The Good Ol' Wine Shop :)

In A Tale of Two Cities, I think that chapter 5, The Wine Shop still remains the most vivid, memorable chapter from the book, and one of my favorites. It gives insight to how "savage like" the French Revolution would become. The chapter depicts the dropping of the wine casket outside of the wine shop, which is ironic because that was where the Defarge's resided and commenced their gatherings of planning the revolt. The red wine is also a symbol of the blood that was shed & how the people of that street desperately desired the wine. The chapter continues on explaining in great detail the drinking of the wine, which I find the most favorable. Dickens describes the "wine game" lasting. The roughness, playfulness, companionship, frolicsome embraces, shaking of hands, and the eagerness to drink the wine was able to create a picture perfect scene in my mind. Not only that, but the way Dickens continued to foreshadow the time when "wine too would be spilled on the street-stones, and when the stain of it would be red upon many there." Anyway, enough of my rambling. I was wondering what other passages or chapters were most favored by you guys? :)

"A wonderful fact to reflect upon..."

In the beginning of chapter three of Book The First in A Tale of Two Cities, the narrator opens the chapter with a thought on the mystery that everyone holds:

“A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other. A solemn consideration, when I enter a great city by night, that every one of those darkly clustered houses encloses its own secret; that every room in every one of them encloses its own secret; that every beating heart in the hundreds of thousands of breasts there, is, in some of its imaginings, a secret to the heart nearest it! Something of the awfulness, even of Death itself, is referable to this.” 

I have always wondered how it's like in the minds of others and what secrets separate their life to be unique from everyone else’s. Our personal thoughts play part in defining us and I find that to be a bittersweet gift of life. It’s saddening to know that we will never be able to fully know our beloved ones; but that’s exactly what holds it to be beautiful. This quote also reminds me of transcendentalism because Dickens is aware that we are limited to know one another because of our minds. How do you interpret this quote?

-Cinthia Monge

Wuthering Heights

Bronte has chosen a setting reflective of her characters. The area, as Lockwood explains, is subject to "atmospheric tumult."  No doubt its inhabitants will be as volatile as their environment. Descriptions about the house's structure allowed me to make connections to the protagonist. Wuthering Heights was built strong, with narrow deep-set windows to protect it from the ferocious wind. Similarly, Heathcliff's eyes "withdraw suspiciously under their brows'' upon contemplating, not nature's, but human intrusion. His cold, hard exterior and rough "corners" are defenses. Heathcliff is the true misanthropist. Because he does not resist but rather embrace and incite the hostile surroundings, he is able to avoid the fate of the poor stunted firs. What intrigues you about this chapter?