Manette And Darnay example essay topic
446 words
Dr. Alexander manet te was a prisoner in the Bastille for 18 years. He is released and taken back to London by Jarvis Lorry of Tell son Bank. Dr. Manette is a little crazy because of all the years he spent locked up in solitary confinement. He has a daughter, Lucie, who was a young girl when he was sent to prison. On a boat trip, Lucie meets a young man named Charles Darnay and is taken with him. They discuss the American Revolution. Darnay is a Frenchman, but he has relinquished the title of his nobility. He is tried for treason in England. However, Darnay's lawyer, Sydney Carton, points out that there is no way to prove that Darnay could have done it because the two men look alike and the witness could not say for sure that it was Darnay. Despite this brilliant defense (on which Darnay is released) Carton leads a solitary life of drunkenness, playing sec one man to his boss, Stryver (who is by all means incompetent). By this point, Carton, Darnay, and Stryver all want to marry Lucie.
She chooses Darnay and they are married. Right before the wedding, Darnay mentions to Dr. Manette that he has something important to tell him. Darnay tells him that he is Charles St. Evremonde, the nephew of the Marquis St. Evremonde, who was responsible for Dr. Manette's imprisonment. When Darnay tells him this, Dr. Manette falls back in to his stupor. Darnay is convinced by the Revolutionaries to return to France by a fake letter from an old servant. Upon his arrival, he is arrested for being an aristocrat, even though he renounced his property.
Unfortunately, Darnay is not as lucky in his second trial. He is condemned mainly on the testimony of his father-in-law, Dr. Manette, who wrote a statement against the Evremonde while still imprisoned. He is sentenced to death. Out of love for the Manette family and Lucie in particular, however, Sydney Carton goes to Paris. He manages to smuggle himself into prison and Darnay out. Carton is convinced that he has never done anything worthwhile in his life, and therefore dies in place of his love's husband.
The Manette and Darnay manage to get out of Paris, after Miss Pross (Lucie's maiden) rescues little Lucie from Madam Defarge, a revolutionary leader. Defarge wanted the girl because she had the blood of an Evremonde. Miss Pross shoots Defarge with her own pistol and is deafened by the blast. They all live happily ever after.
