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English 9 H > A Tale of Two Cities Pre-reading > Flashcards

A Tale of Two Cities Pre-reading Flashcards

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1
Q

When and Where was Dickens born?

A

Portsmouth, England in 1812

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2
Q

What is his full name?

A

Charles John Huffam Dickens

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3
Q

What is his family like? (Parents, siblings…) (3)

A

John and Elizabeth Dickens, 7 siblings but he is the oldest male child

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4
Q

What period of time was it? (3)

A

Industrial Revolution, Victorian Era, the middle class expanded

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5
Q

Where were the most happy memories in his childhood?

A

Chatham and Rochester Area

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6
Q

Describe the Chatham Rochester Area (3)

A

30 miles from London, large Naval dockyard and small cathedral city (cosmopolitan, vibrant)

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7
Q

Describe his life in the Chatham Rochester Area (3)

A

Edenic time, stable family, very young when he moved because he father was transferred

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8
Q

Describe the impact of his father’s debts (5)

A

His father was a clerk of the British Navy, but he was careless with money.
In 1822, he was transferred to London with a reduced salary.
In 1824, his father was arrested for debt and thrown into Marshalsea Prison with the rest of his family.
This led to Charles being taken out of his schooling at 12 years old and forced to work in a blacking/shoe polish factory which crushed his dreams and caused him to feel shame and guilt at being a part of this working lower middle class.
He knew his parents discussed whether he should continue working (humiliating, lower class) or continue his education (profession, gentleman) and his mother said he should work, which left a wound in him.

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9
Q

Describe the influence of his father’s debts on his works (2)

A

The charming but irresponsible character of Mr. Micawber in David Copperfield was influenced by his father.
Wrote about crime, jail, losing money, guilty secrets in the heart of the novel

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10
Q

Where did he work when he was 16 years old? Did he enjoy this?

A

He was a clerk in a lawyer’s office for a couple years
He hated it and did not like lawyers which reflected in his work

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11
Q

What was his first successful career? (3)

A

Parliamentary reporter, stenography, reporter in political elections

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12
Q

Who was his first love? (2)

A

Maria Beadnell, the daughter of a banker

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13
Q

Describe his first experience with Maria (3)

A

He loved her deeply, but suffered. She was playing the market and he was eventually shooed away by her father in 1833

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14
Q

How did he get over his first heartbreak? (3)

A

He fueled his energy into his work.
He wrote sketches in a newspaper and eventually made the sketches into a book called Sketches by Boz, complete with illustrations by George Cruikshank, which were a success.

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15
Q

Who was his wife? (2)

A

Catherine Hogarth, the daughter of a respected journalist

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16
Q

How did he first meet Catherine?

A

Met in literary circles after Sketches

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17
Q

How was his relationship with Catherine?

A

He was completely in charge.

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18
Q

When did they get married and why?

A

April 1836, married because he wanted a home (make up for his childhood)

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19
Q

What are the Pickwick Papers? (8)

A

Chapman and Hall publishers approached him
Proposal by minor comic artist Robert Seymour
Dickens took over, Seymour committed suicide
Chose illustrator Hablot Knight Browne (Phiz)
Popular 40,000 copies a month
Serialized format, anyone could afford
Revealed himself at the end in Nov 1837
Catapulted him into fame for people of all status

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20
Q

Who died in 1837? How did this death impact Dickens? (4)

A

Mary Hogarth, Catherine’s 17 year old sister who was living with them, died of sickness
Dickens fell in love with an idealized version of Mary
She was the influence of Little Nell’s death

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21
Q

What was his first house with Catherine?

A

A house at 48 Doughty Street, London

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22
Q

What is his dream house? (3)

A

Gad’s Hill Place in Rochester
Sees with his dad when he is 9
Sometime after 1854, buys the house

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23
Q

What happened in 1842? (3)

A

America trip 1
Hated on America and popularity dropped
By 1843, he needed to repay loans again

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24
Q

What did he write in 1843? Was it successful?

A

A Christmas Carol
Cost too much to produce, but the ideas were well liked in the Victorian Era

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25
Q

What happened in 1846? (3)

A

Dombey and Son serial, he never had money problems again
He began working on David Copperfield

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26
Q

How did David Copperfield represent a turn in Dickens’s writing style? (2)

A

After DC, his fiction begins reflecting a darker view of life
Doesn’t end up happily, no longer believing things will turn up

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27
Q

How does David Copperfield reveal something about Dickens? (5)

A

Most autobiographical
Fashioned Copperfield out of himself
Wondered whether he had made the right choice in marriage
Dissatisfied, didn’t want to be tied down
FOMO

28
Q

What changed in his family in 1850, 1856, 1858? (9)

A

moved into a nicer London house with 10 children
Catherine’s youngest sister Georgina as a helper
1856, discontent caused by his marriage
He really wanted was a change
Wanted to be creative
Ellen Ternan
1858, legally separated, he got all but 1 child
Dickens said Catherine should be isolated, none of the children should see her ever, no interactions with her anymore
After Dickens died the mother and child reconnected and were very close

29
Q

Who is Ellen Ternan? (5)

A

A 19-year-old girl, cast in The Frozen Deep, who Dickens had a steady relationship with after his divorce
Oppositional female figures, showed in his novels
Not like Catherine, Ellen stood up for herself

30
Q

Describe Maria Beadnell’s return (3)

A

In the winter of 1853-54, she sent him a letter saying she wanted to see him
Fat and 40 and silly now
Cruel portrait and character Flora Finching in Little Dorrit

31
Q

What are some of his greatest works completed before 1860 and what do they express about him? (2)

A

A Tale of Two Cities, sacrifice, Great Expectations, his own repressed passions and secrets

32
Q

How did his health impact his career in the 1860s? (4)

A

writing became more tiring to him, failing health
Read his own books to public audience
Face and voice tricks that brought characters alive
Articulate his feelings and emotions for his 40 years

33
Q

What trip did he take in 1867 and how did this impact him? (5)

A

visited America again for readings for money
Physically exhausted from it
Needed a physician with him
Could not keep food down
Reading tour of Great Britain after

34
Q

What is The Mystery of Edwin Drood? (3)

A

The last book he started
Ends up dying when he finished chapter that was the halfway point
Nothing like he had written before, a mystery

35
Q

When did he die? (2)

A

Morning early June 1870, had a stroke died the next morning

36
Q

Where is he buried?

A

the Poet’s Corner of Westminster Abbey

37
Q

List 4 of his demons

A

Loneliness from childhood that could not be pushed away by other’s presence
Addicted to work and achievement
Fear of falling back into lower middle class of his childhood
Lack of his own childhood, loneliness, disappointment, anger about politics…

38
Q

How and when does his father get out of prison?

A

After a year, his grandmother died and left them money to pay off his debts

39
Q

What did his works usually comment on? (4)

A

Problems of society, revolutions, labor and poverty

40
Q

When was A Tale of Two Cities published?

A

1859

41
Q

What genre is A Tale of Two Cities?

A

Historical novel

42
Q

What source did Dickens use for A Tale of Two Cities?

A

Carlyle’s French Revolution

43
Q

How and where was A Tale of Two cities originally published?

A

Weekly serial in his magazine

44
Q

List 4 Pros and 3 Cons of serial publication

A

Pros:
Extends audience to all classes because books were not every affordable
Direct relationship with the readers
Weekly dependance of the readers
Immensely popular
Cons:
Pressure to produce
“Soap opera”: cliffhangers, coincidences, exaggerated characters…
Reliance on popular opinion diminishes artistic value

45
Q

List a few themes and motifs in A Tale of Two Cities

A

Resurrection/Redemption
Sacrifice
Oppression
Social Injustice
Revolution
Fate/Coincidence

Doubles

Shadows
Imprisonment
Footsteps
Mobs

46
Q

What is Book the First about? (3)

A

1775, a trip between the two main cities London and Paris, 6 chapters

47
Q

What is Book the Second about?

A

A buildup from 1780 to the start of the French Revolution (1789-1791)

48
Q

What is Book the Third about? (2)

A

1792 and has the climax and action!

49
Q

What is Dover Road? (3)

A

A mail route between Dover, England and London
Passengers can ride stage coaches
Safety concern, robbers

50
Q

What is Dickens’s contribution to society? (3)

A

Literary Giant: Popular and respected writer
Social Reformer: social injustices are revealed, Oliver Twist and Bleak House changed the orphanage and legal system

51
Q

What systematic problems did 18th Century France have in the way it collected taxes?

A

Ancien Régime, system with kings and nobles, the people with the money (nobles and clergy) never paid taxes

52
Q

Other than bankruptcy, what other factors contributed to tensions in France? (3)

A

Hailstorms (ruined harvest, raised food prices, caused widespread hunger)
Enlightenment thinkers like Kant were challenging religion
Peasants are hungry, intellectuals could or should God save the king?, nobility did not do anything useful

53
Q

What radical move was carried out by the National Assembly on August 4th?

A

Abolished most of Ancien Régime (feudal rights, tithes, privileges for nobles, unequal taxation) to write a new constitution

54
Q

What was the Women’s March and what fueled it? (3)

A

October 1789
Rumor that Marie Antoinette was hoarding grain in the palace
Armed peasant women stormed the palace and demanded Louis XVI (16) and Marie Antoinette move from Versailles to Paris

55
Q

Why might the first phase of the French Revolution be considered not so revolutionary? (3)

A

Wanted to create a constitutional monarchy and the king was necessary for a functioning state and only men of property could be voters and office holders
Only Jacobins wanted a republic

56
Q

Why did Louis XVI and the National Assembly decide to invade Austria? What was the result? (4)

A

Take Austria’s wealth and grain and spread revolutionary ideas
Prussia joined Austria to fight the French
Assembly voted to suspend the monarchy because Louis encourage the Prussians, have new election where every man could vote and create a new republican constitution

57
Q

What time period of the revolution was marked by the death of Louis XVI and why is it significant? (4)

A

1793
The Terror
Government killed 16,000 enemies of the revolution with the guillotine under the leadership of the Committee of Public Safety led by Maximilien Robespierre
Marie Antoinette, Maximilien Robespierre himself

58
Q

If not revolutionary, what does John Green argue made the French Revolution so radical? (4)

A

Insistence on the universality of its ideals
Everyone, same for all
Laws come from citizens and the laws should apply to everyone equally
Asked new questions about the nature of people’s rights and the derivation of those rights

59
Q

Who were part of the 1st Estate?

A

The Clergy

60
Q

Who were part of the 2nd Estate?

A

The Nobility (Gov, land, aristocracy)

61
Q

Who were part of the 3rd Estate?

A

Everyone else

62
Q

How many people were part of the 1st and 2nd Estate? How many people were part of the 3rd Estate?

A

3% and 97%

63
Q

Could people in the 3rd Estate move upwards in ranking?

A

No, you had to be born into the 1st or 2nd Estate

64
Q

When did the 3rd Estate gain the right to vote? Was this helpful?

A

1789, no, they were still outvoted

65
Q

Who paid taxes? (3)

A

The 1st Estate did not pay taxes
The 2nd Estate did not have to pay many taxes including the salt tax, the oldest and most significant.
The 3rd Estate was heavily taxed.

English 9 H (4 decks)

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