A Tale of Two Cities

     Good day, viewers

      I hope you're all quite well.  I, myself am a bit under the weather today, and therefore am spending the day in bed (something new for me, quoi?). 

     While I partook of a cup of tea and a piece of cheesecake whilst wearing a 10-sizes-too-large sweatshirt, I watched A Tale of Two Cities: Live in Concert, which I rented from amazon.com.  Old-fashioned as I am, it's amazing how technology often lends itself to my reclusive lifestyle. 

     A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens is beautiful, inspirational, humourous, angsty, and incredibly sad.  Needless to say, I quite love it.  I fully intend to purchase the book, one or two of the film adaptations, the stage musical (the one I rented), and the audio soundtrack.

     Here's a little character profile I made for the main character, Sydney Carton, who has become one my favourite literary characters.  Before you proceed to read it, however, I ought to tell you that it contains "spoilers".  Personally, I love spoilers, but I understand not everyone does.  So, you have been forewarned, and may now judge for yourself whether or not you wish to continue reading.

 

     About Him: A ne'er-do-well alchoholic/English barrister with a dismal life, who falls in love with Lucie Manette, and wants to turn his life around for her sake. When she marries Darnay, he adopts them as his "family", content to be near her, and later becomes attached to the Darnays' little girl. When Darnay gets arrested for his aristocratic backround (the story is set during the French Revolution), Carton disguises himself and selflessly takes his place in prison to keep his adopted family together out of love for Lucie, saying that he'd "give his life to keep the life she loves beside her." On the way to excecution, he comforts an innocent seamstress who is also doomed to die. When his turn comes, he muses that dying for those he loves is the best thing that he could have done with his life, and imagines Lucie weeping for him, and naming a son after him, who would live a better life than he had, which events, he felt, would give meaning to his "meaningless" life. He then bravely and serenely goes to his death. Downside: He dies.     

     Sad though the ending is, it's the spirit of self-sacrifice and display of selfless love that strikes a chord in the reader's heart, and renders the character a beloved hero.  Though I confess, I couldn't help wishing that the Scarlet Pimpernel would somehow jump from his own story into this one and save Sydney at the last minute.  'Twould be a very unexpected ending, would it not?