Characterization in A Tale Of Two Cities
Reference Material
A Tale of Two Cities, a novel by Charles Dickens, was published both serially and in book form in 1859. The story is set in the late 18th century against the background of the French Revolution. The complex plot involves Sydney Carton’s sacrifice of his own life on behalf of his friends Charles Darnay and Lucie Manette.
The book is perhaps
best known for its opening lines, “It was the best of times, it was the worst
of times,” and for Carton’s last speech, in which he says of his replacing
Darnay in a prison cell, “It is a 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.”
Characters are
crucial to all books, novels, articles, and other pieces of literature. Their
characteristics, actions, personalities, and looks allow an author to create
any story he or she can dream of with the use of unique characters.
Dickens is one of the greatest creators of
characters in English fiction. A mere glance of at the list of persons who
figure in any of his novels is enough to remind us of the author’s amazing
fertility in the invention. He has portrayed a whole variety of characters such as
David Copperfield, Pip, Trotwood, and Sam Weller. There is no shortage of real
and unique characters in his works.
A Tale Of Two
Cities
affords ample evidence of Dickens’ capacity for the character –portrayal. The range
of characters in A Tale Of Two Cities
is wide and has deep and penetrating studies. Some of the figures like Monsieur
Defarge and Madame Defarge are memorable. Dicken's purpose in the case of this
novel was to allow the characters to reveal themselves through incidents and
through their deeds and actions rather than through dialogues.
Charles Dickens creates a powerful story
with the use of his characters in A Tale
of Two Cities. Some of his characters are more important than others, but
none of them go unnoticed and none of them are unnecessary. Dickens refrains
from using complex characters, therefore making them easy to understand and
relate to. The development of each of his characters is clear and evident. The theme is also important to a story; without theme, there would be no moral to a
story. Alongside the development of the characters, Charles Dickens creates a
very powerful theme in this novel. The theme in A Tale of Two Cities is the
need for sacrifice. Dickens uses three specific characters to present this
theme. A different story is told through each character and Dickens uses them
in three unique ways. Charles Dickens develops the characters of Doctor
Manette, Charles Darnay, and Sydney Carton to display the theme of the need for
sacrifice.
A Tale of Two Cities is, in many
ways, Doctor Manette's story. The Doctor's release from the Bastille begins the
novel, and the mystery of his imprisonment creates tension throughout the book.
The reading of his letter ultimately condemns Darnay to death, forcing Carton
to sacrifice his life. A close reading of the book reveals the Doctor to be one
of its few complex characters. Throughout the course of the novel, he is seen
as an aspiring young doctor, a prisoner who craves revenge and who descends
into madness, and a man who fights to regain his mind, his family, and his
profession. His life after prison is a continual struggle against the shadows
of madness and despair that are his legacy from the Bastille.
The love he has for his daughter helps him to
overcome the darkness in his life, even giving him the strength to welcome the
son of his enemy as a son-in-law. When his status as a Bastille prisoner
becomes an asset at the end of the book, he regains the strength and confidence
that characterized him before his imprisonment. When his bitter, angry letter
surfaces, however, the past undermines his stability.
Through the Doctor, Dickens makes a statement regarding the nature of forgiveness and revenge.
The Doctor's ability to forgive brings him happiness in his daughter's marriage
and children. However, his past demand for revenge has the power to destroy his
life and the lives of his family. Additionally, whereas revenge leads the
Doctor to a state of dementia, forgiveness raises him to a level of
intellectual vigor and emotional happiness. In showing these contrasting
aspects of Doctor Manette's character, Dickens emphasizes the concepts of the
destructive power of revenge and the healing power of forgiveness.
The second important character in
the story is Lucie. Dickens describes Lucie as being beautiful physically and
spiritually, and she possesses a gift for bringing out the best qualities of
those around her. She is one of the lesser-developed characters in the novel,
but she is "the golden thread" that binds many of the characters'
lives together.
A reader can best judge Lucie by her actions and
influences on other characters rather than by her dialogue, which tends to be
melodramatic and full of stock sentimentality. Dickens portrays her as a
compassionate, virtuous woman who inspires great love and loyalty in the other
characters. For example, Darnay, Carton, and Stryver all court her and envision
their futures being made brighter with her as their wife. Additionally, both
Mr. Lorry and Miss Pross, who are without families, love Lucie as if she were
their daughter and do everything they can to keep her safe. Although Lucie is a
flat character, she is an important one. She represents unconditional love and
compassion, and Dickens uses her to demonstrate how powerful these qualities
can be, even in the face of violence and hatred.
Another important and major character in the novel is Charles
Darney. Although Darnay rejects the Evrémonde name and inheritance and moves to
England, he cannot escape his family history. Trying to make compensation to an
unknown woman whose family was wiped out by his father and uncle, he is
arrested for treason in England; trying to save a jailed family servant, he is
arrested in revolutionary France, where he is tried twice. His sense of responsibility
motivates him to right wrongs, but he is otherwise a passive character who lets
events direct his fate rather than trying to control it himself. Forces outside
of his control inevitably foil even his attempts to assert himself and atone
for his family's transgressions, placing him in increasingly dangerous
situations from which he must be rescued.
Darnay represents justice and duty, qualities inherited from his
mother. He (and his mother) also stands for the members of the French
aristocracy who were aware of the damage their families were inflicting, but
who could do nothing to prevent it. Darnay's willingness to atone for his
family's wrongs and to work for a living demonstrate that eventually, something
good can come out of evil, a point that Dickens emphasizes at the end
of the novel.
Carton, Darnay's double and
alter-ego has wasted his life on alcohol and apathy. He makes his intelligence
obvious through his ability to analyze cases for Stryver. He makes clear that
he had the same opportunities for success as Stryver, but for some reason chose
not to take them. Besides some vague references to his student days and the
disclosure that his parents died when he was young, Carton's past remains a
mystery to the reader. Consequently, the reader can only guess what caused
him to become so degenerated. The only noble part of his life is his love
for Lucie and his affection for the rest of her family. His
love for her is strong enough to induce him to give his life for that of her
husband.
Carton takes on a mythical aspect in sacrificing
himself to save his friends. He represents the sacrificial hero who is ritually
slaughtered of his own free will so that society might renew itself, a prospect
he envisions before he dies. Through his death, he redeems his sins and is
reborn in the afterlife and through the life of his namesake. Sydney
Carton is one of the most dynamic and poignant characters in the novels.
Readers, critics, and Dickens fans offer a multitude of words on the subject of
Sydney Carton. Some view him as the most heroic of heroes. Others see him as a
miserable drunkard, welcoming the guillotine as a way to escape from an unhappy
existence. He is a complex character, evolving as the novel progresses. Upon
studying Dickens’ novel, Carton’s heroism becomes indisputably clear. Dickens’
establishment of Carton as a flawed man merely elevates Carton as a hero,
demonstrating how an ordinary, struggling human being can become extraordinary.
Dickens gradually details Carton’s character growth as Carton’s love for Lucie
Manette spurs him to acts of greatness.
Childless and merciless, Madame Defarge is the
antithesis of Lucie
Manette. Both women possess the ability to inspire
others, but while Lucie creates and nurtures life, Madame Defarge destroys it.
Because her entire family perished when she was a young girl, Madame Defarge
wants revenge, not merely on the family that caused the evil but on the entire
class from which it came. What makes her such a threatening figure is her
stubborn patience, which bides its time until it can strike. In this, she is
like some natural force that, when the opportunity is right, becomes ferocious
and unrelenting. Her secret management of Darnay's re-arrest is cunning but
shows immense cruelty as well. In seeking to avenge her family, she has
acquired the same ruthlessness as the men who destroyed her family. Her
knitting represents both her patience and her urge to get revenge because she
knits the names of her intended victims. Symbolically, Madame Defarge stands
for the intensity and bloodthirst behind the Revolution. Her relentless drive for
vengeance makes her strong, but it eventually destroys her because she is
unable to comprehend the powerful love that gives Carton the strength to die
for Darnay, and Miss Pross the courage to defeat her.
Her husband Defarge was Doctor Alexandre Manette's servant. When the Doctor was newly released from prison,
Defarge was not above exploiting his insanity as a spectacle to further the
revolutionary cause. As a revolutionary leader, Defarge organizes the Jacquerie
and helps lead the mob in storming the Bastille. He bases his desire for a revolution more upon a desire for positive change than the blood thirst of his
wife, as demonstrated when he resists denouncing Doctor Manette, Lucie, and young Lucie simply because of their relationship to
Darnay. His wife interprets his scruples as weakness, giving the reader the
impression that before long revolutionaries such as Jacques Three will turn on
Defarge and send him to the guillotine himself. Defarge represents the more
rational aspect of the Revolution. He is not blinded by class hatred and
retains his conscience and sense of fairness. His ability to empathize with
those people Madame Defarge views as enemies, however, will probably result in
his death, showing how out of control the Revolution became as paranoia and
violence destroyed its positive forces.
Well, in nearly all novels by Dickens, characters take the main stage and generally are just as important as the plot because of their
complexity. As such, A Tale of Two Cities offers far more to the reader
than the title suggests, particularly because of the enormous complexity of the
characters—both major and minor.
“A Tale of Two Cities” by Dickens is also a series of tales
about dual identities and the ways in which one character serves as a foil to
another. In Books I and II of “Tale of Two Cities”, Dickens establishes the
setting and the dynamic relationships among the characters, all of whom are
struggling, to greater and lesser degrees, with their positions regarding the
Revolution and as a result, this creates a struggle with their identities.
While some characters in the Dickens novel “A Tale of Two Cities”, especially
Darnay, clearly have more acute conflicts to resolve and far more to lose than
the seemingly minor characters, it is by examining the marginal characters that
the reader can understand the dynamic conflicts of the period more fully. Two
of the novel’s marginal characters, John Barsad, the duplicitous spy, and
Gaspard, the quiet but determined peasant who takes justice into his own hands,
represent two faces of the Revolution and help to emphasize the conflicts and
conditions of the major characters.When John Barsad is introduced in the novel, it is
immediately clear that he is not only self-serving and hypocritical, he is a
man who is not to be trusted. While he is not a popular character, he is,
nonetheless an excellent candidate for a character analysis as Barsad is complex
and multilayered. He testifies falsely against Darnay for spying, when he
himself is a spy which shows him to be not only untrustworthy but willing to be
a hypocrite when his own interests are at stake. Barsad will eventually play a
significant role in other aspects of Darnay’s affairs as well. Although Barsad
represents himself before the court as a loyal patriot, a skilled barrister
exposes Barsad’s seedier side as a gambler and debtor. The narrator of “A Tale
of Two Cities” by Dickens describes Barsad as “a hired spy and traitor, an
unblushing trafficker in blood, and one of the greatest scoundrels upon the
earth since accursed Judas–which he certainly did look rather like…"
(Dickens 72).
This description is apt, and it foreshadows the
effects that Barsad will have on the other characters. While he is a minor
character in the larger scheme of the novel, his sphere of influence is rather
extensive, and his actions have a decisive impact on the trajectory of the plot
and upon the decisions of the other characters. When he visits the Defarge’s
wine shop, for instance, Barsad knowingly drops a tidbit of information that he
knows will set a chain of events into motion. He reveals that Lucie is to be
married to Darnay. This is news that puts the DeFarges into conflict because they
care for Lucie and her father, but not for Darnay. This information shapes
Madame DaFarge’s future revolutionary activities.
While Gaspard is a different sort of character altogether.
Whereas Barsad is obnoxious and grandstanding, trying to seem like someone more
respectable than he is, Gaspard is quiet and unassuming. Nonetheless, Gaspard
holds as least as much power and influence as Barsad exercises, for he takes
justice into his own hands and kills the Marquis for having run over his child
and then insulting him with the compensation of a coin. While the reader
of A Tale of Two Cities is never privy to the
thought process that leads to Gaspard’s decision to ride on the undercarriage
and stab the Marquis in his sleep, it is perhaps easy enough for the reader
to empathize with this marginal character, for he could be any common man who
has been wronged by a haughty and careless aristocrat. Gaspard’s actions are a
mirror of revolutionary thought and feeling, and it is through Gaspard that we can
understand the sentiments that provoked uprisings against the traditional
social structure. Gaspard not only represents but embodies fully, the
suffering and rage of his class. Rather than accepting his position of
powerlessness, however, he finds a way to seize personal agency and act upon
it. In doing so, he clearly affects the life—or rather, the death—of the
Marquis, but his action also influences Darnay’s position and the circumstances
which will eventually envelop him later in the novel. Beyond affecting Darnay,
though, Gaspard’s actions serve as the spark for the Revolution itself. It is
the tipping point for some characters; those who might have felt lukewarm about
the Revolution beforehand, are incensed by Gaspard’s sentence and execution and are thereby compelled to change their opinions.
Aside from these cases, the literary canon of the novel is
full of examples of seemingly minor men and women who become heroes and highly
worthy of character analysis, hardly-noticed characters who turn into villains,
and people of no reputation who shape the entire course of a novel’s events.
This is part of what makes the story Dickens is telling so interesting—even
though the events themselves are worthy of note, the characters who are the
subjects of great interest and character analysis and their level of complexity
make A Tale of Two Cities what it is.
Beyond offering the reader a mere narration of the events
leading up to the Revolution, Dickens creates suspense, tension, and the
opportunity for opinions and actions to be transformed by uplifting the
influence of characters worthy of intense character analysis in “A Tale of Two
Cities” by Dickens who would otherwise be marginal to the plot. John Barsad and
Gaspard are two men who are quite different from one another, and who also
differ in their motives and means of expressing their power and influence. Nonetheless,
in several relatively brief scenes, both men shape the outcome of the novel by
acting upon their beliefs and passions decisively and without apology. As a
result, the lives of the major characters in “A Tale of Two Cities” by Dickens and
the decisions that they are able and choose to make are transformed.
