A Tale of Two Cities---Week 3

For the past few weeks, a motif throughout the novel has been “recalled to life.” This week, though, I noticed a continuous reference to “night,” “darkness,” and grey or black colors in the first few chapters. The continuous references to nighttime and darkness seems to portray the complete opposite effect of “recalled to life.” This left me wondering, will there be a change in happenings in this week’s reading?

In the last chapter of the reading, The Honest Tradesman, it is finally revealed what Jerry Cruchner’s secret business is. Although Dickens alluded to this “business” through the constant references to “dig” and “digging,” it is just now that we find out Mr. Cruncher is a grave digger. Now it is easy to connect the “mud on his boots” and “rust” on his fingers come from digging graves in the middle of the night.

During this chapter, Jerry states to his family that he will be going out that night to go “fishing.” Young Jerry, curious of his dad’s explorations, asks if he can go along. Of course the answer is “no.” That night, Young Jerry sneaks out of the house and follows his father into the darkness. Ending up at the cemetery by the church, Young Jerry is terrified. He then witnesses his father and 3 other men “fishing” up the dirt and grass. Young Jerry knows what is about to come next, so when he hears the men unscrewing the casket, he takes off running back home. On the way home, Young Jerry dreams, or fears, that the casket with the dead man inside of it is chasing him. This internal fear or dream that Young Jerry has is possibly foreshadowing his soon to be involvement with this “business.” After all, when Dickens personifies a casket to be running, isn’t the casket/person being recalled to life?

The next morning Jerry Chruncher states that there will be “no fish for breakfast.” This signifies that his night job didn’t go as planned. Maybe this night “business” that Mr. Cruncher tends to isn’t actually worth it, because it seems that someone is now beating him to the grave. Will he have a change of heart, or keep with his “business?”