Book II - Chapter IX. The Gorgon's Head Practice Quiz — A Tale of Two Cities
by Charles Dickens — tap or click to flip
Practice Quiz: Book II - Chapter IX. The Gorgon's Head
What mythological figure is referenced in the chapter title "The Gorgon's Head"?
The Gorgon from Greek mythology, whose gaze turned living things to stone. Dickens uses it to describe the stone-covered chateau and, ultimately, the stone-faced dead Marquis.
What is Charles Darnay's true identity revealed to be in this chapter?
Charles Darnay is the nephew of the Marquis St. Evrémonde. His father was the Marquis's twin brother, making the Marquis his uncle.
What is the Marquis's philosophy on maintaining aristocratic power?
"Repression is the only lasting philosophy." He believes fear and slavery will keep the common people obedient as long as the aristocracy maintains absolute control.
Why does Darnay say the Evrémonde name is "more detested than any name in France"?
Because the family has a long history of oppressing, injuring, and killing peasants — including exercising the right of life and death over the common people, hanging men from the chateau, and murdering a man who protested the treatment of his daughter.
What is a lettre de cachet, and how does the Marquis reference it?
A lettre de cachet was a royal order allowing imprisonment without trial. The Marquis admits he would have used one to imprison Darnay indefinitely, but he has fallen out of favor with the court and can no longer obtain one.
What promise did Darnay make to his dying mother?
His mother implored him "to have mercy and to redress" the wrongs committed by the Evrémonde family. Darnay has been trying to fulfill this request, which is what brought him back to France.
What does Darnay call the family estate?
"A crumbling tower of waste, mismanagement, extortion, debt, mortgage, oppression, hunger, nakedness, and suffering."
Who is the "Doctor with a daughter" the Marquis references at the end of their conversation?
Doctor Manette and his daughter Lucie. The Marquis's knowing reference suggests he is aware of Darnay's attachment to Lucie and may intend to use this knowledge against him.
How is the Marquis murdered?
He is stabbed through the heart with a knife while sleeping in his bed. The assassin leaves a note wrapped around the knife's hilt.
What does the note left on the Marquis's body say?
"Drive him fast to his tomb. This, from Jacques."
What is the significance of the phrase "Drive him fast" in the assassin's note?
It echoes the Marquis's own command to his coachman in the previous chapter, when his recklessly speeding carriage killed a peasant child. The phrase turns the Marquis's own words back on him as a death sentence.
Who are the "Jacques" referenced in the note?
The Jacques are members of the French revolutionary underground — common people who have organized in secret to resist aristocratic oppression. The name is used as a shared alias among revolutionaries.
What does Dickens foreshadow about the chateau's future?
Dickens writes that within a few years the chateau will be "ghastly, fire-charred, plunder-wrecked ruin" and its lead roof will be melted and fired from "the barrels of a hundred thousand muskets" — foreshadowing the French Revolution.
What happens at dawn after the Marquis's murder?
The fountain water seems to turn to blood, the stone faces appear to crimson in the sunrise, and when the household discovers the body, chaos erupts — bells ring, people run about, and the tax collector Gabelle is hastily sent away on horseback.
What does the Marquis mean when he says "Death has done that" about separating him from Darnay's father?
Darnay argues he cannot separate the Marquis from his father's crimes because they were twin brothers and joint inheritors. The Marquis deflects by noting that Darnay's father is dead, implying death is the only thing that ended the partnership — not moral objection.
What does Darnay plan to do for a living?
He plans to work for a living in England, doing "what others of my countrymen, even with nobility at their backs, may have to do some day." He has already been living there under the name Charles Darnay rather than Evrémonde.
How does Dickens describe the Marquis as he retires for the night?
Dickens compares the Marquis to a "refined tiger" in his loose chamber-robe, moving with softly-slippered feet — "like some enchanted marquis of the impenitently wicked sort, in story, whose periodical change into tiger form was either just going off, or just coming on."
What is the last image the Marquis thinks about before falling asleep?
He recalls the events of his journey: the slow toil up the hill, the mill, the prison, the village, the peasants at the fountain, and the mender of roads pointing at something under the carriage — then the Paris fountain, the dead child on the step, and the tall man crying "Dead!"
What does the stone imagery throughout the chapter symbolize?
The pervasive stone imagery — stone faces, stone walls, stone hearts — symbolizes the cold, merciless nature of the aristocracy. The chateau's stoniness mirrors the Marquis's lack of human empathy. In death, he literally becomes another stone face, completing the metaphor.
Who is Gabelle, and why does he flee?
Gabelle is the local tax collector ("taxing authority") for the Marquis's estate. After the murder is discovered, Gabelle is hastily put on horseback and sent away at a gallop, presumably because as the Marquis's representative he fears he may be the next target of revolutionary violence.