Tale Of Two Cities: Recalled To Life

As quoted from Charles Dickens’ novel, A Tale of Two Cities, “[the time will come, the time will not be long in coming, when new ties will be formed about you—ties that will bind you yet more tenderly and strongly to the home you so adorn” (140). Throughout the book, the theme of “Recalled to Life” and resurrection is meticulously exposed; yet, the theme is typically highlighted when one character shows compassion towards another. For instance, the kindness Lucie Manette shares with her father, Doctor Manette, Charles Darnay, and Sydney Stryver. Because of the central character’s abilities to bring one back to life through benevolence, one becomes more optimistic and lifted from a drior situation. The theme “Recalled to Life” is symbolic through

Sydney Carton, a lawyer’s assistant, described himself as: “a disappointed drudge… I care for no man on earth, and no man on earth cares for me” (76). However, once he successfully helps defend a fellow for treason, a beautiful woman catches his eye in the courtroom: Miss Lucie Manette. She was described as a women with making “a sound so sweet and dear as the sound of her compassionate voice… a face so tenderly beautiful” (119). It would be no surprise that if Carton was attracted to the young Miss. Manette, it would be for her looks. Over time, Carton begins to become acquainted to the Manette household, "[he] had been [to the house of Doctor Manette] often, during a whole year, and had always been the same moody amd morose lounger there. When he cared to talk, he talked well; but, the cloud of caring for nothing, which overshadowed him with such a fatal darkness, was very rarely pierced by the light within him." (136) Although his visits were strange and perhaps uncomfortable for the family, he had nowhere else to be or to do; because he was the “idlest and most unpromising of men”, he never lived his life ambitiously (78). Even though Carton spent adaquiet time with Lucie, she “had never been quite at her ease with him” (137). Still, it is clear that Carton frequently stopped by to see Lucie, for he eventually proclaimed his life as a disaster and he longing for a women like she, “” () Regardless if Lucie spent the rest of her life with Carton, he will never be satisfied for “” (). As the plot unfolds, Lucie’s husband, Charles Darnay, is convicted and sentenced to death by guillotine. Secretly, Sydney switches spots with Darney and inevitably murdered, but states: "I am the Resurrection and the Life, saith the Lord: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.” () By comparing himself with Jesus Christ, he is suggesting that he is sacrificing his body for his companions, just as