Sacrifice In A Tale Of Two Cities

Manette sacrifices his sanity by allowing Charles Darnay to marry Lucie and by giving up the comfort of his shoemaker’s bench. On the wedding day of Lucie and Darnay, Darnay keeps his promise and tells Dr. Manette about his past and family. Although Darnay is the nephew of the Marquis St. Evermonde, who threw Dr. Manette in jail for eighteen years, Dr. Manette still allows him to marry Lucie. Dr. Manette does this because Lucie loves Darnay and Dr. Manette loves her. After the wedding is over and Lucie and Charles have left for their honeymoon, Mr. Lorry, Miss Pross, and Dr. Manette are sitting in the shade and “Mr. Lorry [observes] a great change to have come over the Doctor; as if the golden arm uplifted there, had struck him a poisoned blow” (149). The change in demeanor is a physical foreshadowing of how Dr. Manette sacrifices his sanity for the happiness of Lucie Manette. He does not want to show Lucie how much the marriage affects him; however, once she is gone he lets the façade drop. When Miss Pross, Mr. Lorry, and Dr. Manette get back to the Manette household, Dr. Manette has a relapse of his past habits from jail of shoemaking, not talking and going insane. After nine days, he returns to normal and has a conversation with Mr. Lorry when the shoemaker’s bench comes up. As Mr. Lorry attempts to coax Dr. Manette into ridding himself of it, Dr. Manette talks about how “it is such an old companion” and a comfort, that he is afraid of getting rid of it (157). Mr. Lorry urges “him to sacrifice it…for his daughter’s sake” (158). Upon hearing this, Dr. Manette realizes that the “old companion” must go so that he can focus on his relationship with Lucie and her upcoming family (157). He allows the removal of the shoemaker’s bench, but asks for the disposal to be when he is not around. The sacrifice that Dr. Manette makes here ultimately sets him up for another relapse later on in the book; however he

Mr. Lorry braces Lucie for a shock: her father is not dead. He has been found, though he's a shell of his former self. Manette is now in the care of a former servant in Paris, and Mr. Lorry tells the astonished Lucie that he and she are going to go to Paris so that she can "restore [her father] to life."

Mr. Darnay's wife is Lucie, Dr. Manette's daughter. Lucie had grown up not knowing her parents, and thought her father, Dr. Manette was dead. She also suffered along side Darnay all the times he was accused. She had to suffer when he husband was waiting to be put to death, while also worrying that she may be killed herself. Also though she has been worried and stress over things all he life, she has learn to have joy, joy enough to comfort her father at his worst time.

33 Important because they found out that the father is alive 6. Maybe Mr. Lorry and Lucie were trying to get info out of Defarge Book One – Chapter 5 Pg. 48 Interesting because Defarge said that he makes a show of Doctor Manette to a chosen few “to whom the sight is like to do good” 7.

Pacing, thinking, yearning, crying, and grieving is all Manette did while crammed in a dingy cell for eighteen years, and all this time made him go insane, forcing him to lose touch with reality and who he is. However, even though Manette’s case is unique, Dickens examines how all humans are tortured beings. It is a part of human nature to become lost in the dark, but he also exhibits how it’s human nature to return to the light. Dickens illustrates an episode where Manette is being taken back to England and Mr. Lorry is “sitting opposite the buried man who had been dug out.”(50) Through Manette, Dickens introduces the concept of being

Miss Pross sacrifices her own life and happiness for Lucie Manette. After asking Miss Pross about Lucie, Jarvis Lorry then understands how much Lucie means to Miss Pross. “Mr. Lorry knew Miss Pross to be very jealous, but he also knew her by this time to be, beneath the surface of her eccentricity, one of those unselfish creatures-found only among women-who will, for pure love and admiration, bind themselves willing slaves, to youth when they have lost it, to beauty that they never had, to accomplishments that they were never fortunate enough to gain, to bright hopes that never shone upon their own somber lives.” This quote is important because it shows Miss Pross’ personality and character. It expresses that Miss Pross cares for Lucie Manette. She wants Lucie to have a happily fulfilled life. Miss Pross was never given these chances to be successful so she wants to make sure that Lucie has a better life than

He knows of nothing other than his prison life and frequently reverts to busily making shoes, a hobby he picked up while jailed. He is completely incapable of functioning in the outside world, having entirely forgotten what life outside of prison is like. Lucie loves him unconditionally and helps him regain his sanity. Dr. Manette recovers gradually with the help of family and friends. It is a long process, but Lucie is dedicated to her father and assists in recovering from his crazed state. As time passes, Dr. Manette becomes more mentally stable and his regressions to shoe-making become less often. By the end of the book, Dr. Manette is nearly back to normal; he is once again a fully functional person. Lucie's love and determination nurse Dr. Manette back to normality.

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.

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

When Lucie hears the news that her father may be alive, she halts her life in England to retrieve him from his solitude in France. She forfeits her own well-being to fortify a stronger bond with her father, who she comes to love above all else. Lucie is greatly responsible for the Doctor’s

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.

Listing his name and profession would also help because Dr. Manette is a reputable doctor in France and has a high reputation there. Dr. Manette was sacrificing his name to try to save Darnay and get him released by persuading the people that Darnay is not in the wrong. Since Lucie had helped her father so much and helped him grow throughout his life, Dr. Manette thought he would try to repay her by getting her husband released from prison to ensure Lucie’s happiness.

It was the morning of Lucie’s wedding day, all was well until Dickens states, “The door of the Doctor’s room opened, and he came out with Charles Darnay. He was so deadly pale—which had not been the case when they went in together—that no vestige of colour was to be seen in his face. But, in the composure of his manner he was unaltered, except that to the shrewd glance of Mr. Lorry it disclosed some shadowy indication that the old air of avoidance and dread had lately passed over him, like a cold wind” (149). This scene in the novel foreshadows the event of the Doctor’s unstable behavior. Dr. Manette has just learned that Charles Darnay is an Evrémonde. He is the son and nephew of the men who imprisoned Doctor Manette without trial. Doctor Manette feels dread from the fact that he was marrying his daughter off to a man of a cruel family, but Manette stays strong and sacrifices his mental stability for Lucie. All he wants is for Lucie to be happy, and for that, she must have his permission to marry Darnay. Later in the chapter, Dickens describes Doctor Manette’s mental state saying, “He had laid aside his coat and waistcoat; his shirt was open at the throat, as it used to be when he did that work; and even the old haggard, faded surface of face had come back to him. He worked

In “The Golden Thread,” Dr. Manette makes another great sacrifice when he disregards the fact that the man who is to marry his daughter is the same man who family is responsible for those eighteen years of pain and suffering in the French Bastille. He does not know of this until later in the story but still even before finding out proclaims his desire of keeping her daughter happy. “ ‘I give the promise,’ said the Doctor, ‘without any condition. I believe your object to be, purely and truthfully, as you have stated it. I believe your intention is to perpetuate, and not to weaken, the ties between me and my other and far dearer self. If she should ever tell me that you are essential to her perfect happiness, I will give her to you. If there were-Charles Darnay, if there were-.’" (124) Despite his sense of revenge towards the people who imprisoned him he sacrifices his own feelings for the

Manette is jailed in France for almost 18 years, following no valid accusation or trial. However, only a few years after being brought back to England, he very wisely says, “I employed myself, in my captivity, in making shoes, to the time when I found myself in London with my dear daughter here. She has come familiar to me, when a gracious God restored my facilities” (Dickens 55). By making shoes throughout his captivity, Doctor Manette shows incredible strength in keeping himself sane enough to where he is able to be recalled to life by his loving daughter. In his time of crisis, Manette chooses to press on, which is the only reason he is even able to be recalled to life by Lucie. Manette is apt at using the resources given to him in a poor situation to make the best of things, just like when his son-in-law Darnay is imprisoned for similarly unjust charges. After spending a year in jail, Darnay finally goes on trial for being an emigrant. Manette knows he has power with the patriotic jury, and plans to use it. He says, “There is no patriot in Paris--in Paris? In France--who, knowing me to have been a prisoner in the Bastille, would touch me, except to overwhelm me with embraces, or carry me in triumph. My old pain has given me a power that has brought us through the barrier, and gained us knews of Charles there, and brought