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Sydney Carton dies on the guillotine to spare Charles Darnay. How

you interpret Carton's sacrifice- positively or negatively- will

affect your judgment of his character, and of Dickens' entire work.



Some readers take the positive view that Carton's act is a triumph

of individual love over the mob hatred of the Revolution. Carton and

the seamstress he comforts meet their deaths with great dignity. In

fulfilling his old promise to Lucie, Carton attains peace; those

watching see "the peacefullest man's face ever beheld" at the

guillotine. In a prophetic vision, the former "jackal" glimpses a

better world rising out of the ashes of revolution, and long life

for Lucie and her family- made possible by his sacrifice.



This argument also links Carton's death with Christian sacrifice and

love. When Carton makes his decision to die, the New Testament verse

beginning "I am the Resurrection and the Life" nearly becomes his

theme song. The words are repeated a last time at the moment Carton

dies. In what sense may we see Carton's dying in Darnay's place as

Christ-like? It wipes away his sin, just as Christ's death washed

clean man's accumulated sins.



For readers who choose the negative view, Carton's death seems an

act of giving up. These readers point out that Stryver's jackal has

little to lose. Never useful or happy, Carton has already succumbed to

the depression eating away at him. In the midst of a promising