c. Sometimes the foreshadowing is very subtle. It tantalizes us with just a hint, nothing more. Jerry Cruncher says, ��You�d be in a Blazing bad way, if recalling to life was to come into fashion Jerry!�� (page 9, lines 2-3) This foreshadows important events to come. What do you think might be the explanation for Jerry�s comment?
i. I think that Jerry might have said that comment because "recalling to life" is a hard and tiring thing to do and it may not always turn out for the best.
10. Charles Dickens is a master of irony. He often uses irony to comment on the great differences between appearances and reality.
a. The guard on the Dover mail could, if the light were blown out, �shut himself up inside, keep a flint and the steel sparks well off the straw, and get a light with tolerable safety and ease (if he were lucky) in five minutes.� (page 8, lines 19-21) What does Dickens really think of the guard�s ability to get a coach-lamp lit in a hurry?
i. Dickins uses litotes and irony in his writings; he does not really mean that you should light a lamp coach in a hurry
b. Mr. Lorry calls himself a �man of business,� unfeeling and mechanical in his approach to life�s problems. Why is his description of himself ironic?
i. It is ironic because he really is not a business man, because he cares a lot about other people and is sentimental-he just does not want to believe it
11. Dickens is considered one of the world�s greatest humorists in his creation of unusual characters and situations.
a. In his description of the Dover mail, how does Dickens show his flair for humor in the guard�s arsenal of weapons, the passengers� attitude, and the coachman�s opinion of his horses?
i. He uses humor to describe how "bundled" the passengers are; he uses hyperboles to describe the weapons on the carriage such as "blunderbus" (thats a cannon)
b. When the mail reaches Dover and the passengers get into the inn, there is a remarkable change in the appearance of those passengers. What does Dickens mean when he says, �But one kind of man was seen to go into it�?
i. That means that all the men conformed to become more like the same person; after the travel they all looked like the same person
12. Figurative language extends the possibilities of expression. Through simile and metaphor the author can make his statements more vivid and memorable.
a. What things are being compared in each of the following similes? How effective are they?
i. �There was steaming mist in the hollows, and it roamed in its forlornness up the hill, like an evil spirit, seeking rest and finding none.� (page 4, lines 18-20)
i. The evil mist is compared to the evil spirits; its an effective simile because you cant see anything in the fog-they were afraid of being robbed and the fog was effective in stopping them
ii. �The mildew inside of the coach, with its damp and dirty straw, its disagreeable smell, and its obscurity, was rather like a larger dog-kennel.� (page 13, lines 14-16
i. The people in the coach were compared to the smelling dogs in the kennel
iii.�The coach (in a confused way, like the presence of pain under an opiate) was always with him.� (page 11, lines 16-17)
i. The experience of being in the coach stays with you even after you get out of the coach
b. What things are being compared in each of the following metaphors? How effective do you consider them?
i. �A people [of Saint Antoine] that had undergone a terrible grinding and re-grinding in the mill.� (page 25, lines 35-37)
i.
ii.�The gaunt scarecrows of that region [the people of Saint Antoine]� (page 27, lines 9-10)