I know this is from an older chapter, but this passage was very interesting.
"His collected and calm manner could not prevent her blood from running cold, as he thus tried to anatomis his old condition. 'I that more peaceful state, I have imagined her, in the moonlight, coming to me and taking me out to show me that the home of her married life was full of her loving remembrance of her lost father'" (p. 197)
In this passage, the image of 'blood running cold' corresponds to the motif of blood and wine of life. On the eve of her marriage to Charles, Lucie sits with her father outside under the tree, and for the first time, Lucie gets to hear about her father's struggles and life during his imprisonment. I found it very interesting to read about what his thoughts were like, in such a dark place. Dr. Manette describes to Lucie the questions that haunted him - whether or not his baby was alive, whether it was a son who'd seek revenge, or a daughter who'd care for him. Lucie, being sensible and emotional, receives chills just from hearing the calm and composed way in which her father recounts his memories. For Lucie, her father (after she has revived him) has become human again, relateable. But hearing these grim lingering memories, under circumstances so unimaginable to Lucie, chills her blood. It is human nature to lose your warmth and secure feeling when something frightening is recounted to you, and her father's imprisonment was so inhumane and dreadful. In trying to relate with her father during that time, Lucie's blood runs cold, symbolizing loss of life, just as the imprisonment for Doctor Manette was indeed loss of his life.
1 comment:
katie i like the connection between the loss of warmth in her blood and the loss of life (such as that her father experienced in prison.)
it is interesting that lucy methaphorically experiences the same feelings (or loss of life) as her father.
i think this passage illustrates the close connection lucy has to her father. both of them need each other. in the next chapter, when lucy leaves with darnay, dr. manette once again goes through a "loss of life"- the shock of losing her makes him return to his shoe making state of mental anxiety.
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