I really liked the quote you picked out, Lauren. It’s very interesting, and it does give off a mysterious vibe. Some things I would like to note about the quote: Dickens repeatedly uses the word “knitting”. I know this was already mentioned, but the world is always in a pair of two – knitting, knitting. That was just a little something that I wanted to point out. Repetition of a word usually leads the reader to believe that there is something important about it. Anyway, I also thought that the questions you asked were very thought provoking. I’m really not sure why Dickens would use the plural form of “woman” for this section. I actually did not pick up on that while reading the chapter. One thought that I had was that perhaps he was using Power, Plenty, Freedom, and Life as the other women. One of the terms we have in America is Lady Liberty, correct? And liberty is pretty much the same thing as freedom, so couldn’t there be a Lady Freedom as well? Now onto the second part of the question. If you take my theory to be legitimate, I would have to guess that this shows how the four “ladies” are beginning to be lost as the mob and anarchy is “closing in” upon them. The four concepts are the ones that bring about the deaths of people who break their rules, but now the rules are being turned against the people who wrote them. I don’t know if that makes any sense to anyone besides me. Going back to my idea about the mob and anarchy, I think the unbuilt structure might be the new government that is forming out of the revolution. They haven’t fully designed it yet, but it is beginning to come to life.

Those are my ideas – my long, confusing, and most likely incorrect ideas. Once again, I want to say sorry for posting so late and hopefully this doesn’t happen again!

Erin B