Re: Heroes in Tale of Two Cities

Charles Dickens (cdickens@RMPLC.CO.UK)
Tue, 12 Aug 1997 10:41:15 -0100 

My dear Miss Kimmes,

  It is never easy for an author to "explain" his characters.  For him, the
novel is the explanation.  But I can understand your need, and shall strive
to meet it.
  I suggest to you that both Darnay and Carton are heroic, but in strikingly
dissimilar ways.  Darnay is a man of stainless honour, who perceives the
evils of the state into which he was born and, by an act of will, severs
himself from it.  Thereafter, he meets his obligations, and endures his
tribulations, with unfailing dignity.
  Carton, in contrast, needs to discover honour and moral dignity.  Until he
meets Lucie, there is nothing transcendent in his life, and he sinks into
indifference and dissoluteness.  By a final act of will, he at once makes
his life worthy, and sacrifices it.
  If a choice is to be made between them, Carton is the more heroic.  Both
consciously make sacrifices, Darnay of the privileges and comforts enjoyed
by the French aristocracy before the Revolution, Carton of his life.  The
latter is the nobler.  Darnay could not have known the consequences of his
sacrifice, but at least it it did not promise him immediate extinction, and
it eventually yields him happiness.  Eternal reward apart, Carton's
happiness is intensified and compressed into a single experience - a
recognition that the final act gives his life purpose and value.
  These few hints, I trust, my dear Miss Kimmes, will be of some help to
you, in you attempt to satisfy your English tutor.


Faithully yours,


Charles Dickens
________________________________________________________________________________


>Dear Sir,
>       I am pressed within my own mind and time, that after having completed
>your greatest novel, A Tale of Two Cities, I should need to submit a paper
>as to the character of Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton.  That is, I am to
>trace, compare and contast their characters as they try to save the society
>in which they dwell.  Furthermore, I am to express to my English tutor
>which of these two very similar and very different characters is more
>heroic.  I must decide what it is about your developement of one of the
>two in particular that gains my attention.
>       As you are the author, who could be better suited than thee to perhaps
>discuss Charles Darnay and Sidney Carton and which you created to be the
>hero; the saver of two cities.
>               Ever So Faithfully Yours,
>                               C. Kimmes
>
>

======================
Charles Dickens
charles_dickens@rmplc.co.uk
Author