Darnay's Mental Breakdown

“‘The ghosts that vanished when the wicket closed. There was one among them, the appearance of a lady dressed in black, who was leaning in the embrasure of a window, and she had a light shining upon her golden hair, and she looked like****Let us ride on again, for God’s sake, through the illuminated villages with the people all awake! ****He made shoes, he made shoes, he made shoes. ****Five paces by four and a half.’” (267)

 

            This passage is an excerpt from Charles Darnay’s prison experience. Darnay’s thoughts in this passage are focused on Doctor Manette – “He made shoes etc.” – and Lucie. Because he sees Lucie (golden hair) is dressed in black clothes, he briefly visits his funeral and it is quite obvious that he thinks that he is going to die – not to mention the “in secret” scene. But, in this scene we see Darnay as a prisoner, and a double of Doctor Manette’s prison years – two different motifs. I think that Dickens has Darnay go crazy for a little bit not only to foreshadow his death, but also to show that no matter how composed someone is, when their life is on the line, everyone is a little bonkers. Up until this little mental breakdown, we only see Darnay as being a very passionate man with a somewhat negative family connotation that floats around him. But, now we see Darnay with his life on the line and he has lost his composure and his mind has taken over his free thought. I think that this is Dickens’ form of Charles showing Doctor Manette empathy because at this moment Darnay is going through exactly what Doctor Manette did for twenty some years. Furthermore, earlier in the chapter Darnay clearly regrets his decision to return to France because his life is in danger. Darnay now understands that his family is more important than his reputation in France, but it seems to me like he is going to die because he made the mistake of reversing the two.