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Sydney Carton
fictional character
Sydney Carton, fictional character, one of the protagonists of Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities (1859), set in France and England before and during the French Revolution.
Carton first appears as a cynical drunkard who serves as a legal aide to a London barrister. He is secretly in love with Lucie Manette, whose French émigré husband, Charles Darnay, physically resembles Carton. This coincidence enables Carton to stand in for Darnay, who has been sentenced to die on the guillotine. By this act Carton gives meaning to his misspent life.
This article was most recently revised and updated by Kathleen Kuiper.
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