This Is What True Love Looks Like

I just finished "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens. It's a beautiful work - if you haven't read it, go read it! It's one of the most exquisite, eloquent, and engrossing novels you will ever read. But I want to focus on one particular character: Sydney Carton.

Sydney Carton is first seen as an attorney who has given up hope in his life and let alcoholism get the better of him. He meets a young woman named Lucie Manette. He knows he doesn't deserve her love, yet he feels drawn to her. She ends up marrying Charles Darnay (The Marquis d' Evremonde) who later in the book finds himself imprisoned. Skipping ahead, Darnay is sentenced to death by the guillotine - France's newest form of execution. Carton knows that Lucie, Dr. Manette, and Lucie's daughter, must flee France to escape Madame Defarge (a truly horrible woman) who desires to kill them for various reasons. Sydney (being the wonderful man that he is, and loving Lucie dearly even though he can never have her as his own) drugs Darnay after showing up at his cell and trading clothes with him and has Charles carried off to the carriage where his family is getting ready to flee. The brave Carton is led from the accused Darnay's cell to the line of those condemned to die. One woman, who is also falsely accused, asks if he intends to die for Darnay. He replies that he will die for him and his family. The two converse for a while, and Sydney comforts the seamstress and they become friends in a way. She kisses him, and shortly after, is killed. It is now Carton's (aka Darnay's) turn to be executed. As the hero waits for the end to come, he imagines Lucie and her little family along with their friends Jarvis Lorry remembering him and honoring him, despite the wrongs he has done in his life. He sees the stains on his life being wiped away. He imagines France a better place with the evils of the present day fading away and the book ends with the quote  “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.” The imagery that Dickens uses is something to which no one can do justice. The beauty of Sydney Carton's sacrifice for the woman he so dearly loves is, however, something that is able to be appreciated even when told half as eloquently. 


This idea of self-sacrifice is something that ought to be taken into account in every relationship, because no relationship is one-way. Our actions speak louder than our words. We ought to love by our actions. By our words, too, yes. The actions, though, are what really matter.