had hired in honour of the day. The rest followed in another carriage, and soon, in a neighbouring church, where no strange eyes looked on, Charles Darnay and Lucie Manette were happily married.‖
Charles Darnay and Lucie Manette were happily married, although there were many twists and turns in their life. They got a happy ending eventually.
3. The Love of Sydney Carton and Lucie Manette
Sydney Carton was a young lawyer. He was known as a self-aware functional alcoholic in this novel. Infact he was talented and quick–minded, but he was cynical and bohemian at the same time. He had a crush on Lucie, but he was so self-abased that he can’t strive for Lucie’s love. While he musterred up some courage and made a point to let Lucie known his admiring,he also in a depressed situation.
A sign of Carton's selfishness is seen when he visited Lucie Manette alone, and told her of his disappointment with his life.
―It is too late for that. I shall never be better than I am. I shall sink lower, and be worse.‖
―If it had been possible, Miss Manette, that you could have re-turned the love of the man you see before yourself flung away, wasted, drunken, poor creature of misuse as you know him to be he would have been conscious this day and hour, in spite of his happiness, that he would bring you to misery, bring you to sorrow and repentance, blight you, disgrace you, pull you down with him. I know very well that you can have no tenderness for me; I ask for none; I am even thankful that it cannot be.‖
“No, Miss Manette; all through it, I have known myself to be quite undeserving. And yet I have had the weakness, and have still the weakness, to wish you to know with what a sudden mastery you kindled me, heap of ashes that I am, into fire a fire, however, insepa- rable in its nature from myself, quickening nothing, lighting noth- ing, doing no service, idly burning away.‖
All above reflected the characters of Carton. Although he looked the same in
appearance like Charles Darnay, but the fate of the two are totally different. He's a bit inferiority, for his inferior he indulge himself, and then he allowed himself to a despair situation.
But in fact we can still feel his kindhearted in many aspects, especially his great love for Lucie. He once said, ―For you, and for 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.‖Many people moved by this heart-warming confession.
He decided to sacrifice himself in order to save the life of Charles Darnay, who had shown himself more worthy of living it than Carton had his own. Carton regrets his being regarded as a never-do-well for having wasted his life, and chooses to give it up,hoping that his past will be forgotten and that he will be remembered for his sacrifice.
His last confession in the novel was also move us so deeply.
“To none. No, Miss Manette, to none. If you will hear me through a very little more, all you can ever do for me is done. I wish you to know that you have been the last dream of my soul. In my degradation I have not been so degraded but that the sight of you with your father, and of this home made such a home by you, has stirred old shadows that I thought had died out of me. Since I knew you, I have been troubled by a remorse that I thought would never reproach me again, and have heard whispers from old voices impelling me upward, that I thought were silent for ever. I have had unformed ideas of striving afresh, beginning anew, shaking off sloth and sensuality, and fighting out the abandoned fight. A dream, all a dream, that ends in nothing, and leaves the sleeper where he lay down, but I wish you to know that you inspired it.‖
We can feel his ture love to Luice and his despaired feeling. This enriched the image of Carton. Sydney Carton’s deep love for Lucy. Manette is touching, his personality is lofty and he finally got the peace of mind, for the altar of sacrifice, and, with the most beautiful emotional bid farewell to he loved ones, he is brave against oppression of love, he sacrificed his own life to help his lover, and he would get an eternal life.
At the end of the novel,it wrote ―It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.‖ A sincere feeling, a moving story, Sydney Carton can be a pure into this period of the humiliations of the love, he's a traitor who not content with the present situation, he usd his all to challenge the darkness of the world. What he wanted was the true light and hope.
Ⅲ. Conclusion
In brief, from what we have mentioned above, it is very obvious that A tale of Two Cities took love and hatred into the stream of the revolutionary history. And it is not merely a history about the French Revolution, it also painted a tale of love that showed the influence of human kind and reflected the great love. In this novel the French Revolution was indicated the cruel government, but it also proved that love is a great thing in the world. Especially the selfless true love of Sydeny. And love can dissolve hatred, as it can only tolerance by love.
Just as Sydney Carton once had spoken to Charles that he felt that Charles like him before fell, he also said to Lucie that she liked his last but best dream. So the love for him, not only love, but carrying more things, carrying the ideal of himself and for his best lover.
Besides, A Tale of Two Cities points out the human nature and some significant social thoughts. The reflection and discussion was most philosophical and stimulating. Dickens wrote the art structure with careful arrangement, beautiful language and represented the dramatic conflict characters incisively and vividly. And with all that he had described, we can feel the true love.
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