A Tale of Two Cities

1. What quality or qualities do the protagonists in the story share? What quality or qualities do the antagonists in the story share? So far according to the reading, I think that Charles Darnay and the Manettes family are the protagonists. In the story, they share the characteristics of kindness and caring. When Charles Darnay is charged by treason in the court, Lucie shows her compassion for him and cries for him, whom she should speak against. Besides, Lucie’s love saves Dr. Manette from depression. Lucie is the “Golden Thread” that links everyone together. She cares not only her father and husband, but also Sydney Carton. She tells her husband that she has faith on Sydney Carton. As she says, “‘I fear he is not to be reclaimed; there is scarcely a hope that anything in his character or fortunes is reparable now. But, I am sure that he is capable of good things, gentle things, even magnanimous things’” (Dickens 220). Her caring for Sydney Carton gives him hope, which touches him from the inside. Carton is willing to sacrifice himself for Lucie and the ones she loves. In addition to Lucie Manette, Charles Darnay also shows his compassion and love for the poor. He hates the way that his family do to the poor. He says, “And has left me bound to a system that is frightful to me, responsible for it, but powerless in it; seeking to execute the last request of my dear mother’s lips, and obey the last look of my dear mother’s eyes, which implored me to have mercy and to redress; and tortured by seeking assistance and power in vain” (Dickens 130). He gives up his family property and uses it to help the poor. His mother asked him to have mercy to the poor before she died, and he did. On the other side, the antagonists--the Defarges, and the revolutionists, are fierce and indifferent. Their qualities especially show in the Defarges. When the menders of roads tells Monsieur Defarge that the murderer of the Marquis is sentenced to death and is hung above the fountain,