"It was the rush and roar of rain that he typified, and it stopped him, for no voice could be heard in it. A memorable storm of thunder and lightning broke with that sweep of water, and there was not a moment's interval in crash, and fire, and rain, until after the moon rose at midnight. (p107)"
Literally, Carton was talking about the huge thunder storm that is brewing. The rain is so heavy and fast falling that his voice cannot even be heard through the racket.
"When he got out of the house, the air was cold and sad, the dull sky overcast, the river dark and dim, the whole scene like a lifeless desert. And wreaths of dust were spinning round and round before the morning blast, as if the desert-sand had risen far away, and the first spray of it in its advance had begun the overwhelming of the city. (p95)"
Literally, this was Dickens describing the lifeless scene outside of Striver's house.
Both these descriptions Dickens gave describe the two, conflicting opposite forces: rain and desert. This foreshadows the conflict between the epic conflicts that are soon to strike between the aristocrats (desert) and the peasants (rain).
6 comments:
Are those two forces really "in conflict" in that scene, though? It looks to me like one seems to be the result of the other ... what do you make of that?
Also, could one of you from period 8 check your blog's settings and see that your period 9 group members have "administrative privileges"? Thanks!
***NOT MOTIF ORIENTED!!
Ms. Birdwell asked someone to make everyone an admin so....your all admins now. WOOHOO!
Responding to Ms. Birdwell's comment...
I was thinking that the richer part of the city was like a desert and lacked water because it lacked peasants. In previous chapters, Dickens has used the metaphor of powerful rushing water to describe the peasants.
Now that I think about it, I agree with Ms. Birdwell. This passage is obviously foreshadowing the peasant revolt that is to come, the storm being the rush of angry peasants. I am not sure which one would come first, the stormy city or the desert city, but I think that the "dry" city may be the city before and even possibly after the storm. Before the storm/revolt, the city is dry and peasantless. During the revolt, many people are likely to die, therefore making the city "dry" again afterwards.
Actually, I don't think the desert described on page 95 has anything to do with peasants. If you look at the paragraphs before, we see Sydney Carton and Mr. Stryver talking about Miss Manette. When he leaves, we see a desert described. I thought that the desert represented Sydney's life. It's bare, desolate, and without life. He then has a mirage, and what he sees could be how his life could have been because then Dickens goes on to say that it vanished and he went to bed in tears.
I really like the point Abbey made about the city being "dry" before or after the storm. It's obvious though that the storm is a surge of change/revolution.
When I read the first quote I immediately associated the description of the storm with the whole Noah's Ark flood happening in the Bible. "There was not a moment's interval in crash, and fire, and rain, until after the moon rose at midnight." In the Bible, it rained for 40 days and 40 nights without an end. The flood was brought on by God initiate change, and to mark a new beginning. Which is what particular flood, could easily be doing as well.
*what this particular flood...
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