjoy his future life. Doctor Manette talks about his years in the Bastille and his thoughts on Lucie at the time. He says that he often imagined what sort of person Lucie would grow up to be and now he is very happy with how she has grown up. I believe that marrying Darnay has shown Lucies father that she has become an independent, responsible woman and Doctor Manette is very happy to see that.

    

On page 198, Dickens describes Doctor Manette finally expressing happy feelings. "He embraced her, solemnly commender her to Heaven, and humbly thanked heaven for having bestowed her on him...Into his handsome face, the bitter waters of captivity had worm; but, he covered up their tracks with determination so strong, that face in its quiet, and guarded struggle with an unseen assailant, was not to be beheld in all the wide dominions of sleep that night"(199). 

     Before Lucie planned on marrying Charles Darnay, Doctor Manette was still caught in his post prison phase, constantly dwelling on his past. For example, earlier in book the second, Doctor Manette was caught pacing up and down the stairs in his sleep, this was a sign of post traumatic stress disorder. Now, after Lucie and Darnay are getting married, Doctor Manette is able to sleep comfortably. This is another prime example of how Lucie brings out the life in her father. Now that he understands that she has grown up to be the woman that he has always wanted in a daughter, his struggles in prison have almost disappeared. 

   
http://justifiedbythescriptures.wordpress.com/tag/sleep/

Aftermath of Prison

     In Chapter 6 of book the 2nd, we are introduced to Doctor Manettes actions which is most likely coming from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. PTSD is a a type of anxiety disorder which can occur after you've seen or experienced a traumatic event. This can range anywhere from witnessing death in war, near death experience, or in Doctor Manettes case, experiencing extremely long amounts of time confined in prison. When I hear of PTSD, the thing that first comes to mind is experiences in war. This made this passage stick out to me because I have never heard of this disorder arising from time in Prison. It made me question what Doctor Manette really had to experience throughout his 18 years of imprisonment.

     

     On page 102, Miss Pross explains the process of Doctor Manettes activity at night. "Sometimes, he gets up in the dead of the night, and will be heard, by us overhead there, walking up and down, walking up and down, in his room. Ladybird has learnt to know then, that his mind is walking up and down, walking up and down, in his old prison...But he never says a word of the true reason of his reslessness to her, and she finds it best not to hint at it to him" (102). 

     Dickens does a great job illustrating just how severe Doctor Manettes case of PTSD is. Throughout the book Dickens has always made his text challenging, in order for the reader to question the meaning of a particular passage. He does this very well in this passage because he leaves the reader wanting to find out exactly what happened in Manettes time in prison? Often times I hear of cases of PTSD being treated within a matter of a couple months, or years. Doctor Manette has been out of prison for many many years now, so my question is: Why does this man still have to face the symptoms of this anxiety disorder at this point of his life? Like the author has before, I am sure Dickens will answer this question in some text in the future.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=post-traumatic-stress-trap

     Voices        

          In Chapter 6 of A Tale of Two Cities, we are finally introduced to Doctor Manette, the father of Lucy. At this point of time in the book, the reader is told that Lucies father had been hidden for about 18 years and we find out that he has been hiding in the DeFarge's wine shop. Dickens does a great job portraying Doctor Manette's character as being very dreadful and hopeless by using powerful language. The description of Doctor Manette's character is shown in its own paragraph, strictly talking about his voice. Here is the paragraph describing the voice of the shoemaker:

       "The faintness of the voice was pitiable and dreadful. It was not the faintness of physical weakness, though confinement and hard fare no doubt had their part in it. Its deplorable peculiarity was, that it was the faintness of solitude and disuse. It was like the last feeble echo of a sound made long and long ago. So entirely had it lost the life and resonance of the human voice, that it affected the senses like a once beautiful colour faded away into a poor weak stain. So sunken and suppressed it was, that it was like a voice underground. So expressive it was, of a hopeless and lost creature, that a famished traveller, wearied out by lonely wandering in a wilderness, would have remembered home and friends in such a tone before lying down to die" (42).

                            

      This passage is very powerful because it describes the character by just mentioning the tone of his voice. This description is also placed in its own paragraph which emphasizes its importance. It is very unusual to find this lengthy of a paragraph strictly describing a characters voice and Dickens does a great job grabbing both the readers attention and sympathy by uniquely describing Doctor Manettes voice. Dickens uses words such as: dreadful, faintness, sunken, poor, weak, and hopeless to depict the emotions of this character. 




Picture: http://www.victorianweb.org/art/illustration/barnard/ttc/5.html