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Tale Of Two Cities Weather Essay

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In chapter ten of How to Read Literature Like A Professor, titled “It’s More Than Just Rain Or Snow,” Foster covers some of the different variations of weather often found within literature and their potential underlying significance. In A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens frequently manipulates the weather to add to the character of certain scenes. Be it with a sunny day, or an upcoming storm, or a foggy evening, the significance of weather is a recurring theme within the novel. Foster writes how miasmas, synonymous with mists, fogs, and vapours, are used to convey confusion, obscurity, or the haziness of a situation. He even cites how Dickens uses this kind of weather for Bleak House (1853), just as he does in A Tale of Two Cities. True to Foster’s …show more content…

Just as the character Mr. Jarvis Lorry finds himself bemusedly contemplating his peculiar circumstances, the weather parallels this in its manifestation of a “steaming mist” (11 bk. 1, ch. 2). As one would expect, rain is also a central subject in chapter ten. According to How To Read Literature Like a Professor, rain can signify a great many things. It can heighten the atmosphere, be used as a plot device, and can even add to the misery of the characters; most importantly, rain can act as an agent of cleansing or a bringer of restoration. Rain washes away the muck and grime, literal or figurative, or renews that which was once lost, like the birth of a new spring. In A Tale of Two Cities, it does both. In one particular scene, Charles Darnay finishes describing a story in which the remnants of a long lost prisoner’s letters are uncovered. Doctor Manette seems to be quite shaken by this, but is quick to blame it on the sudden, oncoming rain. In truth, Darnay’s story has awakened some of the Doctor’s memories and hints towards the eventual unveiling of how he was made prisoner. Dickens uses the rain to symbolize the foreshadowed cleansing away the mysteries surrounding his imprisonment, and the (albeit minor) restoration of the Doctor’s

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