A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

Study Questions
1. Why does Defarge bring the mender of roads to the wine-shop?

2. Who presents the petition to the King and what was the result?

3. What does it mean to be “registered?”

4. How is this register kept secret?

5. Where do the Defarges take the mender of roads?

6. How does the mender of roads act?

7. Why is Ernest Defarge happy with the way the mender of roads acts?

8. What does Madame Defarge say about dolls and birds?

9. To whom is she referring?

10. How does this scene end?

Answers
1. He brings the mender of roads to the wine-shop, so that the mender of roads can hear the whole story of the man in the nightcap.

2. Ernest Defarge presented the petition to the King; it was ignored and the man was executed.

3. A person who is registered is marked to be killed when the revolution arrives.

4. Madame Defarge secretly knits the register in code.

5. They take him to see the King and Queen pass by.

6. He joins in the applause for the King and Queen.

7. He is happy because he feels that this adoration will lull the nobility into a false sense of security, thus allowing the revolution to begin sooner.

8. She tells the mender of roads that he would naturally attack the finest birds and dolls if it were to his advantage.

9. “Birds” and “dolls” represent the French ruling class.

10. Madame Defarge sends the mender of roads home to think about what she has told him.