Character Sketches

Character Sketches
a Tale of Two Cities

Charles Darnay
Although Darnay rejects the Evrémonde name and inheritance and moves to England, he cannot
escape his family history. Darnay is a wealthy gentleman who spends time in both France and
England during the time of the story. However, he resents how the lower classes are extorted and
kept in extreme poverty by the upper class. Darnay specifically resents the views of his uncle,
Marquis St. Evrémonde, who has no respect for the people in poverty. Despite his attempts to
distance himself from the scandals and horrors of the French aristocracy, Charles can’t seem to
keep himself out of trouble. The man gets into three (count 'em, three) court cases over the course
of the novel. First, he’s tried as a traitor to the English crown. Then he’s tried as a traitor to the
French Republic. 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. 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.As the French Revolution begins, Darnay is
arrested and brought before a tribunal, where the crimes of his uncle and father are brought to
light. He is sentenced to death by guillotine, and bravely accepts his fate. However, Carton then
takes his place (rendering Darnay unconscious so that he cannot refuse his help) so that he and his
family can escape.
Lucie Mannette
Lucie is the daughter of Dr. Alexander Mannette. She is wise beyond her years, unfailingly kind, and
loving. 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. Golden-haired, blue-eyed, and altogether divine, Lucie Mannette looks like an angel. In
fact, she happens to act like one, too. At the tender age of eighteen, she is asked to devote her life
to a father whom she’s never met. Lucie spends approximately 2.7 seconds worrying about whether
or not this is a good idea. 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 Pros, 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.
Javis Lorry
Over the course of the novel, Jarvis Lorry develops from a purely pragmatic, business-like figure
into an intensely loyal and devoted protector who becomes an extension of the Mannette-Darnay
family. When he first reunites with Lucie, Jarvis claims that “I had no feelings and that all
relationships I hold with my fellow-creatures are mere business relations.” Lorry is certainly a
devoted and diligent employee: when he decides to make a dangerous journey to Paris on behalf of
the bank, he calmly explains “if I were not prepared to submit to a few inconveniences for the sake
of Tellson’s, after all these years, who ought to be?” However, in contrast to his claims to be
strictly concerned with business, Lorry shows great tenderness and loyalty to Lucie and her father.
When Dr. Mannette relapses after Lucie’s marriage, Lorry is very gentle and tactful in explaining
what happened by pretending this is the case of a hypothetical patient. Indeed, in Carton’s final
vision, he describes the end of Lorry’s life as “the good old man, so long their friend, in ten years’
time enriching them with all he has, and passing tranquilly to his reward.” Jarvis Lorry exemplifies
someone who lives according to principles and integrity in both his professional and personal life.
Sydney Carton
Sydney Carton proves the most dynamic character in A Tale of Two Cities. He first appears as a
lazy, alcoholic attorney who cannot muster even the smallest amount of interest in his own life. He
describes his existence as a supreme waste of life and takes every opportunity to declare that he
cares for nothing and no one. But the reader senses, even in the initial chapters of the novel, that
Carton in fact feels something that he perhaps cannot articulate. In his conversation with the
recently acquitted Charles Darnay, Carton’s comments about Lucie Manette, while bitter and
sardonic, betray his interest in, and budding feelings for, the gentle girl. Eventually, Carton reaches
a point where he can admit his feelings to Lucie herself. Before Lucie weds Darnay, Carton
professes his love to her, though he still persists in seeing himself as essentially worthless. This
scene marks a vital transition for Carton and lays the foundation for the supreme sacrifice that he
makes at the novel’s end.
Carton is portrayed as a brilliant but depressed and cynical drunkard who is full of self-loathing
because of what he sees as his wasted life. He feels a deep unrequited love for Lucie Mannette,
who nevertheless inspires him to try to be a better person.
Stryver
A boorish lawyer who employs Sydney Carton.
A lawyer who defends Charles Darnay. Stryver, as his name implies, only cares about climbing the
professional ladder. He appears to be quite an aggressive person, and Dickens mentions that he
shoulders himself in or out of situations twice.
The author says that though Mr. Stryver is in his early thirties, he looks twenty-years older—"He
was stout loud, red, bluff, and free from any drawback of delicacy," Mr. Stryver as an honorable
and polite man, catching Mr. Darnay’s attention through the strength of his personality and
accepting Mr. Darnay’s compliments with grace.
Dr Mannette
Doctor Alexander Mannette is a character in Charles Dickens' 1859 novel A Tale of Two Cities. He
is Lucie's father, a brilliant physician, and spent eighteen years "in secret" as a prisoner in the
Bastille prior to the French Revolution.
Through the novel, Dr. Mannette is a proven "good soul", respected by the revolutionaries as well
as his family. However his memories of the time in unjust imprisonment have had a negative effect
on him. With no memory of his family or former life as a doctor, Dr. Mannette calls himself a
shoemaker, because that is what he was taught to do in Bastille Prison. Obsessive making of shoes
is only a distraction from the feelings he does not want to deal with.

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