Pat Hamer
Period 6
With a wild rattle and clatter, and an inhuman
abandonment of consideration not easy to be understood in these days, the
carriage dashed through streets and swept round corners, with women screaming before it, and men clutching
each other and clutching children out of its way. At last, swooping at a street
corner by a fountain, one of its wheels came to a sickening
little jolt, and there was a loud cry from a number of voices, and the horses
reared and plunged.
But for the latter inconvenience, the carriage probably
would not have stopped; carriages were often known to drive on, and leave their
wounded behind, and why not? But the frightened valet had got down in a
hurry, and there were twenty hands at the horses' bridles.
"What has gone wrong?" said Monsieur, calmly looking out.
A tall man in a nightcap had caught up a bundle from among the feet of
the horses, and had laid it on the basement of the fountain, and was down in
the mud and wet, howling over it like a wild animal.
"Pardon, Monsieur the Marquis!" said a ragged and submissive
man, "it is a child."
"Why does he make that abominable noise? Is it his
child?"
"Excuse me, Monsieur the Marquis- it is a pity- yes."
The fountain was a little removed; for the street opened, where it was,
into a space some ten or twelve yards square. As the tall man
suddenly got up from the ground, and came running at the carriage, Monsieur the
Marquis clapped his hand for an instant on his sword-hilt.
"Killed!" shrieked the man, in wild desperation, extending both arms at their length above his head, and
staring at him. "Dead!"
The people closed round, and looked at Monsieur the Marquis. There was
nothing revealed by the many eyes that looked at him but watchfulness and
eagerness; there was no visible menacing or anger. Neither did the people say
anything; after the first cry, they had been silent, and
they remained so. The voice of the submissive man who
had spoken, was flat and tame in its extreme submission. Monsieur the Marquis
ran his eyes over them all, as if they had been mere rats come out of their
holes.
He took out his purse.
He threw out a gold coin for the valet to pick up,
and all the heads craned forward that all the eyes might look down at it as it
fell. The tall man called out again with a most unearthly cry,
"Dead!"
He was arrested by the quick arrival of another man, for whom the rest
made way. On seeing him, the miserable creature fell upon his shoulder, sobbing
and crying, and pointing to the fountain, where some women were stooping over
the motionless bundle, and moving gently about it. They were as silent,
however, as the men.
"I know all, I know all," said the last comer. "Be a brave
man, my Gaspard! It is better for the poor little
plaything to die so, than to live. It has died in a moment without pain. Could it have lived an hour as happily?"
"You are a philosopher, you there," said the Marquis, smiling.
"How do they call you?"
"They call me Defarge."
"Of what trade?"
"Monsieur the Marquis, vendor of wine."
"Pick up that, philosopher and vendor of
wine," said the Marquis, throwing him another gold coin, "and spend
it as you will. The horses there; are they right?"
Tone : The tone of this passage is that of recklessness, atrocity, and satirical of the nobles back then. By using the words “inhuman abandonment” shows that the wealthy noble is so reckless that his abandonment of care is so much as inhuman. Something not even a evil human could comprehend. By using words such as “screaming”, “clutching”, “sickening,” and “plunged” the author creates a tone of recklessness. The carriage is so out of control that parents must clutch their kids from harm and passersby must scream and plunge out of the way. The line which says that “the carriage probably would not have stopped” is meant to show the satirical side by making fun of the nobles for not even stopping after running over a small child. By asking if the “abominable noise” was a child that he hit it stresses how atrocious the situation is and how terrible the Monsieur is.
Characterization: Dickens characterizes the noble as an atrocious and somewhat evil person. By asking how his horses are rather than the child he ran over shows how evil and atrocious he is. By giving the valet and father a gold coin this shows that he thinks he is able to buy his way out of things and that money is more important than life itself. By the Monsieur calling Defarge a philosopher it shows that he is surprised a “commoner” is smart. This shows that he thinks he is superior to the commoners.