Sydney Carton In A Tale Of Two Cities By Charles Dickens

Kerry Van Rees
Honors English II, Period 2
Sydney Carton Analysis Essay Sydney Carton is a very complex character. In the book A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, Carton is an assistant to a lawyer, an alcoholic, and has wasted his life. But when he meet Lucie Manette, all of this changes. He goes from a lazy drunk to a Christlike figure at the end of the book when he sacrifices his life for Lucie and her family. Carton is first described as “careless and slovenly if not debauched…” on page 79, chapter 3. This means he looks messy and dirty. We are also told that he is a drunk on page 90, where it says “Sydney Carton, idlest and most unpromising of men, was Stryver’s greatest ally. What the two drank together, between Hilary Term and Michaelmas, might have floated a king’s ship.” Carton does not care about how he looks or how he is perceived by others. He states that he “cares for no man on earth, and no man cares” for him in return. Carton knows he has wasted his potential and his life. On page 153, he tells Lucie he is a “self-flung away, wasted, drunken, poor creature of misuse…” All of this has taken place within Book 2 and he has not become somebody that resembles Christ yet. This change happens later on,

On page 156, he says “For you, and any dear to you, I would do anything. If my career were of that better kind that there was any opportunity or capacity of sacrifice in it, I would embrace any sacrifice for you and for those dear to you.” Carton also says to Lucie that if he was in Darnay’s position, “he would bring you to misery, bring you down to sorrow and repentance, blight you disgrace you, pull you down with him.” He then says he is thankful that he is not the one marrying Lucie because even though he loves her, he would never want to bring any of those things upon her. He is glad that she is with Darnay instead of him, because Darnay will bring her