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Tale of Two Cities (Old English Essay about Love)

Just another old assignment :)

Where Love is Present in A Atale of Two Cities

Taylor 

11/10/2017

ENG3U

Mrs. P******

Where is love present in A Tale of Two Cities?

Love is present throughout the entire book of A Tale of Two Cities. It transforms people, it's unselfish, and it can saves lives.

Love has the power to change people for the better. It can transform people into something they thought impossible before. The change can be sudden or prolonged, but it always happens. It can change a person's view of themselves/life when they are shown, love. This theory can be observed when the drunken lawyer falls in love with a lovely maiden and makes her a promise. "For you, and for any dear to you, I would do anything. [...] I would embrace any sacrifice for you and for those dear to you." (Dickens, page 147). Charles Dickens portrayed Sydney Carton as a mess of a man. When he meets Lucie, he falls in love. However, rather than have Lucie and Carton married. Carton makes his promise and leaves her to Charles Darnay (her husband). This shows that Carton is serious, about not only his love for Lucie Manette but his thoughts about her as well.

The change isn't always as sudden as Carton's transformation, but it can happen over a longer period of time. For example, Dr. Alexander Manette (Lucie Manette's father) progressively got stronger in several ways after his shoemaking bench was destroyed out of love for the Doctor, Dr. Manette slowly becomes stronger. "Dr Manette did not return until the morning of the fourth of his absence. So much of what had happened in that dreadful time as could be kept from the knowledge of Lucie was so well concealed from her, that not until long afterward [...] did she know that eleven hundred defenseless prisoners of both sexes and all ages had been killed by the populace [...]. She only knew that there had been an attack upon the prisoners [...]" (Dickens, page 261). Dr. Manette not only become strong enough to travel on his own, but he became strong enough to keep a large secret from his beloved daughter, who he is very close to and loves very dearly.

Dr. Manette was an old and lonely cobbler for a long time. After being imprisoned for a long time, his daughter Lucie comes and changes him for the better. Although he makes shoes for a long duration of destroyed Dr. Manette workbench, it was Lucie that initially kept him away from it most of the time. Nearly the entirety of Chapter 19 of Book the Second. "[...] There, with closed doors, and in a mysterious and guilty manner, Mr. Lorry hacked the shoemaker's bench to pieces, while Miss Pross held the candle as if she was assisting at a murder - for which, indeed, in her grimness, she was no unsuitable figure. The burning of the body, (previously reduced to pieces convenient for the purpose) was commenced without delay in the kitchen fire; and the tools, shoes, and leather, were buried in the garden. So wicked do destruction and secrecy appear to honest minds, that Mr. Lorry and Miss Pross, while engaged in in the commission of their deed and in the removal of its traces, almost felt, and almost looked, like accomplices in a horrible crime." (Dickens 158). This last paragraph from Chapter 19 shows that Mr. Lorry and Miss Pross didn't know if Dr. Manette would be able to rely on solely Lucie as they destroyed his bench. 

Love can change people's lives in the blink of an eye or a decade. It always changes people to be selfless and better themselves no matter the time frame.

Love is unyielding and selfless. It has no boundaries for lengths taken. Those who love others without seeking to doing anything, those who love others enough to sacrifice; and those who love others without reason are selfless. This is revealed in a Tale of Two Cities when Sydney Carton tells Lucie Manette of his feelings towards her. Carton tells Lucie of his views on himself, how he has nothing left to live for, how his life has so much lost potential, (etc). He explains to her that he would only drag her down with him if their relationship ever escalated into something more. "If it had been possible, Miss Manette, that you could have returned the love of the man you see before yourself—flung away, wasted, drunken, poor creature of misuse as you know him to be—he would have been conscious this day and hour, in spite of his happiness, that he would bring you to misery, bring you to sorrow and repentance, blight you, disgrace you, pull you down with him. 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, page 145). Sydney loves Lucie, however he does not seek for her love in return due to being a waste of a man who would only harm her.