Abstract Sidney Carton is a minor character in A Tale of Two Cities by the great British writer Charles Dickens. This thesis analyzes three aspects of Carton’s personality as well as the impact of this personality flaw on Carton’s final fate. In face of Lucie, Carton suppresses his emotions and doesn’t dare to express his love for her because of his cowardice. Although Carton is a promising youth, he has no courage to show his talent for his sense of inferiority. Sidney Carton’s loneliness leads to no friends to help him out when in trouble and he has to take all that he had suffered even meets with his tragic fate by losing his life for saving Lucie’s husband’s life.57061

Key words: A Tale of Two Cities; Sidney Carton; cowardice; inferiority; 

摘要西德尼·卡顿是英国作家查尔斯·狄更斯《双城记》中的一个次要人物。本文从三个方面分析了西德尼·卡顿的性格，以及这种性格缺陷对卡顿本人命运的影响。因为懦弱，在面对爱情时一直压抑着自己的情感而不敢表达自己对露西的爱意；虽然是一个有为青年，却因为自卑而没有勇气去展示自己的才华；孤独，导致他遇到问题时也没有朋友来帮自己出谋划策，只得自己独自承担，最后落得个为了露西的幸福而失去自己生命的悲剧命运。

毕业论文关键词: 《双城记》；西德尼·卡顿；懦弱；自卑； 

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Literature Review 2

3. The Analysis of Sydney Carton’s Personality 3

3.1 Sydney Carton’s Cowardice 4

3.2 Sydney Carton’s Inferiority Complex 5

3.3 Sydney Carton’s Loneliness 7

4. Conclusion 9

Works Cited 11

 1. Introduction 

Charles Dickens paid special attention to describing life experience of the “minor people” at the bottom of British society and gave a profound reflection of the complicated social reality in Britain. He made outstanding contributions to the development of critical realism in English literature. A Tale of Two Cities, with the French Revolution and the English society at the eve of the 18th century as its background, is one of the most famous works of Charles Dickens. The “two cities” in A Tale of Two Cities refer to Paris and London.

A Tale of Two Cities is different from other historical novels and its main personalitys and the plots are fictional. Three mutually independent and interrelated stories are intertwined together and Doctor Manette’s experience is the main line with the miscarriage of justice, love, revenge, and intricate plots.  

The most classic paragraph in A Tale of Two Cities is that It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way-in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only .( Charles Dickens,2006:3)源Y自Z吹冰W.论~文'网·www.chuibin.com

Sydney Carton is a minor character in A Tale of Two Cities, perhaps a lot of people think that he is not as important as a key figure, but he is really indispensable. At the end of the story Sydney Carton sacrifices his life in exchange for Lucie’s well-being and for her happy life. This thesis mainly analyses the personalities of Sydney Carton. His personalities are expressed in many aspects. Sydney Carton is a talented young man, but he is not a brave man. In face of Lucie, he doesn’t dare to express his full love for her because he is so cowardly. Sydney Carton has a strong sense of inferiority and dare not express his own talents and he has been hiding behind others. Sydney Carton’s loneliness causes him no friends to depend on all his life. No one can understand him. No one communicates with him and no one loves him. Sydney Carton is actually very sad and his lonely life has never been memorized by anyone after his sacrificing his life for love.