Book III - Chapter III. The Shadow Practice Quiz — A Tale of Two Cities
by Charles Dickens — tap or click to flip
Practice Quiz: Book III - Chapter III. The Shadow
Why does Mr. Lorry move Lucie out of Tellson's Bank?
He cannot risk imperiling the bank by sheltering the wife of an emigrant prisoner under its roof; his duty to the bank's trust outweighs his personal loyalty.
Who does Mr. Lorry leave to guard the door at Lucie's new lodging?
Jerry Cruncher, described as "a figure to fill a doorway that would bear considerable knocking on the head."
Who delivers Dr. Manette's note to Mr. Lorry?
Monsieur Defarge, described as a strongly made man with dark curling hair, aged forty-five to fifty.
What does Dr. Manette's note say about Charles Darnay?
That Charles is safe, that the Doctor cannot leave La Force yet, and that the bearer (Defarge) carries a short note from Charles to Lucie.
What does Darnay's letter to Lucie say?
"Dearest,—Take courage. I am well, and your father has influence around me. You cannot answer this. Kiss our child for me."
Who accompanies Defarge to visit Lucie?
Madame Defarge and a woman called The Vengeance.
What reason does Defarge give for bringing Madame Defarge?
So that she "may be able to recognise the faces and know the persons" and protect them at times of rising in the streets.
How does Madame Defarge respond when Lucie kisses her hand?
The hand "made no response—dropped cold and heavy, and took to its knitting again."
What does Madame Defarge point at little Lucie?
Her knitting needle, pointed "as if it were the finger of Fate."
What does the "shadow" in the chapter title symbolize?
The looming threat of Madame Defarge's vengeful intentions and the guillotine—the mortal danger hanging over Lucie and her family.
What does Madame Defarge say is her business with Lucie?
"It is the daughter of your father who is my business here"—meaning she is targeting Lucie because of her connection to Dr. Manette and the Evremonde family.
What appeal does Lucie make to Madame Defarge?
She calls her "sister-woman" and begs her, as a wife and mother, to have pity and not exercise power against her husband.
How does Madame Defarge reject Lucie's plea?
She argues that French wives and mothers have suffered poverty, nakedness, hunger, and oppression for generations and asks: "Is it likely that the trouble of one wife and mother would be much to us now?"
What is Miss Pross's attitude toward the French visitors?
Defiant and unshaken—she greets The Vengeance as "Boldface" and bestows a "British cough" on Madame Defarge, maintaining her rooted conviction that she is "more than a match for any foreigner."
How does Mr. Lorry try to comfort Lucie at the chapter's end?
He tells her to have "courage" and a "thankful heart," dismissing her fear of Madame Defarge as merely a shadow with "no substance in it."
What does Dickens reveal about Mr. Lorry's private feelings at the end of the chapter?
Despite reassuring Lucie, "the shadow of the manner of these Defarges was dark upon himself, for all that, and in his secret mind it troubled him greatly."
What does Madame Defarge's knitting symbolize throughout the novel?
A coded death register—she knits the names of those marked for execution, linking her to the Fates of Greek mythology who control the thread of human life.
What central thematic conflict does this chapter dramatize?
The conflict between compassion and vengeance, embodied in the confrontation between Lucie (warmth, empathy, love) and Madame Defarge (cold, calculated retribution).
Where is Darnay imprisoned?
La Force prison in Paris.
What had Lucie's hand unknowingly been near the night before?
Violence—Dickens notes she clasped Defarge's hand "little thinking what it had been doing near him in the night, and might, but for a chance, have done to him."