The Shoemaker Questions & Answers

Hi Everyone!! This article will share The Shoemaker Questions & Answers.

This story is an extract taken from A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. In my previous posts, I have shared the questions and answers of The Eyes Have It, The Tempest and The Charge Of The Light Brigade so, you can check these posts as well.

The Shoemaker Questions & Answers

Word Galaxy

  • Monsieur – a title or form of address used to address a French-speaking man
  • Garret – top floor or attic room
  • Withered – wrinkled canvas
  • Confinement – the state of being forced to stay in a closed space or prison
  • Raggedly – worn out
  • Tatters – a torn piece of clothing
  • Frock – clothing of coarse material
  • Seclusion – being private and away from people
  • Vagrancy – homelessness
  • Swoon – faint
  • Haggard – exhausted and unwell, especially from fatigue, worry, or suffering
  • Lapsed – no longer valid
  • Reverting – going back
  • Obliterated – destroyed
  • Overclouded – dark or gloomy

Question 1: What was the shoemaker doing when Defarge entered the room?

Answer: The shoemaker was making shoes when Defarge entered the room.

Question 2: Describe the shoemaker in your own words.

Answer: The shoemaker looked weak, withered and pale. He had a hollow face with bright eyes and dark eyebrows. His beard was grey and his face was extremely thin.

Question 3: How did the shoemaker react to more light in the room? Why do you think he reacted the way he did?

Answer: When more light entered the room, the shoemaker got confused and he looked here and there. He was dazzled by more light as he had been in the prison for many years in a dark cell and he had forgotten to associate the different objects in the room with their respective locations.

According to me, he reacted naturally. Anyone would react the same way as he did. He had spent his golden age in prison and isolation.

Question 4: What indicates that the shoemaker had been in captivity for many years?

Answer: His body looked ‘withered and worn’ and he has ‘stayed in seclusion from direct sunlight’. These words proved that the shoemaker had been in captivity for many years.

Question 5: When asked for his name he says, ‘One Hundred and Five, North Tower’. What do you gather from this reply?

Answer: I think that it was his number given to him when he was in jail. When someone is jailed, he was not addressed by his name, but the number given to him.

Question 6: What do you think was the reason for the old man to lapse into forgetfulness so often?

Answer: The reason for the old man to lapse into forgetfulness so often was his mental illness. He had lived in prison for years away from his family and friends which caused him such mental disorder.

Question 7: How do we know that the old man’s health and appearance had been neglected for a long time?

Answer: We know that the old man’s health and appearance had been neglected for a long time because he wore ragged clothes, looked worn and withered and he had become unused to direct sunlight.

The Shoemaker Questions & Answers

Question 8: How did Defarge get the prisoner to speak?

Answer: Defarge got the prisoner to speak by constantly evoking memories and getting his acquaintances to meet him. Further, he constantly conversed with him so that he would react and answer.

Question 9: Who was the young lady? How did the shoemaker react when he saw her?

Answer: The young lady was the shoemaker’s daughter. The shoemaker was scared and looked at her fearfully and doubtfully. For his safety, he took a knife when she came close to him.

Question 10: Why wasn’t the girl afraid of the shoemaker?

Answer: The girl wasn’t afraid of the shoemaker because she knew him from before and therefore, she knew that he was not harmful.

Question 11: What could be the relationship between the young lady and the shoemaker? Did he recognize her?

Answer: The young lady was perhaps the shoemaker’s daughter. The fact that the shoemaker didn’t react adversely on seeing her means that he had recognized her.

Question 12: Read and answer the questions:
‘Monsieur Manette, do you remember nothing of me?’

(a) Who is the speaker?

Answer: Mr Lorry is the speaker.

(b) Who is Monsieur Manette?

Answer: Monsieur Manette is the shoemaker.

(c) Why does Manette drop the shoe?

Answer: Manette was shocked to see his old friend, Lorry after a long time. He had not expected to meet him in such a poor condition.

Question 13: Read and answer the questions:
‘Yes, for a moment. At first, I thought its quite hopeless, but I have unquestionably seen, for a single moment, the face that I once knew so well. Hush! Let us draw further back. Hush!’

(a) Who says these words?

Answer: Monsieur Manette says these words.

(b) Why does he think it was hopeless?

Answer: He thinks it was hopeless because he had not met him for a long time and he had not expected to meet his friend again.

(c) Whose face does he recognise?

Answer: He recognizes his friend i.e. Mr Lorry’s face.

Question 14: Choose the correct option:

(a) The shoemaker was__________bright light.

i. afraid of
ii. uncomfortable in
iii. used to
iv. happy in

(b) The shoemaker found it difficult to speak because he.

i. had been quiet for very long.
ii. did not know how to speak
iii. was very old
iv. had lost the faculty of speech

(c) The shoemaker had never seen the ‘mode’ of the shoe he was making because

i. it belonged to times gone by
ii. he was an old man
iii. he had been in prison for a long time
iv. he was not interested in modes

(d) The phrase ‘shut out the sight of him’ means

i. not wanting to see him in this state
ii. hating the sight of him
iii. closing the door on him
iv. not liking to see

So, these were The Shoemaker Questions & Answers.

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