Examples Of Happiness In A Tale Of Two Cities

Happiness: the single most widespread objective throughout society. People of all ages dream to one day be truly happy. Whether that means being rich, finding love, or having 12 cats all for yourself, most believe it to be the true purpose of life. However, all this time we have been mislabeling it: we think we are chasing happiness when really, we are chasing satisfaction. Consequently, people who have lower expectations have an easier time achieving this satisfaction and therefore a so called “happiness”. In A Tale of Two Cities, a novel by Charles Dickens, Sydney Carton is able to climb out of his abyss whereas Madame Defarge cannot, because his wishes are attainable while her’s are not. Lucie, the woman Carton is in love with, is alive and well, while Mme Defarge’s sister was brutally raped and murdered. Although Carton understands that it is highly unlikely that Lucie will ever love him back his overarching intent is for her have a good life, even if it is not with him. This is an entirely finite and achievable goal. On the other hand, there is no way for Mme Defarge to be

Sydney Carton’s achievable goal, the happiness of the woman he loves, allows him to find a purpose for his life, end his alcoholism, and pull himself entirely out of the abyss by achieving satisfaction. Meanwhile Mme Defarge, although she can provide temporary relief to her pain, can never truly acquire what she wants most, her siblings back from the dead, and therefore remains in her abyss, murdering people without remorse. They both thought they were chasing happiness or closure, when really they were chasing satisfaction. As soon as people start setting realistic standards, feasible expectations, and achievable goals, we can start having an easier time pulling ourselves out of our own personalized abysses and finding our