fantastic blogging everyone, good passages and effort!!!!!

Water to Quench the Fire

"But, the fierce figures were steadily wending East, West, North, and South, be that as it would; and whosoever hung, fire burned. The altitude of the gallows that would turn to water and quench it, no functionary, by any stretch of mathematics, was able to calculate successfully." p 242

The revolution has started a fire, which is steadily spreading throughout France, consuming the people in violence and starting new flames as the citizens execute each aristocrat and individual. The people, referenced to an ocean, are trying to use the water to put out the fire that is slowly burning France. The ocean of people themselves will simply try to overwhelm the fire of anger and vengeance by unifying the people together, but they are not able to 'quench' the fire, although how many more people join in the ocean of water. As a result, they continue to turn to  the 'gallows', or death, and then try to use the water to bring life back into their country. But by using the 'gallows' they are spreading the fire, and will never be able to be satisfied with their amount of water. Meaning that the revolution will keep spreading consuming more people, or water, until the entire country is consumed in flames and the people will use themselves to try to put out the flame.

water depletion

"Molten lead and iron boiled in the marble basin of the fountain; the water ran dry; the extinguisher tops of the towers vanished like ice before the heat... (p241)"

The fountains with the flowing waters are no longer existent. They continuous cycle of the water through the fountain represented the circle of life, and youthfulness. Now the fountains don't even have water in them. They have molten lead and iron, which shows what these people have turned into. At this point, they are not their normal selves, let alone, they are something of a completely different nature.

Waters of Captivity

"Into his handsome face, the bitter waters of captivity had worn; but, he covered up their tracks with a determination so strong, that he held the mastery of them, even in his sleep" (p. 198).

This description of Dr. Manette is taken the night before Charles and Lucie's wedding. When Dickens is reffering to the bitter waters of captivity he is making a biblical referrence to the Rivers of Babylon which in the bible represent exile. This makes the description very effective because it is describing to how well Dr. Manette has kept a healthy, stable composure, even after all the years of miserable exile from society, through his improsnment. Dickens is clearly emphasizing in this passage Dr. Manette strenth, and ability to cover up his painful past. This is is a great example of Dickens using dramatic irony because the very next day Dr. Manette looses all mental stability, and goes back to his shoemaking daze. It is almost as if the 'waters of captivity' have resurfaced. This obviously relates to our motif because it is directly dealing with water. I found this particularily interesting because he had never used our motif in a biblical reference, and i thought the way inwhich he took advantage of the bible by intervening the interesting idea of the 'waters of captivity' was fascinating and highly effective.

"A trying suspense, to be passing a whole summer night on the brink of the black ocean, ready to take that plunge into it upon which Monsieur Gabelle had resolved! But, the friendly dawn appearing at last, and the rush-candles of the village guttering out, the people happily dispersed, and Monsieur Gabelle came down, bringing his life with him for that while" (p. 242).

In this passage, the "black ocean" represents the mob that has formed. Poor Monsieur Gabelle is the center of this mob. They want to see him dead, even though he was just doing his JOB. When I think of a "black ocean" I think of a storm at sea and waves crashing everywhere, with no escape. Monsieur Gabelle is in that position. He has no escape from this "storm" until the sun rises. The sun brings the end of the storm and in the morning, the sea is always calm, just like the people here are.

"The unseen force was drawing him fast to itself, now, and all the tides and winds were setting straight and strong towards it" (254).

In this passage, Dickens is explaining Charles Darnay's departure to London with this said force. It creates a really interesting visual; a tide forcing him towards it. When I think of tides, I think of oceans and that makes me come to the conclusion that Darnay is being pulled towards England with a force as big as an ocean, and with a tide that is out of his control as a tide is.

Water=Metaphor for Peasant Crowds

On page 224, Dickens writes, “A white flag from within the fortress, and a parlay-this dimly perceptible through the raging storm, nothing audible in it-suddenly the sea rose immeasurably wider and higher, and it swept Defarge of the wine shop over the lower drawbridge, past the massive stone outer walls, in among the eight great towers surrendered! So restless was the force of the ocean bearing him on, that even to draw his breath or turn his head was impracticable as if he had been struggling in the surf of the south sea.”

This passage is describing the “sea” of people that are attacking the Bastille jail. Dickens is clearly using the motif of water to describe the mad crowd of peasants in their vengeful revolution. Large bodies of water have the power to grow and move wherever they want to go, and this is the same for the mob of people. They are so powerful that they can “sweep” people off their feet and force them to move with them. If one is caught in a rip tide, it is nearly impossible to escape it. The best advice is not to struggle against it but to go with the flow. This is exactly what Mr. Defarge is forced to do when they crowd swallowed him up. This passage also shows how crowds are very unpredictable. All of a sudden, at a random signal, they decided to attack and flow at a great rate. Even Mr. Defarge was not ready for their powerful “flowing”.