Tale Of Two Cities Essays - English-language Films,

Tale of Two Cities In the fictitious novel Tale of Two Cities, the author, Charles Dickens, lays out a brilliant plot. Charles Dickens was born in England on February 7, 1812 near the south coast. His family moved to London when he was ten years old and quickly went into debt. To help support himself, Charles went to work at a blacking warehouse when he was twelve. His father was soon imprisoned for debt and shortly thereafter the rest of the family split apart. Charles continued to work at the blacking warehouse even after his father inherited some money and got out of prison. When he was thirteen, Dickens went back to school for two years. He later learned shorthand and became a freelance court reporter. He started out as a journalist at the age of twenty and later wrote his first novel, The Pickwick Papers. He went on to write many other novels, including Tale of Two Cities in 1859. Tale of Two Cities takes place in France and England during the troubled times of the French Revolution. There are travels by the characters between the countries, but most of the action takes place in Paris, France. The wineshop in Paris is the hot spot for the French revolutionists, mostly because the wineshop owner, Ernest Defarge, and his wife, Madame Defarge, are key leaders and officials of the revolution. Action in the book is scattered out in many places; such as the Bastille, Tellson's Bank, the home of the Manettes, and largely, the streets of Paris. These places help to introduce many characters into the plot. One of the main characters, Madame Therese Defarge, is a major antagonist who seeks revenge, being a key revolutionist. She is very stubborn and unforgiving in her cunning scheme of revenge on the Evermonde family. Throughout the story, she knits shrouds for the intended victims of the revolution. Charles Darnay, one of whom Mrs. Defarge is seeking revenge, is constantly being put on the stand and wants no part of his own lineage. He is a languid protagonist and has a tendency to get arrested and must be bailed out several times during the story. Dr. Alexander Manette, a veteran prisoner of the Bastille and moderate protagonist, cannot escape the memory of being held and sometimes relapses to cobbling shoes. Dr. Manette is somewhat redundant as a character in the novel, but plays a very significant part in the plot. Dr. Manette's daughter, Lucie Manette, a positive protagonist, is loved by many and marries Charles Darnay . She is a quiet, emotional person and a subtle protagonist in the novel. One who never forgot his love for Lucie, the protagonist Sydney Carton changed predominately during the course of the novel. Sydney , a look-alike of Charles Darnay, was introduced as a frustrated, immature alcoholic, but in the end, made the ultimate sacrifice for a good friend. These and other characters help to weave an interesting and dramatic plot. Dr. Manette has just been released from the Bastille, and Lucie, eager to meet her father whom she thought was dead, goes with Mr. Jarvis Lorry to bring him back to England. Dr. Manette is in an insane state from his long prison stay and does nothing but cobble shoes, although he is finally persuaded to go to England. Several years later, Lucie, Dr. Manette, and Mr. Lorry are witnesses at the trial of Charles Darnay. Darnay, earning his living as a tutor, frequently travels between England and France and is accused of treason in his home country of France. He is saved from being prosecuted by Sydney Carton, who a witness confuses for Darnay, thus not making the case positive. Darnay ended up being acquitted for his presumed crime. Darnay and Carton both fall in love with Lucie and want to marry her. Carton, an alcoholic at the time, realizes that a relationship with Lucie is impossible, but he still tells her that he loves her and would do anything for her. Darnay and Lucie marry each other on the premises of the two promises between Dr. Manette and Darnay. Right after the marriage, while the newlyweds are on their honeymoon, Dr. Manette has a relapse and cobbles shoes for nine days straight. France's citizens arm themselves for a revolution and, led by the Defarges, start the revolution by raiding the Bastille. Shortly before the start of the revolution, the Marquis runs over a child in the streets of Paris. He is assassinated soon after by Gaspard, the child's father, who is

Edward Estlin Cummings essays

Edward Estlin Cummings essays Edward Estlin Cummings was an American poet, who was one of the most radically experimental and inventive writers of the 20th century. Some distinctive feature of Cummings's poetry is the abandonment of uppercase letters and his use of grammar, sentence structure, and punctuation. He had his own unique style of writing unlike any other writer in history. E. E. Cummings was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts on October 14, 1894. Early in his life, Cummings parents, Edward and Rebecca Clarke Cummings, encouraged him to develop his creative writing skills. In 1911, Cummings entered Harvard College, where his father was a teacher, specializing in Greek and other languages. In 1916 Cummings receives MA from Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. After Harvard, Cummings moved to New York City to work for a mail-order publishing company. In 1917 Cummings volunteered to serve in the Norton-Harjes Ambulance group in France. During Cummings service, he met William Slater Brown, who becomes his life long friend. They are both assigned to ambulance duty on Noyon sector. Later Browns letters home aroused suspicions in the French army censor. On September 21, 1917, Brown was arrested along with Cummings, who refused to separate himself from Brown. They were both imprisoned for three months at a French detention camp. In 1922, Cummings wrote a book about his experience in the detention camp called, The Enormous Room. After the First World War was over, Cummings went to Paris to study art. When he returned home to New York in 1924, Cummings found himself a celebrity for the Enormous Room, Tulips, and Chimneys. In 1931, Cummings published a collection of drawings and paintings titled CIOPW, (an acronym for the materials he used: charcoal, ink, oil, pencil, and watercolors) and had many individual show in New York over the next three decades. Over the next few years Cummings published many other books of poetry. He pub...