At her London home, Lucie hears the echoes of all the footsteps coming into their lives. These footsteps symbolize fate. Dr. Manette makes shoes in his madness. Notably, he always makes shoes in response to traumatic memories of tyranny, as when he learns Charles's real name is Evrémonde. For this reason, shoes come to symbolize the inescapable past.
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Shoes and Footsteps Symbol Timeline in A Tale of Two Cities
The timeline below shows where the symbol Shoes and Footsteps appears in A Tale of Two Cities. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Book 1, Chapter 5
...and they see a white-haired man in the corner stooped over a bench and making shoes.
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Book 2, Chapter 6
...at their home. Lucie has decorated the house beautifully, but Mr. Lorry notices that Manette's shoe-making workbench is still in the house.
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...a storm approaches, Lucie tells him that she sometimes imagines that the echoes of the footsteps from the pedestrians below belong to people who will soon come into their lives. Carton...
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Book 2, Chapter 10
...of his wedding, not before. That night, Lucie returns and finds her father again making shoes.
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Book 2, Chapter 18
...notices that Dr. Manette seems absent-minded. By that evening, Manette is lost and incoherent, making shoes again in his room. Mr. Lorry and Miss Pross keep an anxious watch over him,...
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Book 2, Chapter 21
...influence through the family. She often sits by the parlor window and ponders the echoing footsteps rising from the street below. She gives birth to a daughter, Lucie, who particularly likes...
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