Carton's Last Act

Carton’s Last Act In Charles Dickens classic A Tale of Two Cities, the character Sydney Carton can be portrayed in many ways. From certain perspectives he can be viewed as a person with no purpose in life, who found a short cut to death and gladly took it. Another way Carton can be viewed, is as someone who does good deeds for other people, but is over looked by others and his last good deed was dying for someone else. Although in the beginning of A Tale of Two Cities Sydney Carton is portrayed as a selfish man, as the reader moves through the book Carton’s character is slowly revealed showing the true colors of him. And it seems as if his last actions were a sacrifice for the better outcome of others, as well as redemption for what he thought was a wasted life. When Mr. Carton made his first appeared in A Tale of Two Cities, he is often compared to Mr. Stryver, who appears to be a very wise and sensible business man. Along side Mr. Stryver, Carton is someone who “nobody had made any acknowledgement of... nobody had known of him” (Dickens 86). And those who noticed Carton clearly were not impressed. Stryver and Carton often drank late into the night. But the difference between the two is that Stryver shows no sign of being drunk, he is always prepared and refreshed in the morning. Carton on the other hand, looks lazy and tired the next morning. Although these two characters contrast quite a bit, without Carton, Stryver would be nowhere. In A Tale of Two Cities, the narrator admits that “Sydney Carton would never be a lion, he was an amazingly good jackal” (Dickens 91). And as the book proceeds, Carton certainly shows signs of being ‘an amazingly good jackal’. Because of Carton’s attitude through certain actions, it is clear that he was working only for the better, trying to help everyone for their good, hoping that it would turn his life around. If he was a selfish and desperate man trying to make a show of himself, he would not be the jackal, but the lion,