A Tale Of Two Cities Doubles

Many celebrities have doubles, people who look very much like them, but come from other walks of life. Charles John Huffman Dickens did not have a known double in real life, but he employed their use in his writing. A Tale Of Two Cities is a classic tale of the French Revolution written by Dickens. The novel begins with Mr.Lorry saving a man from prison whose daughter, Lucie Manette, later marries Charles Darnay. When Darnay goes to Paris to save an old family servant, he is sent to the guillotine because he is part of the aristocracy. At the last minute, Sydney Carton (a man who also loved Lucie but knows he isn’t good enough for her) takes Darnay’s place to save the Darnay family. In the novel, A Tale Of Two Cities, Dickens utilizes the
Although the two men have vastly different levels of self confidence and success, two things remain the same between them: their looks and their love for Lucie Manette. Dickens first introduces their likeness in book two during a trial for Carton: “they were sufficiently like each other to surprise, not only the witness, but everyone present,...to bid my friend [Darnay] lay aside his wig, and giving no very gracious consent, the likeness became much more remarkable.”(72). The two characters doubling each other here are Carton and Darnay. This comparison saves Carton in his trial. Later on, their likeness and love for Lucie saves Darnay when Carton gives his life at the guillotine. A seamstress notices the swap and whispers “‘Are you dying for him?’” to which Carton answers “‘And his wife and child. Hush! Yes.’” (344). Carton made the ultimate sacrifice because he loved Lucie so much he knew she couldn’t live without her husband. It was fated beforehand that someone would die at the guillotine through a revolutionary’s plans. Darnay is expected to be the one who dies but because of the unlikely coincidence of his and Carton’s looks he