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How Does Sydney Carton Change

Decent Essays

“It is a far, far better thing I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest I go to than I have ever known.” (Sydney Carton) In the book, A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, it tells about a many people who are all related to each other. The novel tells the story of a man named Sydney Carton, who gives up his life for the person he loves. It tells of his many hardships of life, and introduces to the reader, the many sides of this man, and how they can change over the influence of just one person. In this essay, one will examine the changes Sydney Carton made to reach the path of redemption.
In the beginning of the novel, Sydney Carton is a man who is given no recognition for his work, and has no meaning at all in his life. …show more content…

He is willingly sacrificing his life for the greater good. For example, when Sydney is about to be put in the guillotine, he says, “I am the Resurrection and the Life, saith the Lord: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die” (Dickens 385). Sydney Carton is likening what he is about to do, to Jesus Christ, sacrificing his life for his people. This literary device is called an allusion, and it helps in showing to the reader that what Sydney Carton is about to do will affect more people, than everyone realizes. It also helps in showing the importance of Carton sacrificing his life for the greater good. In addition, when Sydney Carton has been killed, and Carton is thinking about how the future will be, Dickens describes him thinking,” I see that child who lay upon her bosom and who bore my name, a man winning his way up in that path of life, which once was mine. I see him winning it so well, that my name is made illustrious there by the light of his. I see the blots I threw upon it faded away” (Dickens 386). Carton is seeing in the future, Lucie’s child named after him, who does well in life as a lawyer, and clears his name, which was once blotted by Carton first. Sydney is seeing that his sacrifice will help others in the future, and that because of the one good act he has done, all the bad decisions he made in his life will be forgotten, after sacrificing his life for the sake of Lucie and her

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