Altaf Ahmed Sheikh 1 M.A (Hons.

) English Literature

Dickens’s art of characterization w.r.t “a tale of two cities”

Introduction
Characterization is an art, technique, method or process of forming and portraying a character in any
literary piece. It is practiced in most of the literary genres by almost all the writers dealing with
literature. However, some of them have reached to an average skilful use, while others have remain
average. But there are very few writers who have reached par excellence in using this technique.
Dickens name comes in that list, just after Shakespeare.

Dickens is one those novelists, who bring many minor characters in their novels. But unlike other
writers, he had successfully given each character his or her individual traits so that it may appear to be
new and unique simultaneously. In ‘A tale of two cities’, although there is a considerable variety of
characters, yet it is believed that Dickens brought them thorough his imagination power, and not from
society or real life. It is either deliberate, or by incident that these characters represent the society at
whole.
Dickens declared himself as mouthpiece of poor labour class and of the struggling lower middle class, in
his novel ‘A tale of two cities.’ He satirized and criticized aristocratic class, including kings, dukes and
earls etc. Most of the characters in novel represent some idea or abstract moral value, what we generally
know as symbolism.
Lucie stand for Beauty and Innocence.
Dr. Mannette stand for Suffering, endeavor, tortures.
Sydney Carton stand for selflessness & Sacrifice.
Jarvis Lorry stands for social service & humanity.
Jerry cruncher stands for corruption.
Miss Pross stands for Love, affectionate and tenderness.
Mr. Defarge stands for faithfulness & loyality.
Madam Defarge stands for evil, hatred, revolution.

Some of the characters are presented through action, while others through dialogues.
Some are virtuous, while others vicious.
Dickens does not analyze the psyche of his character, rather he is more into physical appearance and
exaggeration of their outward characteristics.

Many have felt that Carton and Darnay are doppelgangers, which Eric Rabkin defines as a pair "of
characters that together, represent one psychological persona in the narrative"

One can only suspect whose psychological persona it is that Carton and Darnay together embody (if they
do), but it is often thought to be the psyche of Dickens himself. Dickens was quite aware that between
them, Carton and Darnay shared his own initials.[31] Furthermore, in early drafts of the novel, Darnay
and Carton each individually had the same initials as Dickens, since in early drafts Carton's forename
was Dick rather than Sydney

Characters

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Many of Dickens' characters are "flat" rather than round, in the novelist E. M. Forster's
famous terms, meaning roughly that they have only one mood.[32] In Tale, for example,
the Marquis is unremittingly wicked and relishes being so; Lucie is perfectly loving and
supportive. (As a corollary, Dickens often gives these characters verbal ticks or visual
quirks that he mentions over and over, such as the dints in the nose of the Marquis.)
Forster believed that Dickens never truly created rounded characters, but a character such
as Carton surely at least comes closer to roundness.

• Sydney Carton
• An insolent, indifferent, and alcoholic attorney who works with Stryver. Carton has no real
prospects in life and doesn't seem to be in pursuit of any. He does, however, love Lucie, and his
feelings for her eventually transform him into a man of profound merit. At first the polar opposite of
Darnay, in the end Carton morally surpasses the man to whom he bears a striking physical
resemblance. – quick-minded but depressed English barrister alcoholic, and cynic;
his Christ-like self-sacrifice redeems his own life as well as saving the life of
Charles Darnay.

Sydney Carton proves the most dynamic character in A Tale of Two Cities. He first appears as a lazy,
alcoholic attorney who cannot muster even the smallest amount of interest in his own life. He describes his
existence as a supreme waste of life and takes every opportunity to declare that he cares for nothing and no
one. But the reader senses, even in the initial chapters of the novel, that Carton in fact feels something that
he perhaps cannot articulate. In his conversation with the recently acquitted Charles Darnay, Carton's
comments about Lucie Manette, while bitter and sardonic, betray his interest in, and budding feelings for, the
gentle girl. Eventually, Carton reaches a point where he can admit his feelings to Lucie herself. Before Lucie
weds Darnay, Carton professes his love to her, though he still persists in seeing himself as essentially
worthless. This scene marks a vital transition for Carton and lays the foundation for the supreme sacrifice
that he makes at the novel's end.

Carton's death has provided much material for scholars and critics of Dickens's novel. Some readers
consider it the inevitable conclusion to a work obsessed with the themes of redemption and resurrection.
According to this interpretation, Carton becomes a Christ-like figure, a selfless martyr whose death enables
the happiness of his beloved and ensures his own immortality. Other readers, however, question the ultimate
significance of Carton's final act. They argue that since Carton initially places little value on his existence,
the sacrifice of his life proves relatively easy. However, Dickens's frequent use in his text of other
resurrection imagery—his motifs of wine and blood, for example—suggests that he did intend for Carton's
death to be redemptive, whether or not it ultimately appears so to the reader. As Carton goes to the
guillotine, the narrator tells us that he envisions a beautiful, idyllic Paris “rising from the abyss” and sees “the
evil of this time and of the previous time of which this is the natural birth, gradually making expiation for itself
and wearing out.” Just as the apocalyptic violence of the revolution precedes a new society's birth, perhaps
it is only in the sacrifice of his life that Carton can establish his life's great worth.

• Lucie Manette – An ideal Victorian lady who was perfect in every way, she was
loved by both Carton and Charles Darnay (whom she marries); daughter of Dr.
Manette. She is the "golden thread" after whom Book Two is named, so called
because she holds her father's and her family's lives together (and because of her
blond hair like her mother's.) She also ties almost every character in the book
together. A young French woman who grew up in England, Lucie was raised as a ward of
Tellson's Bank because her parents were assumed dead. Dickens depicts Lucie as an archetype of

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compassion. Her love has the power to bind her family together—the text often refers to her as “the
golden thread.” Furthermore, her love has the power to transform those around her. It enables her
father to be “recalled to life,” and it sparks Sydney Carton's development from a “jackal” into a hero.

• Charles Darnay – a young French noble of the Evrémonde family. In disgust at

the cruelty of his family to the French peasantry, he has taken on the name
"Darnay" (after his mother's maiden name, D'Aulnais) and left France for
England.[34]

• Dr. Alexandre Manette – Lucie's father, kept a prisoner in the Bastille for
eighteen years.

• Monsieur Ernest Defarge – owner of a French wine shop and leader of the
Jacquerie; husband of Madame Defarge; servant to Dr. Manette as a youth. One of
the key revolutionary leaders, he leads the revolution with a noble cause, unlike
many of other revolutionaries.

• Madame Therese Defarge – a vengeful female revolutionary; arguably the

novel's antagonist

• The Vengeance – a companion of Madame Defarge referred to as her "shadow"

and lieutenant, a member of the sisterhood of women revolutionaries in Saint
Antoine, and revolutionary zealot. Many Frenchmen and women actually did
change their names to show their enthusiasm for the Revolution[35]

• Jarvis Lorry – an elderly manager at Tellson's Bank and a dear friend of Dr.
Manette.

• Miss Pross – Lucie Manette's governess since Lucie was ten years old; fiercely
loyal to Lucie and to England.

• The Marquis St. Evrémonde[36] – cruel uncle of Charles Darnay

• John Barsad (real name Solomon Pross) – a spy for Britain who later becomes a
spy for France (at which point he must conceal that he is British). He is the long-
lost brother of Miss Pross.

• Roger Cly – another spy, Barsad's collaborator

• Jerry Cruncher – porter and messenger for Tellson's Bank and secret
"Resurrection Man" (body-snatcher)

• Mr. Stryver – Arrogant and ambitious barrister, senior to Sydney Carton.[37]

There is a frequent mis-perception that Stryver's full name is "C. J. Stryver", but
this is very unlikely. The mistake comes from a line in Book 2, Chapter 12: "After
trying it, Stryver C. J. was satisfied that no plainer case could be."[38] The initials
C. J. almost certainly refer to a legal title (probably "chief justice"); Stryver is

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Altaf Ahmed Sheikh 4 M.A (Hons.) English Literature

imagining that he is playing every role in a trial in which he browbeats Lucie

Manette into marrying him.

• The Seamstress – a young woman caught up in The Terror. She precedes Sydney
Carton, who comforts her, to the guillotine.

• Gabelle – Gabelle is "the Postmaster, and some other taxing functionary,

united"[39] for the tenants of the Marquis St. Evrémonde. Gabelle is imprisoned by
the revolutionaries, and it is his beseeching letter that brings Darnay to France.
Gabelle is "named after the hated salt tax".[40]

• Gaspard – Gaspard is the man whose son gets run over by the Monseigneur. He
then kills the Monseigneur and goes into hiding for a year. He eventually gets
found, arrested, and executed.

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