Light In A Tale Of Two Cities

After eighteen years of solitary confignment in the Bastille prison, Lucie’s father (Alexander Manette) has gone insane and is unaware of the life around him. With Lucie's patience and compassion Mr. Manette is restored to his old self. Now that Lucie and her father have reunited their bond cannot be broken. Lucie’s good-hearted nature is brought up once more when she shows her understanding toward Sydney Carton as he confesses his feelings about her, even though he has been nothing but a bitter, confused drunk around her. The first time Lucie met her father: "With the tears streaming down her face , she put her two hands to her lips, and kissed them to him; then clasped them on her breast, as if she laid his ruined head there" (Dickens

Lucie approaches, with tears in her eyes. The shoemaker asks who she is. Noticing her blonde hair, he removes a necklace he wears and reveals a scrap of paper containing some golden threads of hair—stray hairs from his wife, which he has kept all these years as a spiritual escape from his imprisonment. Overcome by emotion, Manette struggles to recognize his daughter. Lucie rocks Manette's head on her chest like a child. She promises him that his agony has ended, and gives thanks to God.

Although neither Madame Defarge nor Lucie Manette are well-developed as characters in themselves, both symbolize opposing forces. Lucie is lovely, golden-haired, and good, a symbol of light. By her very presence she draws the people together and brings them to their full potential. She enables Dr. Manette to return to health and peace, and inspires Sydney Carton to find redemption for his degenerate living in the ultimate sacrifice of his life. Madame DeFarge, however, is the symbol of evil and the inevitable forces of the French Revolution. Driven by the ravages of the aristocrats to an inconsumable hatreds she patiently knits the names of the tormentors soon to be

This statement is revisited at the top of the novel once Carton offers up his life so as to save lots of that of Charles to make sure Lucie’s happiness.

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,

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.

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

The ideas of heroism in a Victorian sense are very different than those ideas of a hero in Anglo-Saxon literature. The most obvious hero in A Tale of Two Cities is Sydney Carton, but he emerges very differently than Beowulf. It was never clearly mentioned in the novel that Carton was a hero, so Dickens expected the reader to infer that that was so. It also wasn’t until book three that Carton became a truly dynamic character and ultimately became the hero he sought to be. “Careless and slovenly if not debauched” (Dickens 55) was how Dickens described Carton’s character in book one.

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

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.

Charles Dickens’ novel, A Tale of Two Cities, depicts the lives of various people living in England and France during the French Revolution. Two of Dickens’ characters are Lucie Manette and Madame Defarge. Though these two female characters are not as developed as some of the male characters in the book, they both play an important part in the novel. After reading A Tale of Two Cities, the reader learns about Lucie Manette and Madame Defarge and their similarities and differences. Lucie Manette plays a central role throughout the story.

This passage develops the relationship between Darnay and Dr. Manette that will lead to Manette trying to insure Darnay’s safety during his imprisonment. It also leads to the marriage of Darnay and Lucie, which leads to Carton sacrificing himself for Lucie and Darnay. The conversation develops Darnay and Dr. Manette. It evolves Darnay as a character by revealing his love for Lucie and his respect of her relationship with her father. It advances Dr. Manette as a character by showing his love and respect for Darnay as well as his pain of losing his daughter until Darnay assures him that they will stay with him. When Darnay tries to tell Dr. Manette his real name, Darnay is potentially sacrificing Dr. Manette’s approval and therefore sacrificing

When Carton was working for C.J. Stryver, who is opposite to him in personality. While Sydney is reserved, Stryver is power-hungry, and strives to climb to the top. Because of this, Carton is a slave to the other man and is the much harder worker of the two. In this chapter, Dickens described these men as animals based on their traits, and stating, “Although Sydney Carton would never be a lion, he was an amazingly good jackal” (Dickens 102). This comparison depicts Carton’s lack of motivations perfectly and shows that he is responsible for all the grunt work but does not take the lead. Without an individual or purpose in the world to try and succeed for, Carton feels no need to expose himself as the genius behind Stryver, and therefore is sacrificing showcasing his potential to eventually be that

Although the “rebirth” does not take place right then Lucie’s love for her father is never doubted for even a second. In chapter six, when she sees her father for the very first time Lucie says to him, “…that your agony is over...I have come here to take you from it...” (49), this marks the beginning of the doctor’s rebirth. Through this statement Dickens has Lucie promising that she will do anything for her father out of pure love. As the Manette’s travel back to England, in time it becomes clear that Lucie’s love towards her father is beginning to have an impact on his behavior. In chapter five, of the second book Dr. Manette is able to carry on a complete conversation, which shows the readers that he is regaining his sanity. Later on in chapter seven of the third book, Dickens reminds his readers again of how far Dr.Manette has come since that first day in the Defarge’s attic, “No garret, no shoemaking, no One Hundred and Five, North Tower, now! He had accomplished the task he had set himself…" (285-6). It is at this moment that the reader knows he has been resorted back to his old self before he was in prison. Throughout all the hardship and pain the doctor has to endure, his daughter Lucie never leaves his side.

Dr. Manette is described as in the shadow of the Bastille, cast upon him by the summer sun, which symbolizes Dr. Manette’s life in darkness, as a shadow of his former imprisoned self.