Madame Defarge, Sydney Carton, And Charles Darnay

Lastly, good did triumph over evil in Sydney Carton. Sydney Carton is a drunk who hates Darnay because if Carton was not a drunk he would have everything Darnay has, like the love of Lucie Manette. Carton is seen as the darkness because of the disparity he has and how low he has fallen. Whereas Darnay is seen as light or the good guy due to how his life is going. In the end when Sydney gives up his life for Darnay it shows how Sydney is transferring from being sad and dark. His selfless act proved that the “bad” Sydney Carton has saved Darnay and kept Lucie, Cartons love, happy.

Dickens’ Madame Defarge develops a vast amount of hatred towards the Evremonde Family after the atrocities committed by them on

During her labor a look of murderous, unforgiving hatred comes over her. So much in fact, that she bit and mangled the hand that helped her during the birth. Wanting nothing to do with the newly born twins, Cathy flees her home, husband and the two infants she has bore. Her manipulation of sex now becomes even more prevalent. Having nowhere to go, Cathy known now as Kate, takes shelter in a whore house. She quickly begins work and in almost no time has made a name for herself. Gradually she works her way up through the ranks and is soon running the house on her own. Her sense of power clearly comes from hurting and destroying others through sex. During one of Adams two visits to Kate, he discovers just how devious she truly is. "She took out a photograph. 'Look there. That's the State Senator. He thinks he's going to run for Congress. He likes whips. That streak there-that's a whip mark. ... In a few years I'll be going away. And when I do-those pictures will be dropped in the mail ....'" (322-23). Her scheme of blackmail displays her lack of a conscious. Because of this, Steinbeck has created a powerful character that provokes disillusion, or an emotion felt when one's self patterns are distorted. As seen thougout the novel, Cathy's own evilness arouses the devil within her.

The most prominent theme in A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens is “rebirth through sacrifice”. Many characters in the novel show examples of this, but the most notable character that displays this theme is modest Sydney Carton. In the novel, Carton goes through three notable stages in his character and and disposition. Carton begins as a lowly drunk who allows others to exploit and demean him, to a man who lives with a devastating and unrequited love for a woman he can not have, to a humble and almost Christ-like martyr.

In Chapter Six, “Quiet at Home,” Dickens gives us another example of her more important purpose in the novel:

Dickens lastly proclaims, “‘She will now be at home, awaiting the moment of mind to impeach the justice of the Republic. She will be full of sympathy with its enemies’” (280). This elaborates how Madame Defarge plans to condemn Lucie because she knows that Lucie will be mourning. This also describes how Madame Defarge has her revenge planned

Dickens characterizes Madame Defarge as “absolutely without pity” to where it “was nothing to her that an innocent man was to die for the sins of his forefathers”(281). She has no qualms about killing an innocent man, and she cannot see the man for

Dickens elucidates the complexity of Madame Defarge by stating, “But, imbued from her childhood with a brooding sense of wrong, and an invertebrate hatred of a class, opportunity had developed her into a tigress. She was absolutely without pity. If she ever had the virtue in her, it had quite gone out of her” (281). From this excerpt one sees Madame Defarge taking the pain of losing her entire family at a young age and developing that pain into a goal; she becomes a tigress, a beautiful and fierce yet heartless and impenetrable tigress. We can evidently come to the conclusion that although admirable for being firm and determined in her goal, that goal is evidently obsessive revenge against the Evremonde family, and leaves her without pity or compassion.

Carton’s life had always been without purpose. He was an alcoholic who worked as Stryver’s partner. Sydney Carton easily fell in love with Lucie Manette and told her that by using his love for her, it will give his life purpose. Carton’s logic is shown when he says, “For you [Lucie], and for any dear to you, I would do anything… Think now and then that there is a man who would give his life, to keep a life you love beside you” (Dickens 216). When Carton hears the news of Lucie’s husband’s imprisonment and knows the people of France will not hold back from killing Darnay, he believes it is time to keep his promise.

Charles Dickens offers two different perceptions and perspectives in time to guide the reader through Bleak House. The manner in which the author presents the story characterize Dickens’s peculiar technique. First, there is an alternation in the point of view throughout the novel and second, there is a parallel change between present tense and past tense. His choice of dual narrator may seem a questionable approach or even confusing at times, but the two narrators work together to deliver the story. Although each one tells a somewhat detailed and exhaustive tale, they depend on the other to introduce characters and describe events, filling in the blanks that the other leaves.

Sydney is not truly in love with Lucie, but merely in love with the idea of Lucie. Dickens proves from time to time that Carton is an

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens not only vividly illustrates the gruesome and barbaric years of the French Revolution, but also entertains the reader through the recurring irony in the novel. Dickens manipulates the storyline in such a way that the novel takes a life of it’s own and leaves the reader jaw-dropped. Charles Dickens uses verbal irony, irony of each character, and chance to pull in the reader and bring them along the crazy ride of A Tale of Two Cities. Dickens utilizes verbal irony throughout the novel to describe characters with titles that are the complete opposite of actuality.

    Tattycoram may be most easily characterized by her short temper and irritability. Her body language is relatively early on in the novel described as “contemptuous” and “impatient” and she was—according to her adopted family, the Meagles—prone to outbursts (Dickens 212; 213). Yet, her body language itself seems to communicate an additional layer to Tattycoram which surpasses Dickens’ adjectives or the Meagles’ descriptions—namely, that she is constantly trying to contain her emotions, her anger and irritability. Dickens writes that “Tattycoram set her full red lips together, and crossed her arms upon her bosom” and later in the same scene that “[s]he pressed her lips together again, and took a long deep breath” (214). This scene, in which the Meagles repeatedly question Tattycoram about the mysterious Miss Wade, the reader gets a sense that Tattycoram is trying to keep her composure, suppressing her desires to show her emotions. She “pressed her lips together” to avoid saying something unpleasant, while she “crossed her

Dickens’ ability to think ahead and map out his thrilling and exceptionally clever plot is perhaps the reason for his wide success in developing the characters to reflect true human natures in reacting to jaw-dropping events of the time. Love, devotion, violence and chaos are all involved in Dickens’ tale set prior to the French Revolution which, as it turned out, is the main catalyst for the oppressive drama created. Where Paris is described as the bloodthirsty and fiery city amidst the hot turmoil, London remains the clear lesser of two evils with its general order and safety. The social upheaval initiated within the streets of Paris turns the lives of many upside down, in particular, a misjudged man known as Sydney Carton along with his

Throughout A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens develops a suspenseful plot in which misfortune seems to take over every character's life. Though it appears that one’s actions determines the consequences they face, Dickens proves that this is not the case by developing the theme of Fate through the characters Madame Defarge and Charles Darnay. Madame Defarge, the wife of a wine shop owner, is constantly seen knitting other people’s names, sentencing them to their deaths. Meanwhile, Charles Darnay returns to France with good intentions, but is ultimately imprisoned for his family’s wrongdoings. Madame Defarge controls the Fates of the others, specifically French aristocrats, while the inevitable force that is Fate catches up to Darnay through his family history. Regardless, both characters reveal that Fate cannot be controlled.