The passage, “Carton’s depression”, takes place at the end of Book Two, Chapter 5 in the book A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens. While they were talking about their day, Stryver mentions in front of Carton how he is up one minute and down the other minute showing how he has very easy mood changes. This is taking place 5 years after Darnay was on his trial. He was saved by Sydney Carton. This explains Carton’s feelings after the trial. Carton is basically contemplating his life. The main function of the passage is to enhance the depth of Carton’s character as well as how he relates to Darnay. This basically explains his mindset. In the passage “Carton’s Depression”, Charles Dickens is foreshadowing Carton’s actions at the end. However, …show more content…
this passage serves primarily as motive for the ending of the book or and as representation of Carton who is a round character. This is shown through Literary techniques and devices like metaphor, allusion, and diction. Carton is shown in the passage as a person regarding his life as useless and he can’t find a reason for his life. However, later he admits his love towards Lucie. This shows the reader how Carton easily changes moods. the mood change is Carton feeling useless and then thinking about live and being hopeful. Later in the book, Darnay and Lucie are about to get married which caused him to go talk to her about his feeling towards her but then mentions how he sees himself as worthless. This scene foreshadows the sacrifice idea for Carton. He mentioned that he will do anything to ensure that she lives a happy life with her family. This shows essentially how Carton views himself as worthless, but some of his acts like saving Darnay in the first trial and getting executed instead of Darnay at the end of the novel indicate that he is very important. different interpretation would be that he did all of those actions and sacrificed his life because he is hopeless and doesn’t care about life as much as Darnay and his family do. The passage starts with "Waste forces within him, and a desert all around, this man stood still on his way across a silent terrace"(Dickens, 82). The significance in this quotation is that it establishes a figurative setting of the whole situation. Carton is feeling alone, which is shown the metaphor “desert all around”. The use of the word “desert” shows how Carton sees the space around him as empty and lonely. Desert also shows how the area around him is not welcoming. Carton is solitude and hopeless as the deserts hope for rain. “Waste forces” indicate that carton views himself as some sort of a heroic figure with forces which is significant because Carton sacrifices his life at the end of the novel for the sake of Lucie. "saw for a moment, lying in the wilderness before him, a mirage of honorable ambition, self-denial, and perseverance" (Dickens,82). “"saw for a moment, lying in the wilderness before him, a mirage of honorable ambition, self-denial” shows how Carton is.living a double life. One of them, he is strong and has perseverance while the other as mentioned in the beginning shows how he is collapsing and hopeless. Overall, this part shows how Carton is contradicting himself. The contradiction is significant because it shows how Carton can’t get a correct thought or answer about his life. "In the fair city of this vision, there were airy galleries from which the loves and graces looked upon him" (Dickens,82). In the phrase "love and graces looked upon him", diction indicates that carton is starting to have some hope. There is also a tone change because it goes from negative to positive. The negative mood is shown when Darnay is feeling hopeless and the positive mood is shown when Carton is talking about love and grace. The tone change occurs because he started thinking about Lucie which represents Darnay’s ideal women that he hopes to get. Lucie came up because she is the person he loves and has hope whenever it is something associated with her. Carton focused his attention towards Darnay and his feelings towards him.
When Dickens mentions "gardens in which the fruits of life hung ripening, waters of Hope that sparkled in his sight. A moment, and it was gone." (Dickens, 82), an allusion to the Greek myth of Tantalus. This Greek mythology mainly focused on the main character being stuck in a pond which alludes to Carton being obsessed with Lucie and Darnay. The allusion to the Greek mythology mainly serves to show the reader that Carton is stuck in a cycle of feeling useless and losing everything. This part also shows how carton is essentially being mocked by the presence of Darnay because Darnay is using a potential he once had which is Lucie. This quotation is important because as rather it can also serve a biblical allusion due to the garden being like the garden of Eden. Dickens could have possibly used this allusion to show how Carton is going through a reflection process after the Fall of Grace which is finding out Lucie and Darnay might get married. The water here alludes to how Carton is going through a cleansing phase. As we can see later, that cleansing phase caused a minor personality rebirth. This shown through his actions at the very end when he sacrifices his life to save Darnay and ensure that his family lives a happy life. The importance in this quotation is that Carton mentions that his action is one of the most useful thing he has ever …show more content…
done. Later in the novel, Carton is viewed as the protagonist since he saves the main characters.
He paid the highest cost of sacrifice with his life. A biblical allusion can be seen because Carton can represent Jesus Christ and the famous wine scene shows the blood of Jesus and how France is corrupted. Carton described Darnay as “a dissolute dog who has never done any good, and never will.” However, he sacrificed his life for him and his family. This enforces the idea that Carton is similar is a an allusion to Jesus because Jesus sacrificed his life for the people who treated him poorly. However, Carton shows in the passage how he is envious of Darnay. He feels that Darnay is controlling what he could have possibly controlled which is Lucie’s love. Later, Carton meets Lucie and lets her know that he will do anything for her happiness and her family. the significance in this quotation is that it shows how complex Carton’s character is unlike what is shown in the passage as being fragile and has a lot of mood
changes. Later in the passage, Dickens describes how Carton goes to his house by saying, "Climbing to a high chamber in a well of houses, he threw himself down in his clothes on a neglected bed, and its pillow was wet with wasted tears."(Dickens, 82). This part shows how Carton knows that the situation he is in reflects his actions like changing his mood fast. He is even angry with himself because of believing he could be happy. When Dickens says, “a neglected bed” and “wasted tears” it shows the effective dictions is used to represent how Carton realized that he already decided his future. The tears can be seen as a way to wash the body in order to realize what it has reached. The final phrase in the passage is “Sadly, sadly, the sun rose; it rose upon no sadder sight than the man of good abilities and good emotions, incapable of their directed exercise, incapable of his own help and his own happiness, sensible of the blight on him, and resigning himself to let it eat him away." This phrase is important because it starts with contradictions between Sadly and the sun rising. This contradiction also helps to show how Carton is struggling with his life. He is suffering because the sun is rising and he is still alive. Carton doesn’t like being alive and having a setting around him that can possibly foster happiness. The repetition of “sadly” shows how Carton is feeling depressed and doesn’t even want to live. "Let it eat him away" this shows how Carton is giving up and allowing his bad choices and qualities “eat” his life and destroy his life. This final part shows how Carton is deteriorating after losing the ability to have Lucie because of Darnay. Overall Carton is shown as struggling to find the main cause for him to live in this life. He is feeling depressed and useless. Those ideas provoke him to be envious of Darnay. Another idea is that the society doesn’t see Carton as he truly is. Dicken’s description of Carton getting in his room can be interpreted as a sensory image because he is in his house, in his room, and in his bed. Overall, Carton feeling useless causes him to be one of the most important characters because he saved Darnay and technically saved the whole family from Grief. His personality and attitude are changing the whole time which is seen through the contradiction in the novel. Contradiction is shown throughout the whole novel from the very beginning when it starts “it is the best of times and the worst of times” (page 1) and when he mentions “Sadly, sadly, the sun rose”. This shows how Dickens uses contradiction to conclude important points
When Carton is being taken to the guillotine, he meets a young seamstress who was imprisoned with Darnay. She soon discovers that Carton is not actually Darnay, ““Are you dying for him?” she whispered. “And his wife and child. Hush! Yes.”” (Dickens 365). Caron is asked by the seamstress if he is sacrificing himself for Darnay. Carton replies that he is, but also for Darnay’s wife and child, Lucie and little Lucie. This shows why Carton is sacrificing himself. Carton, though he is saving Darnay’s life, is ultimately giving his life to save Lucie and her child, as well as the future children she and Darnay will have. His love for Lucie is the true reason he commits such an act of self-violence. Sydney Carton’s sacrifice is heroic because he willingly gives his life to save Darnay’s and to preserve the happiness of his family (Keck). Carton is ultimately driven by his love for the Manette family, and his desire to protect them and the love they have for one another. Though Sydney Carton is seemingly a failure, “his redeeming grace is his love for Lucie, which persuades him to sacrifice himself so that she and her family can escape” (Plot Summary). Again, this shows that Carton’s sacrifice is driven by the love he holds for Lucie. Everything Carton told Lucie he would do for her and her family has ultimately
During the final event of the book, Carton sacrifices his life. He saves Darnays life purely for the happiness of Lucie. Carton drugs Darnay and Barsad takes him to the carriage outside where his family is waiting.
Sydney Carton, one of the main characters of the book, A Tale of Two Cities, is a drunken lawyer who works with Stryver on the trial of Charles Darnay.he doesnt care about anything. At first this man seems as if he is a lazy, good for nothing, alcoholic. he tells Lucie Manette he doesn't believe that his life is worth anything and feels as if it is pointless to even live anymore. When you first meet him during the court scene it looks as if he just rolled out of bed and was dragged to the courtroom. This one man sat leaning back, with his torn gown half off him, his untidy wig put on just sat it had happened to light on his head after it's removal, his hands in his pockets, and his eyes on the ceiling as they had been all day. Something especially reckless in his demeanor not only gave him a disreputable look, but so diminished the strong resemblance he undoubtedly bore to the prisoner. However after he meets Lucie he falls madly in love for her. This marks a period of change for Sydney Carton. But he then knows that Charles Darnay is going to be married to her. He sill believes that his life is worthless but it seems as if he's a bit more willing to work and to do things for other people.
Sydney Carton is a character in the novel, A Tale of Two Cities, written by Charles Dickens. In Book the First, Chapter 5, “The Wine-Shop”, Sydney Carton says, “I am a disappointing drudge, sir. I care for no man on earth, and no man on earth cares for me.” The childhood life of Sydney Carton has not been mentioned in the book and his childhood life is left up to the imagination. Sydney Carton’s childhood can be assumed to have been bad based on his drinking habits, the way he treats others, and his need to be a part of a family.
thought about him or the way he was dressed, and remained very calm and relaxed,
He yearns for a life he was never able to experience, a life like the one led by Charles Darnay. Carton reflects on his life, “Waste forces within him, and a desert all around, this man stood still on his way across a silent terrace, and saw for a moment, lying in the wilderness before him, a mirage of honorable ambition, self-denial, and perseverance” (Dickens 88). Carton has lived a long life and he has nothing to show for it. With no wife
		Sydney Carton has been presented as the worthless human being. He was always drunk. He did not acquire any high social position. He was always alone and lonely. Nobody loved him and nobody respected him. "I care for no man on earth, and no man on earth cares for me" said Carton (page 99). However, Sydney Carton did never cause any harm to anybody, but actually helped the people around him. Sydney Carton was physically identical to Charles Darnay. When Darnay was being prosecuted for treason against the English government, Carton allowed Mr. Stryver (the lawyer Carton worked for) to reveal him "Look well upon that gentleman, my learned friend there, and then look well upon the prisoner. How say you? Are they very like each other?" said Stryver (page 86). "My lord inquired of Mr. Stryver, whether they were next to try Mr. Carton for treason? But Mr. Stryver replied no" (Page 86). The court then released Darnay. This was one of the ways Sydney Carton presented assistance to others, and that shows that he is a good person who does not mind helping other people. After the trial Carton and Darnay met with each other, and they had a talk. Mr. Carton had told Darnay that he hated him because Lucy loved him. Couple of months after this incident, Mr. Carton asked to meet with Mr. Darnay. Carton asked Darnay to forgive him for the previous incident and also asked him to be his friend. "Mr. Darnay, I wish we might be friends" said Carton (page 251) "On the drunken occasion in...
In Sydney Carton’s sacrifice, the theme of redemption that built up throughout the book culminates. Dickens wrote Carton’s character with one end in mind. Thus, Carton’s one success in life is his sacrificial death. Throughout his novel, Dickens entwines foreshadowing and allusion to ultimately point to Carton. He is the culmination of the theme of resurrection. Using the biblical model, Dickens parallels the human Carton with Jesus, thus constructing not only an incredible allusion, but also a marvelous feat of storytelling.
Carton thinks, “I see a child who lay upon her bosom and who bore my name, a man whining his way up in that path of life which once was mine. I see him whining it so well, that my name is made illustrious there by the light of his” (364). The child that Carton foresees will become the man Carton always wanted to be. Not only did his fate benefit Darnay and his descendants, but Carton was rid of his past miseries that made him a prisoner during his life. Upon hearing about Darnay’s imprisonment, Dr. Manette attempted to change Darnay’s fate of dying by the guillotine. Dr. Manette promised, “I knew I could help Charles out of all danger; I told Lucie so” (253). However, Dr. Manette’s forgotten past of his unjust imprisonment in Bastille reappears through his own letter denouncing Darnay, giving Carton his golden opportunity to give himself for Darnay. After taking the letter addressed to the Marquis St. Evrémonde, Darnay was surprised upon reading the letter to know that his loyal servant Gabelle was in danger and felt compelled to save Gabelle. “...the winds and streams had driven him within the influence of the Loadstone Rock, and it was drawing him to itself, and he must go. Everything that arose before his mind drifted him on, faster and faster, more and more steadily, to the terrible attraction” (234). After Carton fulfilled his fate of sacrificing himself, Darnay was freed from his attachment with France and settled in England once and for all. Through the connections of the character’s imprisonment, Dickens illustrates that only a sacrifice could change the fate of
Sydney Carton is introduced as a pessimistic introvert who struggles with his id and superego. Although Carton’s past is never revealed in the novel, a traumatic event clearly haunts Carton and prevents him from leading a pleasant life. According to Sigmund Freud, “the memories and emotions associated with trauma” are stored in the subconscious mind because an individual cannot bear to look at these memories (Dever 202). One part of the subconscious mind is the id, or “basic desires”, of a human being (Baker 4). Carton desires to drink as a way to detach from his past, and because of his lack of emotional strength, he allows his id to take over and Carton becomes an alcoholic. Based on Carl Jung’s ideas, Carton is considered an introvert because he is described as the “idlest” of all men and is viewed by society as a worthless drunk (Dickens 91). This displays Carton’s struggle with another element of the subcon...
The best example of resurrection in the entire book, is also partly ironic in that Sydney Carton must die for this resurrection to take place, when he is executed on the guillotine in Paris. However, his death is not in the book as Dicken's idea of poetic justice, as in the case of the villains, but rather as a divine reward. This is displayed when Carton decides to sacrifice himself by dying on the guillotine instead of Darnay, with "I am the Resurrection and the life." This theme of resurrection appears earlier on with Carton's prophecy, where he envisions a son to be born to Lucie and Darnay, a son who will bear Carton's name. Thus he will symbolically be reborn through Lucie and Darnay's child. This vision serves another purpose, though. In the early parts of the novel, Lucie and Darnay have a son, who dies when he is a very young child.
At the beginning of the novel, Sydney Carton presents himself as a drunken attorney. When Carton converses with Charles Darnay, Dickens presents Carton as a drunk, "Carton, who smelt of port wine, and did not appear to be quite sober" (89). Carton appears constantly drunk at the beginning of the novel. Also, Carton has no sense of self-worth. When Carton drinks at the Bar with Mr. Stryver, Stryver describes him as, "[Y]our way is, and always was, a lame way. You summon no energy and purpose" (95). Dickens, also describes Carton as, "Sydney Carton, idlest and most unpromising of men" (92). As most people believe, Carton feels that he himself has no purpose. He agrees with the way other people feel about him and takes no initiative.
Darney. Barbara Hardy describes this first trial and how Carton comes about saving Charles in her essay "The Change of Heart in Dicken's Novels." She writes
Manette, and Sydney Carton. Sacrifice is always a major and important act no matter how small the gesture was. A lesson that was learned is that love can be the direct source of sacrifice. Carton and Dr. Manette both sacrificed themselves for Lucie’s happiness because they loved her. Darnay sacrificed himself for Gabelle because he feels some sort of family love towards
both positive and negative traits that they hold. Sydney Carton in Charles Dickens’ A Tale