Book II - Chapter XXI. Echoing Footsteps Quiz — A Tale of Two Cities

by Charles Dickens

Comprehension Quiz: Book II - Chapter XXI. Echoing Footsteps

What personal loss does the Darnay family experience during the peaceful years described in Chapter 21?

  • Dr. Manette suffers a relapse and returns to shoemaking
  • Their young son dies in childhood after a brief illness
  • Sydney Carton stops visiting the family entirely after a quarrel
  • Miss Pross leaves their household to return to England's countryside

How often does Sydney Carton visit the Darnay household?

  • Every week, joining the family for Sunday dinner regularly
  • About half a dozen times a year, coming uninvited as permitted
  • Once a month, always bringing gifts for little Lucie and her brother
  • Only on holidays and birthdays, maintaining a careful formal distance

What news does Mr. Lorry bring from Tellson's Bank on the July evening in 1789?

  • The French government has seized all English bank holdings in Paris
  • French customers are frantically sending their property to England
  • Tellson's Paris branch has been shut down by revolutionary forces
  • Charles Darnay's French estates have been confiscated by the crown

What weapons does Madame Defarge carry during the storming of the Bastille?

  • A musket, a bayonet, and a revolutionary flag to rally the crowd
  • An axe, a pistol, and a cruel knife tucked in her girdle
  • A pike, a torch, and a length of rope for binding prisoners
  • Only her knitting needles, which she uses as symbolic weapons of war

How long does the siege of the Bastille last in Dickens's account?

  • A single fierce hour of concentrated bombardment and assault
  • Two fierce hours before the garrison raises the white flag
  • Four fierce hours of cannon, muskets, fire, and smoke
  • The entire day from dawn until sunset, nearly twelve hours

What cell does Defarge demand to see once inside the fallen Bastille?

  • The governor's private quarters where political records are stored
  • The underground dungeon where the most dangerous prisoners were kept
  • One Hundred and Five, North Tower—Dr. Manette's former cell
  • The armory where the prison's weapons and gunpowder are held

What does Defarge find carved into the wall of cell 105?

  • A detailed map showing hidden escape tunnels beneath the fortress
  • The initials "A. M.," the words "a poor physician," and a scratched calendar
  • A coded message addressed to Ernest Defarge about the Marquis
  • The names of every prisoner who had occupied the cell over decades

What does Defarge search for inside cell 105 after reading the inscriptions?

  • Gold or jewels that Dr. Manette may have hidden from the guards
  • A hidden document, searching the chimney, furniture, and straw bed
  • Dr. Manette's shoemaking tools as evidence of his imprisonment
  • A key to another cell where additional prisoners might be chained

How does the governor of the Bastille die?

  • He is shot by Defarge during the final breach of the inner courtyard
  • He surrenders and is imprisoned in the cell formerly holding Dr. Manette
  • The mob beats him to death and Madame Defarge severs his head with her knife
  • He leaps from the fortress walls rather than face the revolutionary tribunal

What is the "horrible idea" that Saint Antoine executes at the end of the chapter?

  • Burning the Bastille to the ground as a symbol of destroying tyranny
  • Hoisting soldiers on lampposts to demonstrate revolutionary power
  • Parading the freed prisoners through Paris as proof of their victory
  • Drowning the remaining prison guards in the Seine River at midnight

What extended metaphor does Dickens use to describe the revolutionary mob throughout this chapter?

  • A raging wildfire that consumes everything in its path without mercy
  • A living sea or ocean that rises, surges, and floods the fortress
  • A pack of wolves hunting prey through the narrow streets of Paris
  • A thunderstorm with lightning strikes representing each act of violence

What final image closes the chapter, and what numbers does it emphasize?

  • One thousand revolutionaries marching with ten captured cannons and five flags
  • Seven freed prisoners, seven severed heads on pikes, and the keys of the Bastille
  • Twelve church bells ringing as three hundred soldiers surrender their arms
  • Five fires burning at the fortress corners and two drawbridges destroyed

What does the chapter's final paragraph foreshadow about the Darnay family?

  • That Lucie will travel to Paris and personally witness the Revolution
  • That the revolutionary violence will eventually reach into Lucie's life
  • That Dr. Manette will return to the Bastille to reclaim his possessions
  • That Charles Darnay will join the revolutionaries against the aristocracy

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