Sydney Carton Hero

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I think the hero is obviously Sydney Carton because he made such a change from the bad to the good. “Careless and slovenly if not debauched” Is what Dickens first describes of Sydney Carton’s appearance. At this point in the book Carton is not at all a hero. He is just a flawed man. He often feels like his life has been wasted saying that he “cares for no man on earth and no man on earth cares for him.” He is seen as wasting his skills on drink and laziness. Carton is not the perfect man, however, he is not flawed to a point where nobody likes him. He has an addiction for alcohol, true, but he is never violent or rude. Carton’s faults make him a more relatable hero. Dickens early description of Carton’s flaws just set a tone so when he acts …show more content…

He becomes friends with Lucie and Doctor Manette at the trial of Charles Darnay in London, and soon afterwards he starts coming around them more often. One night Carton opens his heart up to Lucie. As she describes it, she sees his heart “bleeding”. Even though he was in love with her, Carton feels and realizes that he is not good enough for her. Many men who were as in love with women as much as he was in love with Lucie would go to extremes to be with them regardless of anything but their own feelings, but Carton is different. He tells her that even if she loved him back, “he would have been conscious . . . that he would bring her misery, bring her to sorrow and repentance, blight her, disgrace her, pull her down with him.” Knowing that he cannot make Lucie happy, Carton is enough of a man to step aside. But he is still in love with her. Before he departs, he demonstrates his love. He states that he would “give his life, to keep a life you love beside you!” It is here that Carton demonstrates his first sign of heroism. Heroism caused him let his rival marry the girl he loves, because he knows it is best for her. Heroism prevents him from leaving Lucie 's life as a lover, and instead he stays as a caring friend. Heroism allows him to know Lucie with a “blameless though an unchanged mind ' after her marriage. Through his love for Lucie, Carton grows in strength of the