8/10/2019 A Tale of Two Cities Oral

1/2

A Tale of Two Cities: Charles Dickens Oral Presentation

Born: February 7th, 1812 in Portsmouth, England.

- I turned 201 yesterday.

-

Over the course of my writing career, I have written the classic novelsOliversTwist, A Christmas Carol, Nicholas Nickleby, David Copperfield, A

Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations

- On June 9th, 1870, I died of a stroke leaving behind my final novel, The

Mystery of Edwin Drood, unfinished.

- But I am only here to talk about A Tale of Two Cities.

- A Tale of Two Cities is a historical novel.

- The plot centers on the years leading up to French Revolution and ends in

the Jacobin Reign of Terror. It tells the story of two men, Charles Darnay

and Sydney Carton, who look very alike but are entirely different in

character.

- But first lets talk about satire; what is satire? Satire is the use of humor,

irony or exaggeration to expose and criticize peoples stupidity, also

known as sarcasm.

- I have chosen two quotes from my book. They are both about a character

named Monseigneur who is one of the great and powerful lords of the

court.

- In this first quote I wrote, Monseigneur had one truly noble idea of

general public business, which was to let everything go on its own way; of

particular public business. Monseigneur had the other truly noble idea

that the world was made for them. End quote.

- In this quote I satirize the utter laziness that is being displayed by

Monseigneur. We are to see Monseigneur as a pathetically self-centered

man that believes in nothing other than his own personal gain.

- In this next quote, I have satirized the corruption of the nobility pre

revolution. I have also not given Monseigneurs name, which allows the

reader to view him as a placeholder for nobility as a whole.

- Yes. It took four men, all four ablaze with gorgeous decoration, and the

Chief of them unable to exist with fewer than two gold watches in his

pocket, emulative of the noble and chaste fashion set by Monseigneur, to

8/10/2019 A Tale of Two Cities Oral

2/2

conduct the happy chocolate to Monseigneur's lips. One lacquey carried

the chocolate-pot into the sacred presence; a second, milled and frothed

the chocolate with the little instrument he bore for that function; a third,

presented the flavored napkin; a fourth (he of the two gold watches),poured the chocolate out. It was impossible for Monseigneur to dispense

with one of these attendants on the chocolate and hold his high place

under the admiring Heavens. Deep would have been the blot upon his

escutcheon if his chocolate had been ignobly waited on by only three

men; he must have died of two. End quote.