“Sydney,” said Mr. Stryver, on that self-same night, or morning, to his jackal; “mix another bowl of punch; I have something to say to you.”
Sydney had been working double tides that night, and the night before, and the night before that, and a good many nights in succession, making a grand clearance among Mr. Stryver’s papers before the setting in of the long vacation. The clearance was effected at last; the Stryver arrears were handsomely fetched up; everything was got rid of until November should come with its fogs atmospheric, and fogs legal, and bring grist to the mill again.
Sydney was none the livelier and none the soberer for so much application. It had taken a deal of extra wet-towelling to pull him through the night; a correspondingly extra quantity of wine had preceded the towelling; and he was in a very damaged condition, as he now pulled his turban off and threw it into the basin in which he had steeped it at intervals for the last six hours.
“Are you mixing that other bowl of punch?” said Stryver the portly, with his hands in his waistband, glancing round from the sofa where he lay on his back.
“I am.”
“Now, look here! I am going to tell you something that will rather surprise you, and that perhaps will make you think me not quite as shrewd as you usually do think me. I intend to marry.”
“DO you?”
“Yes. And not for money. What do you say now?”
“I don’t feel disposed to say much. Who is she?”
“Guess.”
“Do I know her?”
“Guess.”
“I am not going to guess, at five o’clock in the morning, with my brains frying and sputtering in my head. if you want me to guess, you must ask me to dinner.”
“Well then, I’ll tell you, said Stryver, coming slowly into a sitting posture. “Sydney, I rather despair of making myself intelligible to you, because you are such an insensible dog.
“And you,” returned Sydney, busy concocting the punch, “are such a sensitive and poetical spirit—”
“Come!” rejoined Stryver, laughing boastfully, “though I don’t prefer any claim to being the soul of Romance (for I hope I know better), still I am a tenderer sort of fellow than YOU.”
“You are a luckier, if you mean that.”
“I don’t mean that. I mean I am a man of more—more—”
“Say gallantry, while you are about it,” suggested Carton.
“Well! I’ll say gallantry. My meaning is that I am a man,” said Stryver, inflating himself at his friend as he made the punch, “who cares more to be agreeable, who takes more pains to be agreeable, who knows better how to be agreeable, in a woman’s society, than you do.”
“Go on,” said Sydney Carton.
“No; but before I go on,” said Stryver, shaking his head in his bullying way, I’ll have this out with you. You’ve been at Doctor Manette’s house as much as I have, or more than I have. Why, I have been ashamed of your moroseness there! Your manners have been of that silent and sullen and hangdog kind, that, upon my life and soul, I have been ashamed of you, Sydney!”
“It should be very beneficial to a man in your practice at the bar, to be ashamed of anything,” returned Sydney; “you ought to be much obliged to me.”
“You shall not get off in that way,” rejoined Stryver, shouldering the rejoinder at him; “no, Sydney, it’s my duty to tell you—and I tell you to your face to do you good—that you are a devilish ill-conditioned fellow in that sort of society. You are a disagreeable fellow.”
Sydney drank a bumper of the punch he had made, and laughed.
“Look at me!” said Stryver, squaring himself; “I have less need to make myself agreeable than you have, being more independent in circumstances. Why do I do it?”
“I never saw you do it yet,” muttered Carton.
“I do it because it’s politic; I do it on principle. And look at me! I get on.”
“You don’t get on with your account of your matrimonial intentions,” answered Carton, with a careless air; “I wish you would keep to that. As to me—will you never understand that I am incorrigible?”
He asked the question with some appearance of scorn.
“You have no business to be incorrigible,” was his friend’s answer, delivered in no very soothing tone.
“I have no business to be, at all, that I know of,” said Sydney Carton. “Who is the lady?”
“Now, don’t let my announcement of the name make you uncomfortable, Sydney,” said Mr. Stryver, preparing him with ostentatious friendliness for the disclosure he was about to make, “because I know you don’t mean half you say; and if you meant it all, it would be of no importance. I make this little preface, because you once mentioned the young lady to me in slighting terms.”
“I did?”
“Certainly; and in these chambers.”
Sydney Carton looked at his punch and looked at his complacent friend; drank his punch and looked at his complacent friend.
“You made mention of the young lady as a golden-haired doll. The young lady is Miss Manette. If you had been a fellow of any sensitiveness or delicacy of feeling in that kind of way, Sydney, I might have been a little resentful of your employing such a designation; but you are not. You want that sense altogether; therefore I am no more annoyed when I think of the expression, than I should be annoyed by a man’s opinion of a picture of mine, who had no eye for pictures: or of a piece of music of mine, who had no ear for music.”
Sydney Carton drank the punch at a great rate; drank it by bumpers, looking at his friend.
“Now you know all about it, Syd,” said Mr. Stryver. “I don’t care about fortune: she is a charming creature, and I have made up my mind to please myself: on the whole, I think I can afford to please myself. She will have in me a man already pretty well off, and a rapidly rising man, and a man of some distinction: it is a piece of good fortune for her, but she is worthy of good fortune. Are you astonished?”
Carton, still drinking the punch, rejoined, “Why should I be astonished?”
“You approve?”
Carton, still drinking the punch, rejoined, “Why should I not approve?”
“Well!” said his friend Stryver, “you take it more easily than I fancied you would, and are less mercenary on my behalf than I thought you would be; though, to be sure, you know well enough by this time that your ancient chum is a man of a pretty strong will. Yes, Sydney, I have had enough of this style of life, with no other as a change from it; I feel that it is a pleasant thing for a man to have a home when he feels inclined to go to it (when he doesn’t, he can stay away), and I feel that Miss Manette will tell well in any station, and will always do me credit. So I have made up my mind. And now, Sydney, old boy, I want to say a word to YOU about YOUR prospects. You are in a bad way, you know; you really are in a bad way. You don’t know the value of money, you Eve hard, you’ll knock up one of these days, and be ill and poor; you really ought to think about a nurse.”
The prosperous patronage with which he said it, made him look twice as big as he was, and four times as offensive.
“Now, let me recommend you,” pursued Stryver, “to look it in the face. I have looked it in the face, in my different way; look it in the face, you, in your different way. Marry. Provide somebody to take care of you. Never mind your having no enjoyment of women’s society, nor understanding of it, nor tact for it. Find out somebody. Find out some respectable woman with a little property—somebody in the landlady way, or lodging-letting way—and marry her, against a rainy day. That’s the kind of thing for YOU. Now think of it, Sydney.”
“I’ll think of it,” said Sydney.
背景與作者介紹
這段文字摘自《雙城記》，這是查爾斯·狄更斯所寫的一部著名小說，狄更斯是19世紀最偉大的英國小說家之一。這部小說於1859年出版，背景設定在法國大革命的動盪時期。狄更斯以其生動的人物刻畫和深刻的社會評論而聞名，他經常強調窮人的掙扎和社會的不公。
這個故事對比了倫敦和巴黎的生活，探討了犧牲、復活和救贖的可能性等主題。小說中的人物在政治混亂中面臨道德困境和個人轉變。
對這段文字的詳細解讀
在這個場景中，自信且略帶自負的律師斯特賴弗先生向他的朋友兼同事西德尼·卡頓透露，他打算娶曼內特小姐為妻。西德尼性格複雜，有些自嘲，他以嘲諷和漠不關心的態度回應。
對話揭示了關鍵的人物特徵：斯特賴弗的野心和通過婚姻獲得社會地位的願望，以及卡頓的玩世不恭和情感上的疏離。提到曼內特小姐與整個故事聯繫起來，因為她是核心人物，她的命運深深地影響著主角們。
斯特賴弗給卡頓關於婚姻的建議既實際又居高臨下，反映了當時的社會態度。卡頓的回應顯示了他內心的衝突，並預示著他在小說後面的英勇行為。
給學生的教訓和見解
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理解人物的複雜性： 這段文字幫助學生認識到，人往往是複雜的，有優點也有缺點。西德尼·卡頓的幽默、悲傷和洞察力的結合使他成為一個令人難忘的人物，他在整個故事中不斷成長。
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社會責任和個人責任： 斯特賴弗將婚姻視為安全和地位的手段，反映了社會壓力。學生可以學會批判性地思考社會期望如何影響個人選擇。
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友誼和誠實： 儘管斯特賴弗和卡頓有差異，但他們分享著坦誠的關係。這表明了朋友之間誠實溝通的價值，即使意見不同。
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自我反思： 卡頓的諷刺言論和最終願意“考慮一下”表明了自我意識和對改變持開放態度的重要性。
將這些教訓應用於生活和學習
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在學校： 學生可以學會深入分析人物，理解動機和衝突，從而提高批判性思維和同理心。
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在社交場合： 認識到人們有不同的個性和掙扎，可以幫助學生在友誼中培養耐心和善良。
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在個人成長中： 像西德尼·卡頓一樣，學生可能會面臨懷疑或玩世不恭的時刻。反思自己的態度並對新的觀點持開放態度可以帶來個人的進步。
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在決策中： 了解社會影響，如斯特賴弗的務實方法所示，可以幫助學生對自己的未來做出明智的選擇，平衡個人願望和實際考慮。
從故事中培養積極的品質
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同理心： 通過用卡頓和曼內特等人物的眼睛看世界，學生可以更深入地理解他人的感受。
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勇氣和犧牲： 整部小說都講述了勇敢和捨己為人的故事，激勵學生以正直的態度行事。
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韌性： 人物面臨困境，但仍繼續努力爭取更好的生活，鼓勵學生在挑戰中堅持不懈。
結論
這段摘自《雙城記》的文字為學生提供了豐富的材料，供他們探索人性、社會動態和道德選擇。通過參與這個故事，年輕的讀者可以獲得見解，幫助他們以更大的智慧和同情心來應對自己的生活。
