A Tale Of Two Cities
One way you may approach Lucie Manette is as the central figure of
the novel. Think about the many ways she affects her fellow
characters. Although she is not responsible for liberating her
father, Dr. Manette, from the Bastille, Lucie is the agent who
restores his damaged psyche through unselfish love and devotion. She
maintains a calm, restful atmosphere in their Soho lodgings,
attracting suitors (Charles Darnay, Stryver, Sydney Carton) and
brightening the life of family friend Jarvis Lorry.
Home is Lucie's chosen territory, where she displays her fireside
virtues of tranquility, fidelity, and motherhood. It's as a symbol
of home that her centrality and influence are ...
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Lucie, her father, and Charles
Darnay. The two men share an ambiguous relationship. Because Lucie
loves Darnay, Dr. Manette must love him, too. Yet Darnay belongs to
the St. Evremonde family, cause of the doctor's long imprisonment,
and is thus subject to his undying curse. Apart from his ancestry,
Darnay poses the threat, by marrying Lucie, of replacing Dr. Manette
in her affections.
At the very end of the novel you'll find Lucie caught in a third
triangle--the struggle between Miss Pross and Madame Defarge. Miss
Pross, fighting for Lucie, is fighting above all for love. Her
triumph over Madame Defarge is a triumph over chaos and vengeance.
Let's move now from Lucie's influence on other characters to Lucie
herself. Sydney Carton, who loves Lucie devotedly, labels her a
"little golden doll." Carton means this ironically--he's hiding his
true feelings from Stryver--but some readers have taken his words at
face value. They see Lucie as a cardboard ...
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dignity. In
fulfilling his old promise to Lucie, Carton attains peace; those
watching see "the peacefullest man's face ever beheld" at the
guillotine. In a prophetic vision, the former "jackal" glimpses a
better world rising out of the ashes of revolution, and long life for
Lucie and her family--made possible by his sacrifice.
This argument also links Carton's death with Christian sacrifice and
love. When Carton makes his decision to die, the New Testament verse
beginning "I am the Resurrection and the Life" nearly becomes his
theme song. The words are repeated a last time at the moment Carton
dies. In what sense may we see Carton's dying in Darnay's place as
Christ-like? ...
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A Tale Of Two Cities. (2007, January 3). Retrieved November 22, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/A-Tale-Of-Two-Cities/58092
"A Tale Of Two Cities." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 3 Jan. 2007. Web. 22 Nov. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/A-Tale-Of-Two-Cities/58092>
"A Tale Of Two Cities." Essayworld.com. January 3, 2007. Accessed November 22, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/A-Tale-Of-Two-Cities/58092.
"A Tale Of Two Cities." Essayworld.com. January 3, 2007. Accessed November 22, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/A-Tale-Of-Two-Cities/58092.
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