Introduction
In English literature history, Dickens is the most famous classical author besides Shakespeare, and he is one of the most famous writers in the world. ―To his friend and biographer, John Forster argued that ‘there was probably never a book by a great humorist, and an artist so prolific in the conception of character, with so little humor and so few remember able figures.’” 1 He is one of the greatest critical realists in the Victorian Age. His novels offer a most complete and realistic picture of the English bourgeois society of his age. ―One of the greatest modern writers, James Joyce, claimed that Dickens has entered into the language more than any writer since Shakespeare.” 2 This is not mere praise. Like Shakespeare, Dickens brims with originality but expresses and addresses human nature at large. Like Shakespeare, he is fully in possession of himself, creating an art that is powerful personal and generously accessible. Like Shakespeare, he creates an art that is powerfully personal and generously accessible. Like Shakespeare, he creates a flexible language for self-expression and imaginative creativity that commands admiration for its brilliance and virtuosity. Like Shakespeare, he creates a unique and independent-seeming world, allowing us to use that time-worn term world with precision.
Charles Dickens was born in a navy personnel family. Because of his father‘s failure of managing money very well, he ended up in prison for getting into debt. Just like the hero‘s exercise in David Copperfield, he suffers many tribulations. His education was off and on and went to several schools. Sometimes he was completely dropped out. He began his first career, as a junior clerk at a lawyer‘s office. Then he went to work as a freelance law reporter. Dickens did not take his misfortune on the others. Instead, he made good use of what had seen and gone through. Miserable childhood, persistence to work and the reality of England is his real university.
Charles Dickens can be considered as a prolific writer, but A Tale of Two Cities is the only historical work of his 14 novels. It has fewer characters and sub-plots than a typical Charles Dickens‘s novel, but it has always been one of his most popular and best-loved novels. In this somewhat uncharacteristic opening chapter, Dickens
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establishes the historical setting of the novel. No characters are introduced and no plot, it seems, is set in motion. The famous opening paragraph, actually just a single sentence, is can be considered the mirror of that time. Its interpretation of the French Revolution has strongly shaped British views of national identity and political legitimacy. At the same time, it offers a powerful melodramatic plot pitting private individuals against political systems. In this novel, the magnificent scenery of that famous Revolution which happened in France and shocked all over the world is depicted incisively and vividly. However, the most important is the author want to advocate humanitarianism, extol philanthropy through this novel. Long before created A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens showed great solicitude for the French Revolution and retreaded an English historian, Thomas Carlyle‘s The French Revolution. Charles Dickens wrote in his Preface to Tale that ―no one can hope to add anything to the philosophy of Mr. Carlyle‘s wonderful book‖. With reference to Carlyle‘s history and other historical works, Dickens has tried to make his portrayal of the working population in A Tale of Two Cities as historically accurate as possible. As the chief victims of the oppression and injustice of the old regime, the lower levels of the peasantry and the urban poor became the chief characters in the revolutionary novel. They are depicted far more sympathetically by Dickens than they were by most writers of the nineteenth century. The reason why he is interested in the revolution is that many serious social crises concealed in England during the same time period. In describing the abuses of eighteenth-century England, Dickens adopts a less critical tone. But in England the ordinary citizen can not depend upon the justice system to protect him. This comparison between the two countries will be elaborated and the differences heightened as the novel progress into the Revolution and beyond. In late 1854, he said“I believe, discontent is like smoke which is much worse than fire burns, particularly as the first revolution in France before the outbreak of the public psychology. That is dangerous, because thousands of reasons -- such as bad harvest, incompetence and imperiousness of the nobility, defeat in overseas war, domestic incident and so on -- turned into a terrible fire that have never be seen.” Dickens connects this novel with the French Revolution. Many of his descriptions refer back to
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the Revolution and help convey the tone of depression. In Ruth Glancy‘s Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities a sourcebook, he puts much importance on the Revolution. But everyone who has researched the novel knows that characters are much important than the background. In this novel, he also makes clear the characters in this novel through their actions rather than dialogue.
Dickens is a bourgeois humanitarian. Just as Sun Li once said, Great writers are all humanitarian. Dickens is extremely against the merciless behavior done by the aristocrats, but at the same time, he dislikes the violent revolution. Therefore, he creates many models that solve social problems with humanitarianism, which defeat hatred with philanthropy: Dr. Manette and his daughter Lucie, Charles Darnay, Sydney Carton. Among them Sydney Carton represents the highest state of humanitarianism.
Just like Hamlet, Sydney Carton is the tragic hero in Charles Dickens‘s novel A Tale of Two Cities. He is the most memorable character in this novel, a story of redemption, resurrection, self-sacrifice change and love; all of these words have to do with the extreme transformation of. The famous Chinese writer, Ba Jin once recalled the image with deep emotion and respect:“That Englishman who sacrificed his life, paced to the scaffold leisurely for other‘s happiness lingers in my mind for several decades. I can not forget him, just like I can not forget a bosom friend. He also is one of my teachers. He sets an example and teaches me to know how to make yourself sublimation.‖ It is necessary for all tragic heroes to be accompanied by a tragic flaw. Sydney Carton‘s tragic flaw is love. Sydney Carton had such great love for Lucie Manette that evolves from a depressed loaner that can only attempt to substitute happiness with alcoholic indulgence to a loyal caring friend who makes the ultimate sacrifice for the ones he loves. Ultimately the tragic flaw leads to the downfall of the character. Carton‘s clouded state of mind places him in a situation where his life is lost. This tragic flaw led to death or tragedy thus making Sydney Carton the tragic hero.
Novelist E. M. Forster famously criticized Dickens‘s characters as ―flat,‖ lamenting that they seem to lack the depth and complexity that make literary
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characters realistic and believable. Sydney Carton is a flat character. He is just a drunken lawyer who works for “the lion‖. ―He represents the sacrificial hero who ritually slaughtered of his own free will so that society might renew itself, a prospect he envisions before he dies.‖ 3 Though these characters are flat, they have unique features and they can display an amazing felling. People have been comfortably talking for a hundred years about the fact that Dickens‘s descriptions of characters often evoke the prospect of humans being beats. “They have claws and beaks, and they are snakes eels, and lynxes.‖ The characters in A Tale of Two Cities have unexceptionally displayed the same quality. But his attitudes towards these dehumanized people are different. One is born cruelty, and to this kind of people, Dickens is strongly against. The other is changing cruel because of the environment, and to this kind of people, Dickens shows a lot of sympathy, but he is not for them. Above all these people work for the humanized people.
Humanitarianism, especially the core of it, fraternity which was strongly advocated by Charles Dickens was the sane answer to the problem of human existence. From his point of view the feudal aristocrats and common class both need the virtue of humanitarianism and fraternity. Dickens is aware of the social contradiction and desires the common people to get away from oppression; he wants people to pursue happiness and peace. He advocates kindness and integrity and opposes the aristocrats who tyrannize over the public. What the author in the essay wants to express is that only humanitarianism and love can solve the problems between people. Between poor and rich, love is everything. Humanitarianism and fraternity are necessary to any kinds of society; the two points are fully reflected in his novel. Sydney Carton is not the leading character of a tale of two cities. The love among Lucie Manette, Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton is a main thread of the whole novel. Dickens chooses Carton as the embodiment of ideal personality, and the development of Carton‘s character symbolizes the writer‘s view, especially shows us his deep consideration of human power. Sydney Carton was a young lawyer. He was known as a self-aware functional alcoholic in this novel. In fact he was talented and quick–minded, but he was cynical and bohemian at the same time. He had a crush on
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Lucie, but he was so self-abased that he can‘t strive for Lucie‘s love. While he mustered up some courage and made a point to let Lucie known his admiring，he also in a depressed situation. In this thesis, Caron‘s attitude towards his own life is not advisable. It is a little negative. However, his love for Lucie changes him greatly, and allows him to be a better person. Dickens writes a shocking tragedy and makes Sydney Carton, his cynical and charming hero, one of his strongest and most sympathetic characters. Carton‘s tragedy is a beautiful tragedy. It is full of touch and humanism. This is the most important reason that the thesis chooses to analyze Sydney Carton. Carton‘s tragedy is not just because of his attitude, but also because of the society. So this thesis chooses to analyze Carton‘s tragedy not his character analysis. The tragedy of work, tragedy of life, and tragedy of love are the three aspects of his tragedy. Among them, tragedy of love is the best part can express Carton‘s feature, and Dickens‘s humanism and philanthropism. People always say internal factors are the fundamental reasons, however, the external factors are also important. That is heroes are made by the time.
It is worth pointing out that while Charles Dickens is often very funny, this book is not. This is really one of his most serious works. There's really not a lot of comic relief. But it's also one of his more emotionally satisfying books and one of his least sentimental. When Dickens was writing this book, he intended to make a breakthrough in the art. The artistic achievement of this book already strongly confirms that his intention has been realized. Just take the opening long sentence as an example, contrasts, parallels, and doublings of character, incident, place, time and theme enact the dualisms established in these statements. The combination of realism and romanticism, the using of symbolism, and the exquisite analysis of psychology leave the readers a deeply impression.
From A Tale of Two Cities published to the present day, it has a history of one hundred and thirty years. Whether it is in the middle of the academic or readers, it is a work which is still welcomed. Honestly, the great work is just like ―immortal‖ thought it conveying, it also can be immortal anyway. It is a splendid piece in the world history literature.
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