"For you and for any dear to you, I would do anything. If my career were of that better kind that there was any opportunity or capacity of sacrifice in it, I would embrace any sacrifice for you and for those dear to you. Try to hold me in your mind, at some quiet times, as ardent and sincere in this one thing. The time will come, the time will not be long in coming, when new ties will be formed about you - ties that will bind you yet more tenderly and strongly to the home you so adorn - the dearest ties that will ever grace and gladden you. O Miss Manette, when the little picture of a happy father's face looks up in yours, when you see your own bright beauty springing up anew at your feet, think now and then that there is a man who would give his life, to keep a life you love beside you!"(159).
Here, Mr.Carton is making Lucie possibly the largest promise one could make another. He is promising that if she ever is in trouble, or if someone she loves is ever in trouble, he will give his life to make sure they are no longer in that trouble. Specifically, he is hinting on about Charles Darnay. Carton knows that Darnay and Lucie are after each other's hearts and he foreshadows Darnay being in trouble by bringing up his and Lucie's future baby. This is where the double presents itself, again in the physical similarity between Carton and Darnay. Carton tells Lucie that when she is looking into the face of her and Darnay's child, she will think of Carton because a part of Darnay will be in the baby, making it appear that a part of Carton resides there as well. As much as Carton stresses to Lucie that he will give up his life for her, he stresses more that he will give up his life for someone she loves. And the only people he indirectly talks about are Darnay and their child. Perhaps he is foreshadowing some trouble coming after the love of Lucie's life?
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
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I completely agree with your analysis of this quote. After Darnay says that he would do anything to help someone that Lucie loves, he says that Lucie will be happy. I think that this seems a bit strange, and perhaps ironic, that Darnay is saying that Lucie will be happy while a loved one is in need of help. It makes me think that somehow the happiness that Lucie will feel will turn to sadness when something happens to someone she loves.
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