Sydney Carton Hero

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

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.

In A Tale of Two Cities, Sydney Carton is the clear protagonist of the book. This normally would make the antagonist (however there is no clear one) his antithesis. Yet straying from the norm, Dickens creates a very peculiar opposite for Carton in the form of Jarvis Lorry. Lorry is a man of business, and will not be strayed from his financial past even by an encroaching revolution. Carton on the other hand is a bleeding heart romantic hero, who is motivated by love and passion. To complicate the entire ordeal further, both Carton and Lorry are fighting for the same side. The different personalities of the characters play vital roles in the outcome of the book as well as the outcome of the revolution.

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.

Sydney Carton, the alcoholic aid of an attorney is able to break out of his depressing shell and fulfill his promise to Lucie Manette by the end of A Tale of Two Cities. He shows himself as the true hero of the novel and shines over all the other characters that were “recalled to life” (7). The ultimate sacrifice, to give up one’s life, should be rewarded as the most heroic action in any situation out of good

This wasted potential is emphasized when both Darnay and Carton fall in love with Lucie Manette. Darnay, as the typical charming hero, is chosen over desperate, brooding Carton. As a result, Carton finds himself channeling his love and his physical advantage of being Darnay’s double into keeping Lucie safe and happy by way of rescuing Darnay from the guillotine. Thus, Carton is able to become the proverbial “good guy,” a role he saw for himself in his counterpart, Darnay. He also managed to thwart the Defarges’ plot to murder all those connected to the aristocracy in any way. In this way, Dickens is able to use the comparisons and contrasts between the two men to show how love is capable of victory over violence and vengeance.

Sydney Carton, “one of Dickens’s most loved and best-remembered characters” (Stout 29), is not just another two-dimensional character; he seems to fly off the pages and into real life throughout all the trials and tribulations he experiences. He touches many hearts, and he even saves the life of Charles Darnay, a man who looks surprisingly similar to him. In Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities, Sydney Carton is a selfish man of habit, a cynic, a self-loathing drunk, and an incorrigible barrister until he meets Lucie Manette; throughout the novel Sydney is overcome by his noble love for Lucie and transforms from a cynic to a hero as he accomplishes one of the most selfless acts a man can carry out.

In the novel A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, one of the main characters Sydney Carton is portrayed as a Jesus Christ-like figure, risking death and sacrificing his life to create a better life for the ones around him. Carton takes one of the biggest risks a human can ever take in their lifetime, the risk of death. He goes into this risky situation knowing the consequences, but he doesn’t care, he just wants to accomplish his goal, to save his friend Charles Darnay from his demise, Of course, one would not be able to complete such a task without motivation. This motivation of course is his one true love, Lucie Manette, Carton wants to save the husband of Lucie, Darnay, and allow them to live a happy life, with their daughter who was also named Lucie. Using Lucie’s own life as the true motivation, and completely disregarding all the consequences, Carton’s own life is redeemed through the resurrection of his hopes and his dreams for Lucie.

In the melodramatic novel, A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens, the author uses the theme sacrifice. He shows that sacrifice is important in his story because some of his characters must give up their lives for another. Miss Pross dedicates herself to Lucie because she wants Lucie to have a brighter future than she did. Then, out of his love and devotion for Lucie Manette, Sydney Carton sacrifices his life to save a life she loves. The sacrifices Miss Pross and Sydney Carton make express that mankind will give everything for what they love and believe in.

Sydney Carton is another ambiguous character compelled by his passion. In the beginning of the novel he is an isolated and depressed alcoholic. He is nicknamed memory because he acts as the brain of his boss, Stryver. He has no confidence in himself: “I am a disappointed drudge, sir. I care for no man on earth, and no man on earth cares for me” (Dickens 85). Carton never puts too much pressure on himself because he knows he is a failure. He seems to be a guy who floats through life along with the current. When he meets Lucie, he begins to change. He falls in love with her and even expresses his feelings. He promises he will do anything for her: “I would embrace any sacrifice for you and those dear to you” (Dickens 154). This is the complete opposite of the reserved Carton from the start of the novel because now he finally has someone he cares about. This brings up a new,

Charles Dickens’ novel, A Tale of Two Cities, reveals a person that is so complex that students of British Literature still have not fully understood Sydney Carton’s character. Dickens introduces him to the reader as an arrogant, frustrated, no account barrister who lives through the lives of others. Yet throughout the novel one can see that he is a brilliant barrister who does not realize his worth, a man changed through love and devotion, and a self-sacrificing individual.

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 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