A Positive Personal Transformation In A Tale Of Two Cities

Love has the power to change the world. It can do far more than any speech, treaty, or war. Love, on a smaller scale, can especially impact the lives of those who communicate and receive it. This passion has the ability to assuage, provide comfort, and provide life. In particular, one girl dedicates her life to spreading love, even when she must sacrifice a large amount of her time. This woman is Lucie Manette. In the novel A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens uses the character of Lucie Manette to prove that love and sacrifice can impact one’s life.

Carton has given up his own life to give Lucie and a child whom he’s never met a better life. A main theme in A Tale of Two Cities is loyalty, and Sydney Carton’s loyalty seems to lie with not only Lucie, but with everyone but himself.

Charles Dickens’ extensive use of foil characters in A Tale of Two Cities also includes the duo of Mr. Stryver and his business partner, Carton. Although the characters in the novel are spaced apart among various chapters, meaning certain characters only appear on occasion, the few scenes involving both Carton and Stryver undeniably indicate their status as foils. Both Carton and Stryver wish to marry Lucie Manette, although they go about it in much different ways. Carton, “the fellow of no delicacy,” obtains a personal discussion with Lucie, in which he, already defeated, acknowledges the hopelessness of his situation (148-153).

Dickens opens up the scene with Sydney Carton traveling down a dark and familiar street, like ones that he has traveled before. There's a very ominous undertone giving the overall scene a sorta uncertain depressing feeling. Carton when walking through the

Sydney Carton proved that his life was purposeless since he is always drunk and lazy, but he wants to make right decisions that would help others since he doesn’t really care about himself. Sydney finally tells Lucie Manette that he loves her bye he say’s, sorrow and repentance, blight you, disgrace you, pull you down with him”. Sydney say’s that he is not worth it and it will bring her down too.“For you, and for any dear to you, I would do anything . . . I would embrace any sacrifice for you and for those dear to you” (Dickens 156). Even though Sydney is lost and hopeless, he promises Lucie that he will be ready to give his life for her happiness. Sydney Carton comes a long way where it is hard for him to find it’s true potential. Sydney’s words are so fragile but later these words help him find freedom for himself and leave a mark, so people remember him.

A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens, is a suspenseful novel taking place before and during the French Revolution in the late 1700s. The audience is taken on a journey through time, learning about how the Revolution affected two main families, the Manettes and the Evrémondes. Throughout the novel, Dickens makes the reader question what drives man-kind to sacrifice? The answer is love and happiness result in sacrifices. The characters, such as Charles Darnay, Doctor Manette, and Sydney Carton prove this as they commit sacrifices to start a new life, for a loved one, or for the benefit of other people.

In Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, it is explicitly mentioned several times that Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton look particularly similar. The similarities in the appearances of Carton and Darnay later play a substantial role in the conclusion of the novel. Despite their physical similarities, the two are completely different individuals and are nothing alike. Chapter 4 of the novel juxtaposes the two characters together and displays the differences in their personalities. In A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens exhibits the diversity of Carton and Darnay’s personalities, by embedding imagery and characterization into the context.

Sydney Carton is a miserable drunk, but in his heart he finds tenderness for Lucie. Though he knows unworthy of being a prospect companion, Carton wishes her “a life [she] love[s]” (156). Keeping true to his promise, Carton knows nothing is more important to her than being reunited with her husband, Charles Darnay. Sydney has a reputation of being bitter and inhospitable, and feels that in dying he has a chance at redeeming himself. Alive, he has hurt people he loves, including himself- in death he is a hero in the eyes of himself and his friends.

In A Tale of Two Cities, written by Charles Dickens, Sydney Carton is introduced as a lethargic alcoholic that has little interest in living. As the story progresses, however, Dickens shows Sydney’s interest in another character named Lucie. Later, Sydney even announces his love to her before she weds another man, Charles Darnay, yet he still continues to speak of the worthlessness of his life as the story continues. It becomes very obvious to the reader that Lucie is the focal point of Sydney’s life, and that he lives primarily in the light of her happiness. Towards the end of the novel, Darnay is in prison and soon facing the guillotine. Sydney, who looks stunningly similar to Darnay, takes his place and dies to ensure Lucie’s happiness with Darnay in their future. From the time he announced his love to Lucie until his death, Sydney showed his passionate interest and care for Lucie while showing apathy for his own life. It is clear that Sydney valued Lucie and her happiness more than his own life. Therefore, by

Sydney Carton is the most memorable character in Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, a story of redemption, resurrection, self-sacrifice change and love, all of these words have to do with the extreme transformation of. Sydney Carton had such great love for Lucie Mannette that evolves from a depressed loaner that can only attempt to substitute happiness with alcoholic indulgence to a loyal caring friend who makes the ultimate sacrifice for the ones he loves.

Similar to Jarvis Lorry, Sydney Carton undergoes a transformation of character. When Carton is first introduced in book one he is a pitiful lawyer, an “idlest and most unpromising man,”(Dickens 78). In chapter five he is displayed as an “amazingly good jackal,”(Dickens 79), meaning that he is “content and apathetic towards the fact that he will never be accredited with the performance and outcomes of his actions,”(Trojan, Kara). However, Lucie Manette inspires redemption in Carton through love, for he knows that if he can save her in any way then he can absolve his misery and find a purpose for his years on Earth. When Lucie Manette’s husband is punished to death row, Carton is determined to keep his promise. Carton takes the place of the spouse

In A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens’ thorough development of each character and skillful use of coincidence prevents anyone from fading into insignificance; every character in the novel plays a role vital to the evolution of the plotline. Perhaps more impressive than his ability to place every single character in a significant role, Dickens uses the element of surprise to introduce the magnitude of various roles. Sydney Carton, in particular, seems to play a rather insignificant part in much of the novel, resulting from his self-admitted worthlessness. Carton’s continual and somewhat irritating self-criticism primes him for a surprising acquisition of influence at the conclusion; an inconsequential life becomes the novel’s hero in an ending which few anticipate. Carton expresses regret over his unfruitful life multiple times, agonizing over the idea of not having the opportunity to alter it. Dickens creates a final set of circumstances that are traumatic for much of the novel’s characters; Carton, however, sees the situation as the perfect chance to finally do something meaningful with his life. In an ironic yet sensible twist, the only way Carton can redeem his wasted life is by losing it. In light of the nature of his life up to the conclusion of the novel, he does not merit the Christ figure label until his final act of sacrifice. Charles Dickens unexpectedly transforms a wretched Sydney Carton into a symbol of Christ through the character’s displays of selflessness,

Oliver travels through many places throughout the book. He goes through many cities and also the countryside. Charles Dickens describes both the locations in a very different way. He has a total opposite opinion on both the places. He explains the city as a place where the criminals, unsafe and disgusting. The countryside, however, is described as splendid, safe, and place where the rich people live.

Dickens employs parallel structure to describe Sydney Carton, who dies for the people he loves and exemplifies the need for sacrifice to fight against violence. Carton asserts his steadfast love for Lucie by declaring that “for you and for any dear to you, I would do anything… [I] would give [my] life, to keep a life you love” (153). Through the parallel structure, Carton emphasizes the fact that his sacrifice is for her as well as someone she loves. In this way, he expresses his selfless desires, valuing Lucie and her family entirely before himself. The parallel structure serves to equalize Carton’s life with Lucie’s, as he has dedicated his life to her out of his love. Thus, he acts solely for her happiness and future rather than his own. His declaration foreshadows the sacrifice he later fulfills through his death. However, despite his enduring love for Lucie, Carton’s life is actually full of suffering, as he “[cares] for no man on earth, and no man on earth cares for [him]” (87). The balanced sentence structure conveys Dickens’ sympathetic tone towards Carton through the images of his solitude and bitterness against the world. The world and Carton’s mutual negligence for each other causes much distress and misery for Carton; as a result, his love for Lucie is a striking and influential part in his life, revealing the power that love has over him to sacrifice his life for her during the violent oppressions of the revolution. Similarly, when reflecting the worth of his death as sacrifice for Lucie, Carton relates, “it is a far, far better thing that [he does], that [he has] ever

Sacrifice, even when it comes to one’s ultimate end, is crucial in order to survive as a productive race. In the book Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, he illustrates the hardships of the early-nineteenth-century lifestyles. With the resurrection of an evicted man, the novel sprouts from a broken family recovering and growing. This novel incorporates many grand gestures and adventures, such as the French Revolution, treason trials, and the sacrifice of one’s own life in the name of love.