"'It is of the utmost importance to me (you know, Citzen, even better than I, of how much importance), that I should be able to communicate to Mr. Lorry of Tellson's Bank, an English gentleman who is now in Paris, the simple fact, without comment, that I have been thrown in the prison of La Force. Will you cause that do be done for me?' 'I will do,' Defarge doggedly rejoined, 'nothing for you. My duty is to my country and the People. I am the sworn servant of both, against you. I will do nothing for you'" (263).

In the chapter "In Secret" the reader begins to see that Monsieur Defarge has two different sides to him. Earlier in the story, we saw that he valued connections with others, as he expressed dicontent that Darnay's name was knitted into the list of people Madame Defarge was making. However, since the revolution has started, the reader realizes that his other side is one that is very dedicated to the cause, even if it means hurting people (namely, Darnay) in a way that can affect people he cares about (Lucie and Dr. Manette). He seems to have adapted his wife's mentality of being more concerned with the revolution than those hurt by it. His harshness shows the reader his double sided-ness, but that his loyalties lie with the peasants behind the revolution.

In Secret

“The escort were two mounted patriots… present danger arose from one of the patriots being chronically drunk…” (256-257)

This double of the drunken patriot and the sober patriot represents the revolutionaries as a whole. It shows us that since the revolutionaries have taken over Paris, although half of them are sober, the other half is completely trashed. It adds to the revolutionaries’ character, giving them a sense of inability and rashness. When someone is drunk, they cannot think properly, their actions are full of carelessness and stupidity, and they have an inability to govern themselves. This half of the revolutionaries that is drunk has all of these traits, except they don’t just have to govern themselves; they have to govern all of the other revolutionaries plus the lately fallen aristocrats. That much power in the hands of drunken people can go seriously wrong. Since they cannot think properly, it is extremely hard for them to govern fairly as well as properly, which would be helpful to Charles Darnay. The sober patriot, however, thinks clearly and when all the revolutionaries try to attack Charles Darnay, he saves Charles and closes a gate between them and the revolutionaries while the drunken patriot just sat and watched: “the postmaster interposed himself between this man and the rider’s bridle (at which he was evidently making), and soothingly said, ‘Let him be; let him be! He will be judged at Paris’ (257). If the sober patriot had been drunk, he would have either done nothing or joined in with the crowd, but since he was sober, although he doesn’t like Charles, he realized that Charles needed a fair trial in Paris and saved him from the mob instead of letting him die. If the majority of the revolutionaries were sober, they’d have the same thought process as the sober patriot, and they might realize that all the aristocrats deserve fair trials, unlike their current treatment of being thrown in prison for even helping an aristocrat. In this chapter, the recklessness of the revolutionaries and the unfairness of their actions is developed and portrayed in a negative light by Dickens.

The Married Couple

“When the newly-married pair came home, the first person who appeared, to offer his congratulations, was Sydney Carton. They had not been at home many hours, when he presented himself. He was not improved in habits, or in looks, or in manner; but, there was a certain rugged air of fidelity about him, which was new to the observation of Charles Darnay.” (214)

Dickens describes Carton to be as similar in resemblance and manner as before, but now, he seems to have loyalty and respect for the married “pair”. In this passage, I think Dickens is almost hinting to the fact that Darnay and Carton could be the pair because Carton is becoming a much more mature person. Not only did they always share physical characteristics, but they are now beginning to share emotional and mental traits. Carton has slowed down his drinking and is beginning to change from the crazy drunk he used to be. Lucie has respect and sympathy for Carton, and one must imagine that Darnay is somewhat happy he has cleaned up his act. This new, emerging version of Carton is beginning to seem more like a twin to Darnay than an opposite.

Double Motifs Including Double Trouble?! Oh Snap.

"So strangely clouded were these refinements by the prison manners and gloom, so spectral did they become in the inappropriate squalor and misery through which they were seen, that Charles Darnay seemed to stand in a company of the dead. Ghots all! ... All waiting their dismissal from the desolate shore, all turning on him eyes that were changed by the death they had died in coming here" (265). 

Despite the correction of Charles Darnay who "requested the speaker to take notice that he was a free traveler and French citizen," he is now stripped of his name and referred to like everyone else, "the prisoner." This is much alike Doctor Manette because when he was "the prisoner," he too was stripped of his name and was referred to as "One Hundred and Five North Tower." Not only does the jail keeper repeatedly refer to Darnay as "prisoner" but so does Dickens by means of narration. The prisoner motif comes in through this by showing that when you are in prison, you are like an object rather than a human being, nothing more. The doubles motif is not only present because of the similarity between Doctor Manette's naming experiences in prison and Charles Darnay's, but also their physical experience. The people that Darnay encounters look like ghosts with empty eyes, which is exactly what Doctor Manette looked like when we first saw him widdling away at a pair of shoes in Defarge's home. Later, when Darnay arrives in his solitary confinement cell, he sees that "there were in the cell, a chair, a table, and a straw mattress" which is what we found out Doctor Manette had in his cell when Defarge sacks it. Almost immediately after being left alone, Darnay unintentionally conforms to fit the "prisoner" personality, "Now am I left, as if I were dead." 

One Night - I'm also sorry that this is late

“The marriage day was shining brightly, and they were ready outside the closed door of the Doctor’s room”

The two separate places that Lucie and her father are in represent that although they’re staying in the same house, there will be something that separates them into two different places after Lucie marries Charles Darnay. This may be good for Lucie because she has grown an unhealthy attachment to her father. It should also be good for Dr. Manette because he hasn’t been able to survive without Lucie constantly with him, which is an extremely unhealthy attachment. Dr. Manette reverts back to his old habits when he is separated from Lucie which, as bad it may sound, was actually good for him because he managed to find his own way out of the darkness, without the help of Lucie. This door that has been created between them, like the door that separated the room Dr. Manette was in and the place Lucie was, has been helpful for both of them, and since it is a door, and not a wall, it allows for them to still see each other, without having an unhealthy attachment to each other. These two separate places are the double I found in these chapters, and it creates a healthy barrier between the doctor and his daughter.

Leaving a Double Behind (sorry this is so late)

“I find it difficult to imagine any such violent sounding of that string again...” (210).

The double himself, Dr. Manette, tells Mr. Lorry (a double in his own right) that he thinks he will never have a relapse again. Just before this, he had been in a shoemaking frenzy for nine days, brought on by recalling “intense associations of a most distressing nature” (209), which is his time in prison. What he is saying now is that the “circumstances likely to renew it” (210) will not happen again, and therefore these crazy lapses will not happen again. Dr. Manette previously had a double personality: one as Lucie’s loving father and the other as the imprisoned Doctor of Beauvais. Now he is permanently discarding his old persona, because the circumstances that bring on those recollections will never arise again. It’s unclear what exactly these are, but it seems rather certain he will not go back; he allowed Mr. Lorry and Miss Pross to destroy his shoemaking tools (his link to his old life as a prisoner). He tells them to do it in Lucie’s name; clearly she is the reason he is abandoning his double. He probably wants to be the best father he can be for her

Darnay's Mental Breakdown

“‘The ghosts that vanished when the wicket closed. There was one among them, the appearance of a lady dressed in black, who was leaning in the embrasure of a window, and she had a light shining upon her golden hair, and she looked like****Let us ride on again, for God’s sake, through the illuminated villages with the people all awake! ****He made shoes, he made shoes, he made shoes. ****Five paces by four and a half.’” (267)

 

            This passage is an excerpt from Charles Darnay’s prison experience. Darnay’s thoughts in this passage are focused on Doctor Manette – “He made shoes etc.” – and Lucie. Because he sees Lucie (golden hair) is dressed in black clothes, he briefly visits his funeral and it is quite obvious that he thinks that he is going to die – not to mention the “in secret” scene. But, in this scene we see Darnay as a prisoner, and a double of Doctor Manette’s prison years – two different motifs. I think that Dickens has Darnay go crazy for a little bit not only to foreshadow his death, but also to show that no matter how composed someone is, when their life is on the line, everyone is a little bonkers. Up until this little mental breakdown, we only see Darnay as being a very passionate man with a somewhat negative family connotation that floats around him. But, now we see Darnay with his life on the line and he has lost his composure and his mind has taken over his free thought. I think that this is Dickens’ form of Charles showing Doctor Manette empathy because at this moment Darnay is going through exactly what Doctor Manette did for twenty some years. Furthermore, earlier in the chapter Darnay clearly regrets his decision to return to France because his life is in danger. Darnay now understands that his family is more important than his reputation in France, but it seems to me like he is going to die because he made the mistake of reversing the two.