Third Chapter of "A Tale of Two Cities"

[emackenzie]

Hello,

I am having difficulty with a few sentences and am hoping they can be expounded:

"Something of the awfulness, even of Death itself, is referable to this."

This sentence I don't understand at all.

"My friend is dead, my neighbour is dead, my love, the darling of my soul, is dead; it is the inexorable consolidation and perpetuation of the secret that was always in that individuality, and which I shall carry in mine to my life’s end."

I am particularly bewildered by the italicized portion. To what does "it" refer, and to which individuality is he referring?

[mona amon]

I had to read the whole passage before I could understand anything. I think "it" refers to death, which he mentions in the sentence you quoted first. He's talking about how every individual is a secret and a mystery to every other individual, whether they are strangers travelling together in a coach or living in the same house, and perhaps this accounts for part of the awfulness of death - You can no longer solve the mystery of that individual who has died, though perhaps you thought that one day you would. They have taken their secret to the grave. That is why death is the "inexorable consolidation and perpetuation of the secret".

'Individuality' here is the individuality of every individual (if that makes any sense) including the person who is narrating ("mine").

Hope that helped, and good luck with the rest of it, though if I were you I wouldn't read so closely or I'd never get to the end. :)

[ennison]

It means you means me. Kill a person, you kill a unique individual- an irreplaceable IT. I guess that's what makes killing fun! Weapons of mass destruction anyone? Harahar. God if you care and listen I hope they go from this land of mine. I can stand up for myself and when I can't well fucggit. Oops sorry my politics fell out of my trousers