Book II - Chapter I. Five Years Later Practice Quiz — A Tale of Two Cities
by Charles Dickens — tap or click to flip
Practice Quiz: Book II - Chapter I. Five Years Later
In what year does Book 2, Chapter 1 take place, and how much time has passed since Book 1?
The year is 1780, five years after Mr. Lorry traveled to Paris to bring Doctor Manette back to England.
Where is Tellson's Bank located?
Near Temple Bar in London, on Fleet Street. The bank is described as a "miserable little shop" you fall into "down two steps."
What is Jerry Cruncher's role at Tellson's Bank?
He is the odd-job man, occasional porter, and messenger who serves as "the live sign of the house," stationed on a wooden stool outside the bank's window nearest Temple Bar.
Where does the Cruncher family live?
In Hanging-sword-alley, Whitefriars, in cramped apartments that are "not in a savoury neighbourhood" but "very decently kept" by Mrs. Cruncher.
What does Jerry do when he discovers his wife praying?
He shouts at her for "flopping" against his prosperity and throws a muddy boot at her. He also enlists young Jerry to watch her and report any further "flopping."
How does the chapter end?
A messenger calls "Porter wanted!" from Tellson's door. Jerry leaves on the errand, and young Jerry sits on the stool muttering about his father's perpetually rusty fingers.
How does Dickens describe Jerry Cruncher's physical appearance?
He has spiky hair that looks "as if it must tear the sheets to ribbons," exceedingly red eyes, and a grim demeanor. He is "as rickety as a hackney-coach" and "as sleepy as laudanum."
What is young Jerry like?
He is a "grisly urchin of twelve" who is his father's "express image"-- with the same close-set eyes and tenderer spikes of hair. He mirrors his father's bullying temperament.
How does Mrs. Cruncher respond when Jerry accuses her of praying against him?
"I was not praying against you; I was praying for you." She also says her prayers "only come from the heart" and "are worth no more than that," showing quiet dignity under abuse.
What is Jerry's malapropism for "Anno Domini"?
"Anna Dominoes"-- he is "apparently under the impression that the Christian era dated from the invention of a popular game, by a lady who had bestowed her name upon it."
What nickname does Jerry use for his wife?
"Aggerawayter" (his mangled pronunciation of "aggravator"), which he uses whenever he accuses her of praying or saying grace.
How does Dickens connect Tellson's Bank to the theme of death?
The bank is linked to the death penalty through the heads displayed on Temple Bar outside its door, the many capital offenses it prosecuted, and the imagery of decay -- musty banknotes, wormy drawers, and clerks hidden away "like a cheese" until old.
How does the chapter develop the novel's "recalled to life" motif?
Through Jerry Cruncher's hidden occupation as a grave-robber, or "resurrection man." His muddy boots and rusty fingers hint that he literally digs up the dead -- an ironic, physical version of the novel's spiritual resurrection theme.
What parallel does Dickens draw between Tellson's Bank and England itself?
Both resist all change. Just as the bank's partners would "disinherit a son for suggesting rebuilding," England "did very often disinherit its sons for suggesting improvements in laws and customs that had long been highly objectionable."
What does Jerry Cruncher's hostility toward prayer reveal about the theme of secrecy?
Jerry treats his wife's prayers as a direct economic threat, revealing that his "honest trade" depends on secrecy and sin. His inverted morality -- seeing prayer as dangerous and grave-robbing as legitimate -- reflects the novel's broader theme of hidden lives.
What literary technique does Dickens use in the passage listing offenses punishable by death?
Anaphora -- the repeated phrase "was put to Death" hammers the point with rhythmic, relentless force, satirizing the indiscriminate brutality of the English justice system.
How does Dickens use Tellson's Bank as an extended metaphor?
The bank stands for pre-revolutionary English society as a whole: entrenched, decaying, proudly hostile to progress, and intimately connected to state violence, yet considered respectable precisely because of its antiquity.
What examples of foreshadowing appear in this chapter?
Jerry's clean-at-night but muddy-by-morning boots, his perpetually rusty fingers, his fear that prayer will ruin his "trade," and his address in Hanging-sword-alley all foreshadow his secret life as a grave-robber.
How does Dickens create comic irony through Jerry Cruncher?
Jerry calls himself "a honest tradesman" while his every detail -- muddy boots, rusty fingers, rage at prayer -- signals dishonest work. He accuses his wife of wickedness for praying while he robs graves at night.
What is the effect of the simile comparing young clerks to cheese?
Dickens says Tellson's hid young men "in a dark place, like a cheese, until he had the full Tellson flavour and blue-mould upon him," suggesting the bank ages and decays its employees the way it decays its banknotes and documents.