Writing Style in Tale of Two Cities AKA the unexpected lovechild between poetry and prose

Note: we will be pulling heavily from bookmark #s 1-5!

Dickens’ writing style  Dickens loved him some lit devices  alliteration, asyndeton, metaphor, simile, hyperbole, anaphora, parallelism, polysyndeton, epistrophe, personification and antithesis  Extremely poetic writer  Stories were typically read aloud

Dickens’ writing style  Allusion – Victorian expectation Direct Adapted (paraphrased quote, not explicit) Subtext (worked into structure/theme; Dante and CBC)  Character epithets (“honest” Jerry, etc.) to create character and tone  Selection of details Images in wrirting Beauty amidst ugliness background as a reporter?

Dickens’ writing style  Motif Burial Business Road/River Light/shadow  Tone of writing Comic Sentimental Scary Angry

Dickens’ writing style  ALL elements or description build to a single tone  Split into groups.  Assign each group a section. Tone of section What writing elements contribute to this tone.

The Passages  (25) “A wild-looking woman…” to end of chapter  (27) Start of chapter to “The time was to come…” (28)  (28) “And now that the cloud…” to “For the time was to come…” (30)  (33) “Mr. Jarvis Lorry and…” to end of (34)  (43) “She had laid her head…” to end of (44)

 The following passage is from Charles Dickens’ masterpiece, A Tale of Two Cities. Read it carefully. Then, write a well-organized essay in which you analyze how Dickens uses a variety of literary devices and techniques to create a specific tone.