Summary of A Tale Of Two Cities :: essays research papers

Dr. Alexander manette was a prisoner in the Bastille for 18 years. He is released and taken back to London by Jarvis Lorry of Tellson 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 drunkeness, playing secone 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 Evremondes 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.