In the novel A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens provides an account of London, England and Paris during the French Revolution. Part of the novel shows the inhumane oppression visited on the French people by the ruling aristocracy, while the other part is devoted to showing the inhumane response of the people toward the former aristocrats after the Revolution. Throughout these events, we follow the fate of Sydney Carton, an English lawyer whose spirit is abandoned before he redeems himself through his sacrifice and love for Lucie Manette, the wife of the virtuous aristocrat Charles Darnay. Dickens uses the legal profession to which Carton belongs as a symbol for Carton's loss of spirit and ultimate rebirth, by showing how Carton must correct the injustices of the legal system to advance social justice and save his soul. A conclusion will address why Dickens might have used the law to symbolize Carton's rebirth.
In A Tale of Two Cities, the law is a social institution that is pervasive before, during, and after the Revolution. Dickens provides lawyers like Mr. Stryver, someone who uses the legal profession to advance his own ambitions and interests. He cares only about the law as a means of getting him the kind of material and professional success he desires in society: "His reputation as a perfect gentleman, would seem, in these days, a ridiculous exaggeration. The learned profession of the Law was certainly not behind any other learned profession in its Bacchanalian propensities; neither was Mr. Stryver, already fast shouldering his way to a large and lucrative practice" (Dickens 90). Sydney Carton, Stryver's associate, suffers from a lack of spirituality and faith partly stemming from his observation of the injustices of the legal system and profession. As Lee (290) asserts, "Carton is a talented lawyer struggling with hopelessness, despair, a lack of self-worth, and alcoholism." In an effort to fill t...