A Tale of Two Cities Loyalty Quotes

How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Volume.Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #1

"If, when I hint to you of a Home that is before us, where I will be true to you with all my duty and with all my faithful service, I bring back the remembrance of a Home long desolate, while your poor heart pined away, weep for it, weep for it!" (1.6.77)

Lucie’s immediate devotion to a father that she’s never met becomes the first of many opportunities for Dickens to demonstrate the almost incredible bond that unites the two.

Quote #2

"Do you imagine—" Mr. Lorry had begun, when Miss Pross took him up short with:

"Never imagine anything. Have no imagination at all." (2.6.54-5)

Miss Pross attributes her unquestioning loyalty to Lucie to her lack of imagination: she doesn’t have to imagine how Lucie or Doctor Manette would feel, she just does what she can to shield them from the rest of the world.

Quote #3

"It's enough for you," retorted Mr. Cruncher, "to be the wife of a honest tradesman, and not to occupy your female mind with calculations when he took to his trade or when he didn't. A honouring and obeying wife would let his trade alone altogether. Call yourself a religious woman? If you're a religious woman, give me a irreligious one!" (2.14.64)

Mr. Cruncher’s irrational assumption that his wife’s "flopping" ruins his success as a grave-digger allows Dickens to throw some of his characteristic humor into an otherwise serious novel.