Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton Compare and Contrast

Lastly, good did triumph over evil in Sydney Carton. Sydney Carton is a drunk who hates Darnay because if Carton was not a drunk he would have everything Darnay has, like the love of Lucie Manette. Carton is seen as the darkness because of the disparity he has and how low he has fallen. Whereas Darnay is seen as light or the good guy due to how his life is going. In the end when Sydney gives up his life for Darnay it shows how Sydney is transferring from being sad and dark. His selfless act proved that the “bad” Sydney Carton has saved Darnay and kept Lucie, Cartons love, happy.

Carton" and feels sympathy for him (189).  Charles Evrémonde, called Darnay, is loved by his wife Lucie and his daughter; he is "the object of sympathy and compassion" (74).  Carton and Darnay both adore Lucie Manette, but they are two very different men.    

When first meeting with Mr. Lorry to discuss her father, Lucie creates an everlasting first impression by simply showing consideration for his wisdom. During the meeting at her house, Lucie initially “curtseyed to him [Lorry] with a pretty desire to convey to him that she felt how much older and wiser he was than she” (Dickens 25). Greeting Mr. Lorry in such a respectful way helps Mr. Lorry to also respect himself. Later in the novel, Lucie shows a type of respect for Carton that he has never before received. When Carton asks Lucie if she will listen to his difficulties, Lucie responds, “If it will do you any good, Mr. Carton, if it would make you happier, it would make me very glad!” (Dickens 155). This type of love that Lucie gives Carton helps him believe that someone actually cares for his feelings and therefore changes his depressing outlook. Communicating with admiration and esteem to people who do not often receive it allows Lucie to make an impact on multiple lives.

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.

How has the introduction of Charles Darnay's character impacted Sydney Carton's perception of himself ? (Are Carton's realizations shown publicly, reflecting his true nature?)

Darnay represents this goodness by making something out of nothing, and working all on his own to make a life for himself other than being handed everything. Darnay chose a good way to go because Sydney Carton was Darnay's lawyer that saved him from being imprisoned or worse in one of his court cases. Carton looks identical but is an alcoholic that is jealous of Darnay and the life that he has made for himself. Darnay has scorned Carton and judged him to be a useless drunk, little does Darnay know that the person he scorns will save his life. Fortunately, Darnay learns the errors of his judgement, to honor Carton, he names his son Sydney, in honor of the man who twice saved his life. It would have been very easy for Charles to just take all the riches of being the marquis of France, but he would have been continuing his family tradition of wrongdoings and not been true to his character which symbolize justice. Dicken let us only believe that he is a good guy throughout the story and not giving us anything else about his character, “His latent uneasiness had been, that bad aims were being worked out in his own unhappy land by bad instruments, and that he who could not fail to know that he was better than they, was not there, trying to do something to stay bloodshed, and assert the claims of mercy and humanity” (Dickens 212). Darnay represent a good man, Justice and Duty but also learn from judging people too

After marrying Lucie, Charles gets a letter from an old servant, saying he needs to go to Paris to help the servant out of prison. When Charles goes back he is arrested for being an aristocrat and for being an emigrant. His trial is one year and three months after he is imprisoned. Dr. Manette saves Charles Darnay during his first trial because he related to the crowd with his story of his imprisonment in the Bastille. The people took pity on Darnay and were inspired by Manette’s story and allow Charles to go free. This was the second time Charles is recalled. Charles is condemned again by three people who are later revealed as Monsieur and Madame Defarge, and Dr. Manette. He then goes back to prison to await his second trial. At this point, Sydney Carton is also in France. He knows of Charles’s danger and is planning a way to save him. Charles is waiting in his cell for his trial when Sydney comes in to talk with him. Sydney gets Charles to switch clothes with him and gives him something to sedate him. Once he is asleep and they have swapped clothes, John Barsad takes Charles out to an awaiting carriage. The next day Sydney goes to the guillotine in Charles’s place. Before he goes to die he is completely happy and content because he knows that this is what he meant when he told Lucie he loved her. “I see the lives for which I lay down my life, peaceful,

Despite Carton’s disliking for Darnay decides to once again save Darnay’s life just before he is to be beheaded by the revolutionaries and their beloved guillotine. He creates an elaborate plan that includes blackmail with a double-crossing spy, Barsad, the changing of clothes with Darnay, and using a special vapor to knock Darnay out and send him back to England with his family. Carton, because of his uncanny resemblance to Darnay gets away with taking his identity. He stays unphased by the situations that follow and just before he is beheaded he envisions a better future. This includes “[Lucie] with a child upon her bosom, who bears my name… I see that child who lay upon her bosom and who bore my name, a man winning his way up the path of life” (292-293). Carton was not nervous when staring death in the face, proving his braveness.

Carton is in love with Lucie Manette even though she is in love with Charles Darnay. He

Sydney Carton's life is made meaningful by the hope that he receives from Lucy Manette. At the beginning of the story, Sydney Carton's life has no significance. He is a drunkard with a seemingly worthless life. Sydney is working as a clerk for the lawyer C.J. Stryver, and though Sydney is the real brains behind the ideas, the attorney receives all the credit. Carton has had an unfavorable life and has no inspiration, nothing to live for. Sydney really wants for his life to have served some purpose, for him to have made a difference. He changes his life around after a conversation with Miss Manette in which Carton professes his love to her. Carton

Twelve months later Dr. Manette asked for Lucie’s hand in marriage. If Lucie accepts, Darnay will give his true identity to the Manettes. Sydney is also falling in love with Lucie but he knows that she is much to good for him and she will never be his. Lucies’s beauty is so magnificent to Carton that by knowing here, she has made his life worth living. Her presence gives Sydney a reason to get up in the morning. Sydney would do any thing for her "…O Miss Manette, when the little

Carton sacrificed his life for Lucie, her father, and Darnay at the guillotine and thus died in triumph. Dickens attempted to show his readers the power and dangers of a revolution. He had a clear underlying theme that oppression and exploitation by an aristocracy will cause a revolt by those being exploited, a fact that made the French

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 the beginning, Sydney Carton was a mean drunk that did nothing well and was only worried about himself. Carton had never done anything correctly, or for the benefit of others until he met Lucie, which was the love of his life, that he would do anything for. In another incident he shows his love for Lucie by dying in place of her husband, Charles Darnay, and when asked why he was dying for this man, his reply was, “ It is far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done: it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known” (446). Sydney Carton is basically saying that it was the best thing that he has ever done because he did not grow up doing things for other people’s better good. This shows how much he has changed from being a drunk and mean, to dying for the happiness of a person he loves. Sydney Carton has been greatly “recalled to life”, because he has changed so much, and it has made a huge impact in the book.

Carton further helps Darnay and implies more of his heroism when he dies for him. Carton’s great love and respect for Lucie holds him to the promise he made to her when he said that he would die for anyone she loved. The sheer act of heroism possessed him to buy the elixir that would cause Darnay to pass out, to switch clothing, and take Darnay’s place in prison. Carton knew that if his plan was discovered, he would be just as dead as Darnay. However, Carton kept in mind his promise and carried it through. At this point in time, Darnay expressed a sense of heroism as well because he was prepared to face his death without fear. Darnay would have