Redemption

Decathletes:

As you may have figured out by now, Sydney Carton is the character who will seek Redemption in this novel.

We see some more foreshadowing of his quest for redemption in Chapter 13.

In this Chapter (page 151), Miss Manette and Carton have a conversation in which he says to her..."the life I lead, Miss Manette, is not conducive to health. What is to be expected of such profligates?"

She says..."Why not change it?"

And he responds..."It is too late for that. I shall never be better than I am. I shall sink lower, and be worse."

What the author is doing in the above passage is setting the reader up to expect Carton to try to do something that will allow him to become a better person.

Dickens never says what has caused Carton to become this way. But we the readers just go along with this conflicted character, waiting to see how he will redeem himself.

At the bottom of page 151 Lucie Manette tries to comfort him by saying "I am sure that the best part of it (his life) might still be; I am sure that you will be much, much worthier of yourself."

On page 209 Carton talks with Charles Darnay (the person he physically resembles) in another conversation that helps to illuminate his upcoming quest for redemption.

In this conversation, Carton tells Darnay that "...I am incapable of all the higher and better flights of men," and later adds...At any rate, you know me as a dissolute dog who has never done any good, and never will."

Darnay politely offers, "I don't knows that you 'never will' ."

Stay tuned to see how he redeems himself.