A Tale of Two Cities

Sydney Carton is an English lawyer who first appears as one of two attorneys defending Charles Darnay during his trial at the Old Bailey. He bears an uncanny resemblance to Darnay and uses this resemblance to cast doubt on key witnesses’ statements. However, while this legal strategy is Carton’s idea, he allows his partner, Stryver, to present it and claim credit for it. It soon becomes clear that this is typical of Carton; in fact, the narrator describes him at one point as the “jackal” who does the hunting (i.e. professional legwork) for Stryver’s “lion” (90). Carton, meanwhile, presents himself as lazy, apathetic, and unprofessional, staring at the ceiling during court cases and drinking heavily on (and off) the job. In more personal interactions, Carton also tends towards rudeness and sarcasm; when Darnay remarks, for instance, that he doesn’t think Carton likes him, Carton quips, “I begin to have a very good opinion of your understanding” (88).

Why Carton acts this way is a mystery Dickens never fully explains. Beneath his careless and insolent demeanor, Carton appears to loathe himself; after his dinner with Darnay, for example, he berates himself for “fall[ing] away” (89) from the other man’s nobility and steadfastness.