A Tale of Two Cities · Chapter
Monseigneur in the Country explained
Monseigneur travels through a poor, oppressed countryside to his château.
What happens
Monseigneur travels through a poor, oppressed countryside to his château. He encounters a road-mender who reports a mysterious man clinging to the carriage, and a grieving widow who petitions for a marker for her husband's grave. The chapter highlights the vast inequality and suffering of the peasantry under the ancien régime.
Themes in this chapter
Class and Privilege
Monseigneur's indifference to the peasants' suffering and the vast wealth disparity are central to this chapter.
Social Injustice and Revolution
The grinding poverty and oppression of the peasants foreshadow the coming revolution.
Characters to notice
- Monseigneur
Travels through the countryside, dismissive of the peasants' suffering and petitions.
- Monsieur Gabelle
Postmaster and taxing functionary, obsequiously assists Monseigneur.
- Gaspard
The road-mender who reports seeing a mysterious man under the carriage; later identified as the father of the child killed by the Marquis.
Key passages
“Expressive signs of what made them poor, were not wanting; the tax for the state, the tax for the church, the tax for the lord, tax local and tax general, were to be paid here and to be paid there, according to solemn inscription in the little village, until the wonder was, that there was any village left unswallowed.”
The village was burdened with so many taxes—state, church, lord, local, and general—that it was a wonder the village hadn't been completely consumed.
Highlights the oppressive taxation that impoverished the peasantry.
“Monseigneur, hear me! Monseigneur, hear my petition! My husband died of want; so many die of want; so many more will die of want.”
The widow begs Monseigneur to listen, explaining that her husband died of starvation, as many do and many more will.
Illustrates the desperate poverty and the callousness of the aristocracy.