Self-Sacrifice In A Tale Of Two Cities

Similar to a mother with her child, many characters in Charles Dickens’s novel A Tale of Two Cities sacrifice themselves in the name of love. This novel takes place during the French revolution in Europe. It starts off when a young business man named Jarvis Lorry receives a letter about a man named Dr. Manette, whom everyone thought dead for eighteen years. This story reveals through a story of imprisonment and love, that an upper class family known as the Evremonds becomes responsible for Dr. Manette’s imprisonment. Meanwhile, Dr. Manette’s daughter Lucie marries the descendant of the Evremonds, Charles Darnay. When Darnay becomes a prisoner on the death list, a man named Sydney Carton dies for him. Throughout the revolution, sacrifice becomes the only option left to save somebody that these characters’ care about deeply. The acts of Sydney Carton, Dr. Manette, and Madame Defarge show how much self-sacrifice plays a part in this novel. The first character who sacrifices themselves for the people they love becomes Madame Defarge. This woman gives everything to avenge her family’s death. To act on this revenge, Madame Defarge becomes a major role in the French Revolution. She

Carton throws his life away in order for Lucie to have her husband with her. This becomes an extremely painful decision for Carton, because Lucie becomes the only person he ever loves. He makes this decision just so that Lucie can be happy. Towards the beginning of the novel, Dickens foreshadows that something will happen between Carton and Lucie, because Carton reveals the depth of his feelings for Lucie. “For you, and for any dear to you, I would do anything… think now and then that there is a man who would give his life, to keep a life you love beside you!” (154). This explains that later on in the story, Sydney Carton will die to keep Lucie happy, fulfilling his promise to her years