The nature of mind and body has been debated constantly, but the answer has always been present in our own minds. In Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, two extremely different characters, Sydney Carton and Charles Darnay, are presented, and much quarreling has arisen over their being representative of the clash of the mind and the body, and if so, which is which. Sydney Carton is symbolic of the mind and Charles Darnay of the body. The mind, Carton, and the body, Darnay, are one being who react to situations adversely; but where the body is physical, the mind is philosophical, and the mind gives life to the body.
The body can be still while the mind is in turmoil; however, where the mind delays, distracts, and debates, the body reacts. Prime examples of this are Carton and Darnay’s reactions to Lucie Manette and their ensuing acclamations of love for her. In contemplating the conversation to come with Doctor Manette, Darnay ponders decidedly upon how “He had loved Lucie Manette from the hour of his danger. He had never heard a sound so sweet and dear as the sound of her compassionate voice; he had never seen a face so tenderly beautiful, as hers…” (Dickens 126). Darnay knew instantly that he loved Lucie and approached her father with dignity, composure, and great respect to ask for her hand in marriage. On the same matter of love for Lucie, Carton constantly forced his love back into his mind until he could no longer ignore it and he burst in on Lucie one morning and exclaimed, “If it had been possible…that you could have returned the love of the man you see before you…he would have been conscious this day and hour, in spite of his happiness, that he would bring you to misery… I know very well that you can have no tenderness...
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... golden hair, to this place…and I hear him tell the child my story, with a tender and faltering voice” (364). Carton remembers the body he is giving up, but the mind was stronger than the body, and that strength took Catron to a hero’s death. The jackal died for the lion, the mind perished for the body, Sydney Carton was no more to give Charles Darnay a chance at life.
The jackal and the lion are an unbreakable, intertwined system comprised of the lion’s brawn and the jackal’s brain, which ensures the continuance of the lion. The mind and the body share the common goal of life for the body. This singular goal drives them, even in their differences to work together to use any means necessary to establish a life worth living, and worth dying for, for the body.
Works Cited
Dickens, Charles. A Tale of Two Cities. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, LLC., 1988. Print.
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
Dickens used his great talent by describing the city London were he mostly spent his time. By doing this Dickens permits readers to experience the sights, sounds, and smells of the aged city, London. This ability to show the readers how it was then, how ...
A Tale of Two Cities takes place in England and France, during the time of the French Revolution. A Tale of Two Cities is a classic novel, where Charles Dickens presents to the reader archetypal main characters. From the beginning of the novel, the reader can know whether the characters are evil or not. In the novel, the main character, Sydney Carton, also contributes a lot to the theme of the novel-every individual should have both moral and physical courage, and should be able to sacrifice everything in the name of love.
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
Kalil, Marie. Cliffs notes on Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities. Cliff Notes Inc, June 2000
Some would choose to declare that every human being is both a body and a mind. Both being gelled together until death, than having the mind go on to exist and the body being lifeless. A person lives throughout two collateral histories, one having to do with what happens to the body and in it, and the other being what happens in and to the mind. What happens to the body is public and what happens to the mind is private. The events which reply to the body consist of the physical world, and the events of the mind consist of the mental world.
In everyday life it appears that the body is overlooked in its relation to the mind. This notion of body and mind separation is not something that necessarily sits well with people. The debate can sit on either scientific knowledge or religious beliefs. Currently this is what we deal with when this sort of debate occurs. With the various belief structures prevalent in humans we can’t assume argument is stronger than another.
He admits his love for her in the statement: “I wish you to know that you have been the last dream of my soul” (Dickens 186). This shows the tenderness and care that he has for Lucie, as he makes such a statement in an eloquent, admiring manner. Furthermore, Carton often demonstrates the respect he has towards Lucie through statements such as: “I know very well that you can have no tenderness for me; I ask for none; I am even thankful that it cannot be” (Dickens 185). While this may at first come across as an act of self-deprecation, it shows that Carton views Lucie’s worth and character as greater than his own. Despite his own desires, he cares too much for Lucie’s fate to involve her in a life as pitiful and saddening as his. Through such traits,Carton reveals that he is a delicate and well-mannered individual, particularly towards Lucie, despite the description implied by the
Dickens, Charles. A Tale of Two Cities. The Oxford Illustrated Dickens. 1949. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1987.
Proclaiming his love to Lucie Manette before her wedding, Carton has a turning point and becomes enlightened. Carton converses with Miss Manette, "O Miss Manette... think now and then that there is a man who would give his life, to keep a life you love beside you" (156). Apparently, Carton becomes a changed man; he becomes a caring person who tries to help others. However, Carton always noticed Lucie Manette; when they were in the courtroom, Carton focuses on Miss Manette. Dickens describes the scene, "when Miss Manette's head dropped upon her father's breast, he was the first to see it." Carton constantly focuses on Lucie. He makes her the center of his attention.
The novel, A Tale of Two Cities, was written by Charles Dickens. It takes place in ENgland and France during the late eighteenth century. Despite horrors like the guillotine, gestures of humanity were shown, especially through Sydney Carton when he sacrificed himself for Charles Darnay. In A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens exemplifies the natural goodness of the characters Charles Darnay, Dr. Manette, and Sydney Carton in Book 2, Chapter 18, Book 3, Chapter 15, …. By showing many acts of sacrifice.
He now looked at things with a more positive attitude and a new personal strength was seen in his later actions. Carton’s final act in this novel shows what a brave man he was and how he acts upon his true love for Lucie. After the second arrest of Charles Darnay, Carton urges Dr. Manette to attempt to use his influence to free Charles. When Carton is speaking with little Lucie, Charles and Lucie’s daughter, she begs him to do something to save her father. After Carton leaves the Manette’s house, he devises a plan to switch places with Darnay.
This week’s module included reading selections from The Matrix, Plato’s The Allegory of a Cave, and Descartes Meditation I. While many philosophers have different perceptions on the concept of what is real and what is fantasy, the writers of these literary works depict the idea behind the body and mind problem as studied in module three. As seen in the reading, the mentality of each author is revealed by their philosophy of the mind and body concept. This also reveals each author’s perspective of truth and reality. Within the synopsis of The Matrix, Plato’s The Republic, and Descartes Meditation I, a similarity is portrayed throughout, as the concept behind the mind and body problem is referenced.
The Mind and the Physical Body Since the times of Plato and Aristotle, the argument of dualism and mutualism of the mind and body has been in existence. Dualism has been the driving force behind the existence of the mind/body problem and has been by far the majority view due largely to the influence of Descartes. In recent times, modern medicine has taken a shift towards mutualism. Outside stimuli, as perceived by the mind, affect the body either beneficially or adversely. While the body as an organism has the capacity to heal, evidence proves that the mind expedites recovery.
Charles Dickens is a talented author who wrote many notable novels, including A Tale of Two Cities. Barbara Hardy notes that at a young age Dickens’ father was imprisoned for debt, leaving young Charles to support himself and his family alone (47). Dickens strongly disliked prisons, which shows as a motif in A Tale of Two Cities. Many of his interests contributed to the formulation of the novel. In the essay “Introduction” from the book, Charles Dickens, Harold Bloom claims Dickens hoped “to add something to the popular and picturesque means of understanding [the] terrible time” of the Revolution (20). Dickens’ reading and “extraordinary reliance upon Carlyle’s bizarre but effective French Revolution” may have motivated him to write the novel (Bloom 21). Sir James Fitzjames Stephen believed that Dickens was “on the look-out for a subject, determined off-hand to write a novel about [French Revolution]” (Bloom 20). In Brown’s book Dickens in his Time, Dickens guided the writing of the play Frozen Deep where two rivals share the same love, and one ultimately sacrifices himself for...